Baking by Hand (21 page)

Now, the shape. Take a triangle and orient it so the base of the triangle is closest to you and the point is facing away from you. Make a 1-inch/2.5-cm cut in the middle of the base of the triangle with your bench knife. Then, take your whole triangle in your hands and gently lengthen it by carefully pulling the tail, with your dominant hand, all the way up from the base of the croissant to the pointed end. You just want to gain about 1 inch/2.5 cm in length. Put the croissant back down on the table and grasp the two tabs you have created by making that 1-inch/2.5-cm cut, folding the inside corner of each flap out onto the outside of the triangle. It should rest on top of the outside edge of the dough, not past the dough and onto the table. Gently stretch that part widthwise, then roll the whole thing over itself to get the first part of the roll done. You want a little bit of tension put into that first rollover. Some tucking and downward pressure will help with that. Then, you can roll the croissant up the rest of the way so that the end of the tail is tucked under the middle of the croissant, not sticking out the back end of the croissant. This anchors the whole croissant together so that it does not unroll during proofing or baking. If you wind it too tightly, the appearance will be off and the layers will be impeded in their ability to rise tall and proud. You won’t get much of a mohawk ridge on the top tier. Once you have shaped all the croissants, place them on a parchment-lined pan and egg wash them all carefully and lightly, avoiding the cut edges where the lamination is exposed. (If you egg wash those edges, it will seal the laminated layers together and the croissants will not rise properly.) Lightly spray a piece of plastic wrap with pan spray and loosely cover the croissants so that they do not dry out.

Proof the croissants at 74°F/20°C for 2 ½ to 3 hours. You want them to grow to about double in size and take on a warm marshmallowy texture.

Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Egg wash the croissants lightly again just before baking. Bake for 12 minutes, and then turn the trays for even browning and bake for another 12 minutes or so, until a deep reddish brown color is achieved.

5 lbs/2.2 kg of laminated croissant dough (see
here
), excess flour brushed off

YELLOW CAKE

7.18 oz/204 g all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp/6 g baking powder

¾ rounded tsp/5 g fine sea salt

3.75 oz/100 g butter, softened

7.8 oz/220 g sugar

2.5 oz/70 g eggs (1 extra-large egg)

½ tsp/2 ml vanilla extract

6.25 oz/190 ml milk

ALMOND FILLING

4 oz almond paste, broken up

3.25 oz/90 g sugar

3.5 oz/100 g eggs

¾ tsp/5 g fine sea salt

0.5 oz/14 ml rum (or bourbon or brandy or whatever dark liquor you like)

4 oz/110 g sliced natural almonds

8.75 oz/250 g yellow cake crumbs

Egg wash, consisting of 1 beaten egg and a splash of water

¾ cup/130 g sliced almonds, for garnish

To make the yellow cake, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease a 9-inch/23-cm cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy by rapidly beating the butter and sugar together with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon. This takes some work. Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until completely combined. Alternating wet with dry (finishing with dry), add the milk and the dry ingredients to the mixture. Mix it until it is just (but completely) combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool, then cross-cut the cake to “butterfly” it open. Lay the open sides on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and dry in a 325°F/160°C oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Cool again, and process, grind or crush by hand until a fine cake crumb consistency is reached.

To make the almond filling, put the first five ingredients in your food processor. (Author’s Note: Yep, one of the few instances in this book where you need this gadget!) Process until completely smooth. Combine the almonds and crumbs in a large bowl. Add the processed mixture and mix until you have evenly moistened the crumb mixture. The mixture will hold together in a ball when you squeeze it. Refrigerate the filling for up to 4 days until use, but remove the filling from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before using it. It will be more pliable and easier to roll after warming a bit.

Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator. The dough will be quite cold and stiff, and if it rested overnight, it might be a bit proofed or filled with gas bubbles. This is fine. Gently pop the gas bubbles with a sharp object and push out the gas.

Lightly dust your work surface, and flip your dough out onto the table. Dust the surface with just enough flour to prevent your pin from sticking. When you start to roll the dough, do so gently. Start to nudge the dough with the rolling pin until it starts to give way as it warms and stretches a bit. Then you can start to stretch it a bit more vigorously. Doing so before it’s ready could cause the dough to rip and the layers to compact. Roll the dough out to 21 inches × 25 inches/50 × 60 cm. Then, cut that whole rectangle in half at around the 10
½
-inch/30-cm mark. This will leave you with two 10-inch × 25-inch/25 × 60-cm pieces. Gently relax the dough with your hands by lifting it slightly off the table and allowing it to shrink back a little bit.

