Caterpillar Croissants Food

ATHIRA SOORAJ

Steps:

• In a bowl, add 1/4 cup of lukewarm water, dried yeast, 1 table spoon sugar and keep aside for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, add flour, milk, oil, 1 beaten egg, 2 table spoon sugar etc. and mix with a spoon. Add yeast-sugar mix in and knead well with hands. Add luke warm water to make the dough a bit pliable. Knead well to get a smooth structure. Make the dough like a big ball and cover the bowl with a damp towel. Let it rest for 4 hours to double the volume. In the meantime, let us prepare the filling: Cook chicken with a little pepper powder and salt. Shred it and keep aside. In a non-stick pan, heat oil and add sliced onion and saute in medium flame until light brown in color. Add ginger garlic paste, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and salt. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add shredded chicken, chopped capsicum and grated carrot to it and cook for at least 5 minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves and sprinkle garam masala. Mix well and switch the flame off. Let it cool. Now lets work with the dough again. Punch down the dough lightly using the palm and divide it equally. Clean and generously dust your workspace with flour. Roll out the dough into slightly think round shape and add the filling on one side and cover it to other side. Give some slits on the other side (Please refer the pictures) and fold the slits on the covered side just to look it like a caterpillar. Let it sit for another 10 minutes. Beat another egg in a small bowl and brush the buns slightly with a beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Preheat the oven in 200 degree. Arrange butter paper on the baking pan and keep each buns on the paper leaving 2-3 centimeter distance. Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes or until the top portion is golden brown. Serve the Croissants warm!

CATERPILLAR CROISSANTS

Steps:

• Black Dough Directions:.
• In a glass bowl combine food color, water, milk and sugar. Whisk vigorously.
• In a separate bowl combine flours and salt. Pour dry ingredients, wet ingredients and butter into a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low roughly five minutes until dough forms. (If dough is too dry and you see crumbs not incorporated after five minutes, you can add a tablespoon more of milk or if it's clearly too sticky you can add a tablespoon of flour.).
• Once the dead dough (Just a way of calling dough free of leavening agents) is mixed, place in a zip lock bag in a cool place until ready to use.
• White Dough Directions:.
• Repeat Black Dough Directions.
• Green Dough Direction:.
• Repeat Black Dough Directions.
• Croissant Directions:.
• In a glass bowl allow the yeast to activate in the warm water and sugar for at least five minutes. Meanwhile mix the flours and salt in a separate bowl. Heat 2 cups of milk on the stove or microwave making sure it's no hotter than 110 degrees. In a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix the butter milk and yeast. Pour in the flour mixture and mix on low for about five minutes until dough has formed.
• Remove from mixer and place in a greased bowl covered with a damp cloth for about an hour.
• Prepare the butter sheet: Beat the butter in a stand mixer with the flour until very light and fluffy. Spread out on a large sheet of parchment about 1/8 of an inch thick and roughly 8X14 inches. Cover with parchment and place in refrigerator to set.
• Remove from fridge and allow to warm just a bit before using.
• Once dough has risen, punch it down and roll it out on a large clean surface dusted with flour. Roll out into a roughly 16X16" inch square. Place the butter sheet on one half and cover and press the edges with the other side of the dough. Make sure the butter is soft enough for you to fold, but not so warm is tries to escape. Fold one end 1/4 the length towards the center and do the same on the opposite side, followed by folding that in half one more time to create a book like shape (See image for visual guide). Once done, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
• In the morning carefully roll out the dough book into an 8-inch-by-14-inch shape and repeat the folding process (refrigerating one hour between each fold). Do this at least 3-4 times. The more you do this the flakier and more layered your croissant will be.
• Royal Icing:.
• In a stand mixer beat egg whites till frothy. Add sugar until desired consistency is reached.
• Decorative Direction:.
• Once folded and blended enough you can now roll it out and cut it into your desired shapes. My caterpillars were varying sizes so I did several 3X3" squares, 6X4" squares and 8X6" squares; which were then rolled into cylindrical little bodies and then covered and sealed with a very thin coat of the white dead dough (dough without yeast) referenced in the recipe above.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Once rolled and sealed (smoothed and sealed edges with a bit of egg wash - One egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water). I was then ready to roll out and apply my green bands.
• I rolled out the green dough to a little thinner than 1/8 of an inch thickness and used a ruler and pastry cutter to get 1/4-inch strips. I then fused the end of each strip to the underside of the croissant using a bit of egg wash and began gently wrapping the green in a spiral formation around the length of each croissant using the egg wash all the while to ensure it would stay in place.
• I did three at a time, covered them with a large bowl (to prevent drying out) allowed them to rise roughly 40 minutes. Basted them with egg wash and then popped them in the oven for roughly 20 minutes. Checking after 10 minutes to make sure they didn't over brown.
• Once they were all out, I used the remaining black, white and green dead doughs to cut out the eyes and feet. I then affixed each one using egg wash as glue. They were then sent back into the over for about 5 minutes until features were baked and set.
• The teeth were done with a little piped royal icing.