Croissant

Ah, mon dieu! Cette forme, cette couleur – comme le soleil d'or, magnifique! Petite lune dans mon assiette, je t'adore!

Don’t understand anything? Doesn’t matter. The glorious fluffy croissant is tasty even without the slightest possession of French language skills. Have breakfast like a king in France. Real Savoir Vivre at home. Ahhh, I think, je suis amoureuse.

Ingredients
(for 7 large croissants)

• 500g flour (type 550)

• 80g sugar

• 30g yeast

• 1 tsp salt

• 250g butter

• 310ml lukewarm water

Directions:
Pour flour into a bowl, press an indentation into the middle and crumble in yeast. Sprinkle sugar and salt on the flour around the indentation. Now add the lukewarm water and knead mixture until completely combined. Refrigerate dough for around 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, roll out the butter between two sheets of parchment paper into a thin layer and also refrigerate. After the dough has risen, roll it out on a floured countertop. Place the cooled butter on the lower half of the dough rectangle and cover with the upper half (remove all loose flour from the dough surface with a brush).

Now roll out the dough a little and fold the top and bottom thirds into the middle, similar to folding a letter. Cover and cool for 30-40 minutes. Repeat this process four times. After each rest period, give the dough a quarter turn before rolling it out again (so that the butter within is evenly spread and the croissants have a nice flaky texture after baking).

After that’s all finished, there’s the last step: Roll out the dough into a thin rectangle and, with a sharp knife, cut it into pointed triangles and roll up each triangle starting at the widest end.

Place the croissants onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let sit in a warm place for 20 minutes. Finally, bake the croissants in a preheated oven at 190°C for around 25 minutes.

(Recipe by Christoph Steinhauser)