Eating In with the Covert Baker: Croissants

DAY 1

Dough ingredients:
**Do NOT substitute alternatives for any of these**
370g King Arthur all-purpose flour
220g whole milk
50g softened unsalted butter for the dough
36g refined white sugar
9g "Rapid Rise" or other "instant" yeast (1 packet plus 1/4 of a second packet)
11g fine sea salt or Diamond Crystal salt

Mixing:
1. Weigh ingredients and combine in the bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.
2. Mix at the lowest speed for about 5 minutes until the dough is even. The dough will look rough still, but should come away from the sides of the bowl somewhat.
3. Pat dough out a little then fold in on itself into a ball. Roll gently a few times to pull it together.
4. Place dough on very lightly lubricated sheet pan. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Roll-in ingredients:
205g unsalted butter - I like the texture and flavor best with Plugra brand butter (with a high fat content), but Land O Lakes works okay if that is all you can find.

Method:
1. Once the dough has rested in the refrigerator, take butter and slice lengthwise to make something that looks like a giant square pat of butter. I suggest making the pat on a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Let soften somewhat until the butter feels plastic but not soft. Your butter MUST not get squishy.
2. Remove dough from refrigerator. Sprinkling as little flour as possible on top, roll the dough into a square twice the length and width of your giant butter pat. Place butter pat in center of dough so that the sides are parallel to the sides of the dough.
3. Fold opposite edges of dough over onto pat, so they create a line in the middle. Repeat with the other pair of edges. If your dough does not stick to itself (it should), use a clean pastry brush to wipe off any excess flour.
4. Roll your dough in the direction of the seam now on top of the dough until it is 3-4 times its original length. Start gently and slowly by simply pressing the rolling pin into the dough. If the butter feels stiff or appears to crack when you roll, let sit for 5 more minutes to soften.
5. Fold the dough over in thirds like a letter, press down gently to seal, brushing off any excess flour. Turn over and place on sheet pan. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate 3-4 hours.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 two more times with 3-4 hours refrigerator rests in between. Take your dough out of the fridge but leave wrapped in plastic approximately 45 minutes before you will roll it to let the butter inside soften. Start by turning your dough upside down and rolling so that the open side of the "book" is always facing the side, not towards or away from you. If the dough feels too stiff or you see the butter cracking, cover the dough with plastic and wait another 10-15 minutes.
7. Refrigerate the dough, very tightly wrapped on your sheet pan overnight in the coldest part of your refrigerator. Make sure to leave some space above the dough, it will rise. Dough should be refrigerated no more than 12 hours before proceeding with Day 2 steps below.

DAY 2

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 380 degrees, set rack in middle.
2. Take your dough out of the refrigerator. It may have risen a lot, it may not have. Let sit for one hour before proceeding.
3. Once your dough feels ready to roll, roll it out into a rectangle 14" x 13.5". Try to maintain an even thickness and use as little flour as possible. Using a ruler or tape measure, mark off four equal divisions on the 14" side and three for the other (for a total of 12 pieces that are 4.5" x 3.5"). Use a pizza wheel or sharp knife to cut the dough. Trim any irregular edges. (If you have scraps, they're nice braided and sprinkled with a little cinnamon sugar.)
4. Brush off any excess flour and fold the dough from each narrow edge to just past the center, pressing down very firmly and overlapping the two sides. Place 6 pieces seam-side down on each sheet pan. Line sheet pan with parchment for easy clean up if you have it, but no other pan preparation is needed.
5. Cover sheet pans with plastic wrap. (Do not use a towel or any such nonsense, it will make your dough dry out). Place only ONE pan in the refrigerator for 10 minutes then remove. This is so one batch is ready before the other.
6. Let croissants proof (rest) until they feel "puffy." Pressing into them should leave an indentation that does not quickly spring back. This will take anywhere from 20 minutes to more than an hour depending on the ambient temperature, the dough temperature, your yeast, etc.
7. Once the croissants are proofed, brush them lightly but thoroughly with the egg wash, making sure to get all the way down the sides.
8. Bake immediately. Set timer for 16 minutes. If croissants appear to be browning unevenly after 10 minutes, very quickly open the oven and rotate the pan 180 degrees. Croissants should be a deep golden brown when finished.
9. When the first batch is done, the pan that was refrigerated should be ready to go in.
10. Cool for 1 minute on pan then move to cooling rack. Let sit for at least five minutes before eating and at least 1 hour before storage.

Storage: You can store in plastic bags at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months.

Variations: Both the chocolate and raspberry jam are high in sugar, and the chocolate is low in fat to prevent burning and melting. Nutella fans can spoon the spread into a plastic bag. Cut the corner off and pipe the Nutella parallel and approximately 1/2" away from the short sides of the rectangle. Be sure not to go all the way to the long sides or it will leak out. When folding over be sure to close the edges tightly so the croissants don't pop open.