Hi Everyone,
A few months ago, I teased a spinace, feta and sun dried tomato croissant on Instagram. I promised a tutorial and here it is. The first part of the tutorial is a small batch croissant recipe.
It’s summer and you may not feel like wrestling a large batch of dough - plus the small batch is so cute. It’s perfect for small households. Have fun making these delicious croissants - any questions let me know.
If you would like more details on making croissants - check out my Craftsy class, Classic Croissants, Mdern Techniques.
Here is the recipe:
Equipment: Stand mixer, paddle and dough hook, spatula, scale, medium sized bowl, quarter sheet pan. Quart size ziplock bag or 1/2 sheet of parchment paper, ruler, dry brush, rolling pin.
Croissant: Half Recipe
Yield 8 Croissants
Equipment: Equipment: Stand mixer, paddle and dough hook, spatula, scale, medium sized bowl, quarter sheet pan. Quart sized ZipLoc Bag or parchment paper
ruler, dry brush, rolling pin
Ingredients:
The Dough:
170g Milk
5g Instant yeast
283g All Purpose flour (King Arthur or Bread Flour)
22g Granulated sugar
3g Dry milk powder (optional)
14g Unsalted butter, softened
6g Salt
Butter Block
227g Unsalted butter
1. Cut cold butter into sticks and place in a Ziploc bag and tap/roll into an approx. 7 x 7” rectangle and chill.
Mixing the dough
1. In the bowl of the stand mixer combine milk and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes
2. Add the flour, sugar, butter and salt.
3. Mix for 3 minutes at low/medium-low speed.
4. Move the dough to a buttered bowl, cover and let sit at room temperature for
1 hour, then move to the refrigerator for 2 hours before locking in the butter.
5. Ten minutes before incorporating the butter. Remove the butter block and let it warm up while you roll out the dough.
6. After 2 hours, place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a 7”x 14” rectangle.
7. Place butter in the center of the dough and bring the dough edges to the center over the butter.
8. Roll the dough out to 7 x 14” and fold into thirds.
9. Wrap and let rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
10. After 30 minutes roll out the dough to 7” x 14” and fold into thirds again. Place back in the refrigerator for 40 minutes.
11. Roll out to a 7” X 14” rectangle and complete the final fold.
The dough can be wrapped and frozen for up to one month or chilled for 2 hours before shaping. If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
Spinach, Feta and Sun-dried tomato tapenade croissants
Feta - whole milk, skim or vegan
Spinach - I 10 ounce bag of fresh spinach, sauteed with spinach - can add a little garlic and
salt and pepper. Cool and squeeze out all the excess moisture in a strainer.
Sundried tomato tapenade: Combine 4 ounces sun dried tomatoes, olive oil in the work bowl of a small food processor and blend until smooth.
Five star egg wash: 1 egg whisked with a pinch of salt until very smooth, strain for extra smoothness.
To shape spinach, feta and sun dried tomato croissants:
1.Roll dough out into a 12” x 12” square - the dough should be 3/16” of an inch thick.
2. Cut 4”x 4” squares.
3. Use 8 squares - cut ¼” strips out of the remaining square.
4. Arrange the squares on the work surface so they look like diamonds.
5. Stripe the right hand side with egg wash.
6. Spread about 1 ½ teaspoons with tapenade.
7. Arrange spinach and feta on top.
8. Fold left side over filling.
9. Fold right side over filling.
10. Tie belt around the center - pinching the ends.
11. Proof until light - may take 1 1 ½ hours.
12. Egg wash and bake at 375 for 30 minutes until they are an all over golden brown and feel relatively light.