Puff Pastry Question

HobbyMan

My eldest boy and I want to make Croissants from scratch.

We want to eat them for breakfast but therein lies the problem.

The pastry/Croissants will take around 8 hours to make from scratch.

Can we place the pastry in the fridge over night after the final rolling and then roll it out in the morning and then cut it into shape ?

nompere

Croissants aren't made from puff pastry - they're made from a yeast dough that is then treated like puff pastry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant

olaola

It's an epic undertaking, I'd say - consider trying something like a cinnamon roll instead!

This is rather hypnotic - a fellow from a French bakery filmed the making of criossants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhpxkGB1OyY

Dizzyblonde

If you want hot freshly baked croissants for breakfast, the ones in a tin are great. You just pop the tin, roll them up and bake them.
As olaola said, there are easier things to make than croissants.

sdp

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

If you want hot freshly baked croissants for breakfast, the ones in a tin are great. You just pop the tin, roll them up and bake them.
As olaola said, there are easier things to make than croissants.

plus 1 , add a slice of ham and touch of mustard before rolling, lovely

the beer revolu

If the lad want's to make croissants, I wouldn't be discouraging him!;)
I do like the tinned ones but they aren't very like real croissants at all - and yes lovely with ham/cheese/mustard (good idea)/chocolate etc etc.

OP, I've never made croissants but I'd imagine the dough/pastry would be fine overnight in the fridge. You'd probably have to take it out of the fridge a couple of hours before you roll it, though. I keep pizza dough for up to a week like that - its flavour keeps getting better.

Perhaps a good baker might have other ideas regarding croissants, though.
Anyone?

Faith

All I know about making croissants is that they made them make it on The Great British Bake-Off last year and it looked like a NIGHTMARE. And I say that as a very keen baker.

Post your recipe here, and we'll have a better idea of whether it'll be alright overnight.

nompere

Faith wrote: »

All I know about making croissants is that they made them make it on The Great British Bake-Off last year and it looked like a NIGHTMARE. And I say that as a very keen baker.

I watched that as well, and promptly shelved any idea of ever making croissants. The clip they showed as an interlude, of making the croissants in a bakery in Paris, was fascinating and terrifying.

HobbyMan

Thanks for your replies.

My son and I were watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAtA6Rwhf10

I am not sure where I read the recipe for Croissants with Puff Pastry.

Anyhow the recipe I plan to use is in the back of White Heat ( Marco Pierre White ).

It's roughly 450g plain flour, 450g butter, 10ml white wine vinegar as well as water ( those measurements are from memory ).

We will be embarking on our 'adventure' on Saturday so will post a short report & photos etc. :O)

Tree

No yeast? That's a puff pastry recipe alright.

The dough should be grand over night in the fridge. Croissant prep has a number of refrigerated stages anyway. If it were a yeast dough, it might want to be out of the fridge a little longer before the final bake off.

Let us know how it goes sure.

Lingua Franca

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

If you want hot freshly baked croissants for breakfast, the ones in a tin are great. You just pop the tin, roll them up and bake them.
As olaola said, there are easier things to make than croissants.

sdp wrote: »

plus 1 , add a slice of ham and touch of mustard before rolling, lovely

Plus 1, but a knob of nutella goes down well too.

I love the tins, I couldn't be bothered making my own pastry.

Loopy

I've never seen the tins, what section in the supermarket do you get them?

Lingua Franca

They're in the fridges near the butter and cheese and stuff. You might have to go to a bigger supermarket to find them. I know Tesco sells them.

http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=267687286

breen_og

Croissants really are an under taking but if you're willing to go as far as puff pastry it's much the same process. Croissants can be slightly more difficult to work with due to the yeast it's also important to note that your dough for croissants needs to be developed as for bread, ie kneaded till smooth and elastic. Otherwise you're in for a world of pain and heart ache. The dough must be proofed after shaping. It also freezes very well. I'd say go for it it's one of those things you may ever only do once but will be glad you did

HobbyMan

Done it. :O)

The first batch is proofing right now before going into the oven.

Will provide more detail when I have more time ( and when I download photos onto the computer ).

Seaneh

In one kitchen I worked in there was a french pastry chef, he was well into his 30's and have over 15 years experience, had worked in some top hotels in france and was a big of a genius.

The head chef got a mad idea one day that he wanted to make totally from scratch croissants, the pastry chef started laughing and said he'd never have time to do anything else in the morning and there'd be on point unless he was making about 100 as it's so much effort.

Chef poopooed him and said he'd help him the first mroning and they'd "sort out a system".

Took the two of them so long that the head chef abandoned the idea after one morning.


The french lad did his best "I told you so" look.

Was fun to watch.

breen_og

HobbyMan wrote: »

Done it. :O)

The first batch is proofing right now before going into the oven.

Will provide more detail when I have more time ( and when I download photos onto the computer ).

Brilliant can't wait ti see the photos

Mrs Fox

Ok I've got a question about ready-made puff pastry, since we're on this topic -- can it be deep fried? Will it have the same flaky texture?

rubadub

the beer revolu wrote: »

If the lad want's to make croissants, I wouldn't be discouraging him!;)

Could put him off cooking/baking for life though!

Dizzyblonde

Mrs Fox wrote: »

Ok I've got a question about ready-made puff pastry, since we're on this topic -- can it be deep fried? Will it have the same flaky texture?

Looks like it can

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8305/fried-ice-cream-in-puff-pastry

Northern Monkey

Jusrol do a ready to bake croissant. Much less effort:D

http://www.jusrol.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductId=16