HOME-MADE CROISSANTS with PAUL HOLLYWOOD RECIPE

A labour of love but worth it. 

Fortunately, Will has the patience and the time for this one.

We love croissants, especially on a sunny Sunday morning and although the shop bought ones are okay,

there's no comparison to a home baked one, just out of the oven and if your lucky enough to have some of granny's homemade jam in the cupboard, then even better.    

We've used Paul Hollywood's recipe, having been suitably impressed with last summers British Bake Off

Ingredients

625 g strong bread flour

12 g salt

75 g sugar

20 g dried yeast

water, for mixing

500 g butter, chilled

1 egg, beaten

Place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, slowly mix in a little water until the mixture forms into a pliable dough.

(We used our trusty Kenwood)

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead well until it feels elastic.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Return the chilled dough to your floured work surface and roll it into a rectangular shape,

around 60cm by 30cm.

Roll out the chilled butter into a rectangle about 1cm thick, around 20cm by 30cm.

(This was not easier as it kept getting stuck to the rolling pin and breaking. 

We ended up doing it in sections and spreading it out with a pallet knife)

Place the butter rectangle in the centre of the dough rectangle, so it covers around two thirds of the dough.

Fold the remaining dough third over the butter layer, so that the dough is now in 3 layers.

Return the dough to the refrigerator to chill for a further hour.

Scatter some more flour over your table and roll out the dough to a rectangular shape,

around 60cm by 30 cm.

Repeat the folding process, then return the dough to the refrigerator for a further hour.

Repeat this process of folding and chilling two more times, then wrap the dough in cling film and set it aside to rest overnight.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the rested dough to 3mm thickness.

Cut the rolled out dough into squares, each square 20cm by 20cm.

Cut each square diagonally, making 2 triangles from each dough square.

Place the dough triangles on a lightly floured surface with the narrow point facing away from you.

Roll each dough triangle up over itself and curl the dough roll around into a traditional crescent shape.

Place the shaped croissants on baking trays lined with silicone baking parchment

and leave to rise for 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.

Once nicely risen, lightly egg-wash the croissants

and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Not bad for a first attempt.

We made 24 croissants from this mixture

Baking six for now and the rest for another day - yum.

And there you have it!  A step by step guide to making and baking your own croissants.

Go on, have a go.