Christmas Croissants

Christmas Croissants

Recipe from Gooseberry Patch's 

The Christmas Table

For our Thanksgiving dinner(s)

I was in charge of baking rolls,

 and instead

of the usual tried and true rolls ~~

  I wanted to try something new.

That's not always the best plan

when you're baking for a special occasion.

But I took a chance...

  

This dough is put together one day

and baked the next.

It has an unusual method of preparation,

where part of the butter in the recipe 

is cut into part of the flour.

Then a yeasty mixture of flour,

 sugar, evaporated milk,

egg and salt  is mixed

with the dry butter/flour mixture

and stirred, not kneaded together.

At this point... (photo above)

I'm thinking that this recipe 

isn't going to work at all.

But... the next morning, after 

a rest in the refrigerator,

the dough is kneaded 6 times.

Yep,

just 6 times.

 Voila 

It worked!

The dough is divided

into six pieces,

and rolled out to a 16 inch circle.

Look at those dimples of butter.

It has to be real butter by the way.

Cut with a pizza cutter into eighths,

and you're on a roll.

Don't forget to brush with

an egg/water mixture before baking.

It's necessary for good looking flakey rolls.

I did forget for the 48 rolls I made

for our first Thanksgiving dinner.

At this point the rolls rest for an 

hour under a nice tea towel cover

and then baked.

OK,

For our second Thanksgiving dinner,

I made the rolls again.

But this time I was baking 

 the croissants before breakfast...

Do you remember when 

Meryl Streep's 

character made  croissants

in this movie?

She did the classic

croissant method of rolling

dough, spreading with softened butter,

folding the dough, 

rolling it out, 

 spreading butter

and repeating the process 

to achieve some

 awesome flaky 

croissants...

and then she filled them with 

chocolate.

Oh my gosh.

So, after rolling and

shaping 4 circles of the

croissant dough for dinner,

I decided to change things

up a bit and have something

sweet for breakfast. 

They were

delicious warm from the oven.

I'm thinking Nutella

inside would 

have been good as well.

They're Conner approved.

What's not to love?

Chocolate croissants and

hot chocolate 

while he's still in pajamas.

That's grandma memories

in the making.

Although the chocolate

ones were delicious,

I was even more 

impressed with the 

ones where I added 

shaved parmigiano/reggiano

cheese.

Savory delicious goodness.

This tray contains

both the chocolate and cheese 

croissants.  

 I wrote cheese and chocolate

on the foil pieces  to

keep track of which ones 

were which.

 Oh yeah,

I almost forgot to add the 

recipe.

Here it is.

Christmas Croissants

by Laurie Ellithorpe

Gooseberry Patch's

The Christmas Table

2 scant tablespoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

5 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/3 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

3/4 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs, divided

1 cup chilled butter

1 tablespoon water

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast

in very warm water, 110 to 115 *F;

let stand 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, 

combine one cup flour,

sugar and salt.  

Add to yeast mixture; stir.

Add melted butter, milk and one egg;

beat until smooth.

To a separate large bowl, 

add remaining flour;

cut in chilled butter until mixture

is crumbly.

Add yeast mixture; 

mix well but do not knead.

Cover; refrigerate overnight.

Punch down dough.  

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead about 6 times

and divide into 4 pieces.

 What? 4 pieces... I divided it into 6.

Oops! My croissants were small

so it's up to you what you want to do. OK? 

Next time I'm dividing the dough into fourths. 

On a floured surface, roll out each

piece into a 16-inch circle..

No wonder I couldn't quite get

the dough to sixteen inches.

Cut each circle into 8 wedges 

using a pizza cutter.  

Roll up wedges beginning at 

the wide end;  place point side-down,

3 inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets.

Curve ends to form a crescent. 

Cover and let rise in a warm place

for one hour.  

Beat remaining egg with water;

brush over rolls.  Bake at 325*F.

for 20 to 25 minutes

until lightly golden.

Makes 32 or 48 if you goof up

and not even know it

till now...