Yes, laminated dough is a “pain” in the ass. (You see what I did there?) However, there’s no comparison between a fresh, warm croissant made from scratch, and a gluey, pale crescent-roll made from a tube of mass-produced faux daux. I’ve made this a fair bit easier by starting the dough in the bread machine, but nonetheless you’ll want to plan on washing your apron after this recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Warm Water
- 1/2 cup Warm Milk
- 2-1/2 tbsp. White Sugar
- 2 tsp. Salt
- 1 tbsp. Cooking Oil
- 4 cups Bread Flour
- 2-1/2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
- 18 oz. Cold Unsalted Butter
- 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 Large Egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp. Powdered Sugar (optional)
Directions
- Add water, milk, sugar, salt, oil, flour, and yeast to the pan of your bread machine in the order listed, and select the Dough cycle.
- While dough is doing it’s thing (completely independent of your efforts thanks to your bread machine) place two 6 oz. pieces of butter between two large sheets of parchment paper each. Then beat the living hell out of them, and roll into two 12×18 sheets, keeping them between the sheets of parchment. Refrigerate while you wait for your dough.
- When dough cycle has completed, remove dough from pan, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Split into two equal pieces.
- Roll the first piece of dough into a 18×18 rectangle.
- Remove flattened butter from the refrigerator and set it on top of the dough, even with the left-hand side.
- Fold the right-hand (unbuttered) third of the dough, up over the butter.
- Then fold then left-hand (buttered) side over the top. (The result should be a 6×12 rectangle with five layers: dough, butter, dough, butter, dough.)
- Roll gently and evenly, maintaining the rectangular shape, just enough to help the dough layers adhere to the butter layers.
- Repeat steps 4 – 8 with the second piece of dough.
- Wrap both dough and butter rectangles in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least four hours.
- While dough is chilling, place two 3 oz. pieces of butter between two large sheets of parchment paper each, and beat and roll each out into a very thin 12×18 sheet. Refrigerate until dough is finished chilling.
- Remove one packet of dough from the refrigerator.
- Remove from plastic wrap and roll out into an 18×18 rectangle. (This may take a little extra muscle, as the dough may be harder after chilling.)
- Repeat steps five through ten.
- When ready to assemble and bake, place a large cake tray on the bottom rack of your oven, and move the rack you are going to bake on into the top half of the oven.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
- Remove one packet of dough from the refrigerator.
- Place on a floured surface and roll out into a 12×18 rectangle.
- Slice in half lengthwise, and in thirds by width, creating 6 six-inch squares.
- Place a small handful of chocolate chips (about 20 – 24) on one end of each square of dough, and roll the dough up over the chips at a slight angle, resulting in vaguely triangular points at each end.
- Place shaped dough onto prepared baking sheets.
- Repeat steps 18 – 22 with the second packet of dough. (Alternatively, you can keep the second packet of dough refrigerated for another day, and bake a fresh batch tomorrow.)
- Brush dough with beaten egg.
- As you put the dough in the oven, throw 4 – 5 ice cubes into the cake tray at the bottom of the oven to create a nice burst of steam.
- Bake pastry in preheated oven for 12 – 16 minutes until golden brown, turning sheets once mid-way through the bake.
- Remove pastry from oven and transfer to a baking rack to cool.
- If you have a sweet tooth, wait until pastry has completely cooled, and dust with powdered sugar. (Optional)
- Brew up some strong coffee and enjoy!
Sneaky Trick: Do you find that removing the butter sheets from the parchment is more frustration than you can handle? You can spread softened butter on the dough instead. Just increase your chilling time to at least eight hours each time you chill the dough.