French Crescents
Description
French crescents—or croissants—are a traditional French breakfast or a snack with coffee. I wouldn’t call this recipe especially easy, but I don’t see any major pitfalls in making them either. What matters most is respecting a few subtle points—and using good butter, because that’s what gives them their signature flavor. Everything is spelled out in the step-by-step recipe. You must follow the dough‑folding pattern during lamination so the layers turn out correctly.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare the ingredients.
- 2
Step 2
Pour warm water and milk into your mixing bowl, add the yeast, and stir until the yeast has dissolved.
- 3
Step 3
Add the sifted flour and knead the dough.
- 4
Step 4
Pour the melted butter into the dough, then mix it into the dough.
- 5
Step 5
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot to ferment for 4 hours.
- 6
Step 6
While the dough is proofing, prepare the butter for laminating it. Roll the butter flat between two sheets of parchment paper with a rolling pin, shape it into a square with sides 15–17 cm, and chill it in the freezer.
- 7
Step 7
After 4 hours, the dough had increased in volume by 2–2.5 times.
- 8
Step 8
For this step, roll the dough into a rectangle that is more than twice the size of your prepared butter square. Carefully unwrap the butter from the parchment paper, lay it along the bottom part of the rectangle, and fold the free side of the dough over to cover the butter. Wait — user said Reply ONLY with the translation. I'll remove my internal note and give only the translation in the final channel. Actually re-reading again — "накройте масло свободной стороной теста" could mean fold the flap of dough over the butter — "cover the butter with the free side of the dough" Final translation: For this, roll out the dough into a rectangle more than twice the size of your prepared butter square. Carefully remove the parchment from the butter, place the butter along the bottom of the rectangle, and cover it with the free side of the dough. I'll output only this. For this step, roll the dough into a rectangle that is more than twice the size of your prepared butter square. Carefully remove the parchment from the butter, place the butter along the bottom of the rectangle, and fold the free side of the dough over to cover the butter.
- 9
Step 9
Pinch the dough well around the butter.
- 10
Step 10
Unfold the dough so the “fold” stays on the left and, working very gently so as not to tear it, roll the dough outward from the center toward the edges into a rectangle again.
- 11
Step 11
Fold the edges of the dough toward the center from the top and bottom.
- 12
Step 12
Fold the dough in half and chill it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- 13
Step 13
After 20 minutes, roll and fold again, then place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- 14
Step 14
Take the dough out of the freezer, roll it into a rectangle, cut it into 4 portions with a pizza cutter, then cut each portion in half diagonally to get 8 triangles. Make a small slit in the base of each triangle.
- 15
Step 15
Spread the slit ends outward at the base of the triangle, then roll tightly from the wide side to the narrow side.
- 16
Step 16
Place the pastry so the narrow tip of the dough stays at the bottom and bend it slightly into a horn shape.
- 17
Step 17
Place the prepared crescent pastries on a baking sheet and brush with milk–egg glaze. Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 20 minutes.
- 18
Step 18
French crescent-shaped croissants turned out extraordinarily aromatic, flaky, and airy. You can dust them with confectioners’ sugar.