upstill@ucbvax.UUCP (Steve Upstill) (05/07/84)
This week's winner of the "What you can do with a processor better than a set of good knives" sweepstakes: Croissants Adapted from a grossly under-edited recipe in the SF Chronicle. They say an hour of work time. I think less. Makes about 10-12 croissants. Food Processor Croissants Introduction: in a normal croissant recipe, you get the layering of the dough by rolling out refigerated dough, smearing it with butter, folding it, and repeating. Here, rather than smearing the butter on, you freeze it, grind it in the processor, and sprinkle it onto the dough. The only thing you have to be careful about is to have VERY frozen butter, and put the processor bowl and blades in the freezer for a while, too. Also, don't overprocess in grinding the butter; it introduces heat which can cause the granules to stick together, rendering it unsprinkleable. Rising note: The recipes always say "let rise in a warm, draft- free place." I always use the inside of my oven, which has a pilot. Alternatively (or in addition), you can turn the oven on for about 30 seconds to warm it up enough. It always cuts rising time substan- tially for me, but you have to be careful not to let the oven REALLY heat up. The only foolproof method I've found is to keep my hand on the oven control the whole time. Okay, well, maybe I'm stupid. But I don't burn dough anymore. 1-1/2 t. dry yeast (half a package) 1/2 c. warm water 1 t. sugar 1/2 c. bread flour >>>Proof the yeast in the water and sugar, then mix in the flour. Cover the bowl and let rise double in a warm, draft-free place. 1-1/4 c. unbleached flour 1/2 t. salt 2 T. sugar 2 T. margarine or shortening 1 T. milk 3 T. hot tap water >>>In the processor with the metal blade, whirl flour, salt, sugar and margarine together. Process the milk and water into this, then add the starter sponge from above and process @ 30 seconds. The dough will be very sticky and wet. Scrape it into a bowl, seal the bowl with plastic wrap and a rubber band, and put in a warm place until tripled in volume (@ 2 hours, less if you do it in an oven with a pilot light). This is an important step. Then put the dough into the refrigerator for an hour. 6 oz. (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter >>>Clean the processor and blades, and put them into the freezer with the butter. Flour your (clean, dry) work surface generously (a refrigerated marble slab is good here, but formica or butcher-block works too). Roll the dough out to a 10x15-inch rectangle. Take the processor bowl and butter out of the freezer. Put a tablespoon of flour in the bottom of the bowl, cut the butter up coarsely, and sprinkle another tablespoon of flour on top. Process using two-second pulses until the butter forms granules about the thickness of rice. Sprinkle about a third of the butter over the top two-thirds (10") of the dough. Fold the unsprinkled third over the middle, then the other third over that, like a letter. Roll out to 10x15 again, sprinkle, fold, roll, sprinkle, fold. Put the dough into the refrigerator for another 45 minutes (you can make this refrigerator stay as long as 24 hours). Roll the dough out again to about 16-1/2 x 11. You want to cut it into equilateral triangles about 5-1/2 inches on a side. Best way is to cut two 5-1/2-inch strips, then cut the triangles from these. Form croissants by rolling from one end of the triangle up to the opposite tip, placing on a cookie sheet and bending the ends around appropriately. (They may be frozen in this state. If so, they will take longer to rise) Place a dish towel (optional) on a rack of the oven, put the croissants in, close the oven and turn on the heat WITH YOUR HAND ON THE CONTROL SO YOU DON"T FORGET for 30 seconds. Let the croissants rise double (about 2-3 hours). Mix 1 egg 1 t. water Take the pans and towel out of the oven and heat it to 425. Brush the croissants with the egg wash. Bake until golden brown, about 14-15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan. Distribute hot croissants to your friends and make them love you forever.