Chef Johns Croissants Food

CHEF JOHN'S CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS

Steps:

• Place warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle with yeast. Let yeast dissolve for 10 minutes. Add sugar and bread flour. Sprinkle with salt; add 3 tablespoons butter. Attach the bowl to the stand mixer. Mix dough with the dough hook just until butter is completely kneaded in and the dough forms a ball and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl, 3 or 4 minutes.
• Transfer dough to a work surface and form into a semi-smooth ball. Place dough back in the mixer bowl; cover. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled, about 2 hours.
• Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Push and press dough to deflate it, and form it into a rectangle. Fold into thirds by lifting one end over the middle third, and folding the other side onto the middle. Wrap in plastic wrap. Place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. Refrigerate until chilled through, about 1 hour.
• Cut 1 stick of butter in 1/2 lengthwise and place halves slightly apart from each other on a length of parchment paper long enough to fold over the butter. Fold the parchment paper over the butter. Press butter down. Roll out with a rolling pin to a square about 8x8 inches. Refrigerate until a little chilled and just barely flexible, 10 or 15 minutes.
• Roll dough out into a rectangle slightly wider than the butter slab and just over twice as long. Place butter on one half of the dough leaving about 1 inch margin from the edge of the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over the butter. Dust work surface and dough with flour as needed.
• Press rolling pin down on dough to create ridges. Then roll out the ridges. Repeat this process. Keep pressing and rolling until dough is about the same size rectangle as you had before you folded it in half, dusting with just a bit of flour as necessary.
• Starting from the short side, fold one-third of dough over middle third. Then fold the other end over to form a small rectangle. Flatten out just slightly with rolling pin. Transfer to the silicone-lined baking sheet; cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes.
• Transfer dough back to work surface and repeat pressing and rolling technique until dough is the size of the previous larger rectangle. Fold into thirds again, starting from the short side. Press and roll slightly. Transfer back to lined baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate about 15 minutes.
• Roll back out to a large rectangle. This time, fold dough in half. Then press and roll out into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle, using as little flour as needed to keep dough from sticking.
• Dust dough with flour and roll out to a rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. Cut dough lengthwise into 6 pieces using a pastry wheel.
• Pull and stretch out 1 of the dough pieces until ends are slightly tapered. Line 1 to 2 tablespoon of chocolate 1 inch parallel to the bottom edge and an equal amount of chocolate 1 more inch ahead. Roll dough up over the chocolate toward the top short edge to form a croissant with the seam at the bottom. Repeat with the remaining 5 dough pieces.
• Place shaped croissants on baking sheets lined with silicone mats. Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water to make the egg wash. Brush croissants with a large portion of the egg wash. Place in a warm area to allow them to rise, 60 to 90 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Brush croissants gently but thoroughly again with egg wash. Sprinkle sea salt on top.
• Bake in preheated oven until beautifully browned, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. Cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

MINI CROISSANT CRUST PECAN PIES

Steps:

• Combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, salt, vanilla, and bourbon whiskey in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, then whisk mixture and boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
• Add eggs and whisk quickly to combine. Stir in pecans. Set aside until mixture thickens a bit and cools down, about 5 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Use the butter to generously grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
• Cut each croissant in half, then turn the halves and slice open like you're making a sandwich. Place each piece into a prepared muffin cup and press it down and into the sides to fit and line the cup. Remove any pieces that stick up over the edge of the muffin cup and patch those in where needed to cover the sides.
• Spoon the pecan filling evenly into the muffin cups, stirring between each spoonful to ensure you get an even amount of nuts and sauce. Use your fingers to press pecans into the cups and even out the tops so they don't burn. Clean up any syrup that dripped onto the pan.
• Bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown, about 25 minutes, with a pan on the rack underneath to catch any drips.
• Remove from the pan and let sit in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn each pie a bit, then lift out and place on a plate to continue cooling. Let cool completely before serving.

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.

HAM CROISSANT ROLLS (VENEZUELA)

Steps:

• Put the yeast, a small amount of water and 1/2 cup warm water into a small container.
• Let rise for 10 minutes or so.
• In a large glass bowl, combine the sugar, salt, oil and milk.
• Add the flour and knead until everything is mixed.
• Then add the eggs and keep kneading.
• Finally, add the yeast mixture and stir until the mixture has a consistent texture (that sounds backwards to me, but I didn't write the recipe--I'm just translating).
• Cover the mixture with plastic wrap (or stick in a plastic bag) and let it rise in a warm place for two hours.
• Knead the dough again, and then divide it into four equal parts.
• Work with one part at a time.
• Roll each part of the dough into a 25 centimeter (10 inch) circle using a rolling pin--not yesterday's wine bottle, Coke bottle or whatever.
• Cut the flattened dough into 8 triangles, as if you were cutting a cake.
• Place ham in the widest part of each triangle.
• Then roll up each triangle, beginning at the widest part (where the ham is) and rolling towards the point of the triangle (which used to be the middle of the circle).
• Place the wrapped-up ham on a cookie sheet or pan, with the point folded underneath so it doesn't come unrolled.
• Cover the rolls with plastic and let rise for one hour in a warm place.
• Pre-heat oven to 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Brush melted butter on each roll and cook them in the heated oven for 15 minutes or until they are light golden.
• Remove them from the oven and brush with either a mixture of water and sugar or with an egg white.
• Return them to the oven until they are golden brown.
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• If your dough does not raise it's because your yeast is old.
• Don't assume the yeast you bought at Christmas to make"panes de jamon" (another recipe for ham bread) will still work.
• Buy new yeast.
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• Eat the rolls while hot.
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• If you don't want quite so many rolls, you can freeze the dough and make them another day.
• Or if you like, you can make the rolls without the ham and leave them in the freezer for up to two months.
• You can cook those after thawing them for only a few minutes.
• But I always just make 32 rolls and four of us eat them all within two days.