Starting on the left side of each dough strip and using a bench knife or pizza wheel, trim the edge of the dough by about ½ inch/1 cm. Then, working with one strip at a time and starting at the bottom left corner of the strip, make a straight cut upward at about a 30-degree angle to the top of the strip. This means you will have a scrap piece at the top left (not the top, just the entire left edge) end. Make another cut to meet back down at the bottom of the strip so that the base of the triangle you are creating is about 3 inches/7 cm wide. You have cut your first croissant. You will now make your next identical shape starting back at the base of the first croissant, and you will go back and forth like this until you reach the end of the strip. You should get 12 croissants from each dough strip.

Now, the shape. Take a triangle and orient it so the base of the triangle is closest to you and the point is facing away from you. Make a 1-inch/2.5-cm cut in the middle of the base of the triangle with your bench knife. Then, take your whole triangle in your hands and gently lengthen it by carefully pulling the tail, with your dominant hand, all the way up from the base of the croissant to the pointed end. You just want to gain about 1 inch/2.5 cm in length.

Take approximately 0.85 ounces/24 g of the filling (you can eyeball after the first few) and form it into a small, flat triangle. Orient this filling on the unrolled croissant triangle to mirror the same shape. Now, grasp the two ears you have created by making that 1-inch/2.5-cm cut, folding the inside corner of each flap out onto the outside of the triangle. It should rest on top of the outside edge of the dough, not past the dough and onto the table. Gently stretch that part widthwise, and roll the dough deliberately up and over the almond filling to get the first part of the roll done. You want a little bit of tension put into that first rollover. Some tucking and downward pressure will help with that. Then, you can roll the croissant up the rest of the way so that the end of the tail is tucked under the middle of the croissant, not sticking out the back end of the croissant. This anchors the whole croissant together so that it does not unroll during proofing or baking. If you wind it too tightly, the appearance will be off and the layers will not rise fully. Once you have shaped all the croissants, place them on parchment-lined sheet pans and egg wash them all carefully and lightly, avoiding the cut edges where the lamination is exposed. Lightly spray a piece of plastic wrap with pan spray and loosely cover the croissants so that they do not dry out.

Proof the croissants at 74°F/20°C for 2 ½ to 3 hours. You want them to grow to about double in size and take on a warm marshmallowy texture.

Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Egg wash the croissants lightly again just before baking as well, and garnish with sliced almonds. Bake for 12 minutes, and then turn the tray for even browning and bake for another 12 minutes or so, until a deep reddish brown color is achieved.

5 lbs/2.2 kg laminated Croissant Dough (see
here
), excess flour brushed off

56 chocolate batons, or 12 oz/340 g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Egg wash, consisting of 1 beaten egg and a splash of water

Remove the chilled croissant dough from the refrigerator. The dough will be quite cold and stiff, and if it rested overnight, it might be a bit proofed or filled with gas bubbles. This is fine. Gently pop those gas bubbles with a sharp object and push out the gas.

Lightly dust your work surface, and flip your dough out onto the table. Dust the surface with just enough flour to prevent your pin from sticking. When you start to roll the dough, do so gently. Start to nudge the dough with the rolling pin until it starts to give way as it warms and stretches a bit. Then you can start to stretch it a bit more vigorously. Roll the dough out to 21 inches × 25 inches/50 × 60 cm. Then, cut that whole rectangle in half at around the 10 ½-inch/26-cm mark. This will leave you with two 10-inch × 25-inch/25 × 60-cm pieces. Gently relax the dough with your hands by lifting it slightly off the table and allowing it to shrink back a little bit. You are now ready to cut and shape the pain au chocolat, using (if you have) the chocolate batons. They are about 3 inches/7 cm long, so if you place one horizontally at the bottom of the strip farthest to the left for the first cut, you will have a good guideline for how large to cut each rectangle. You need to cut it about ½ inch/1 cm wider than the baton. Each rectangle should be 3 ½ inches to 4 inches/9 to 10 cm long. Make a vertical cut from the bottom of each strip all the way through to the top of each strip. You now have seven long rectangles in each strip. Take the midpoint of the entire strip, which will be around 5 inches/12 cm, and cut across the rectangles in order to create 14 pieces per strip. You now have 14 smaller rectangles, or 28 pieces overall.