(translation automatically generated - I apologize for any errors) Leavening and lamination are two worlds that have always fascinated me, and the Croissant is the product par excellence that encloses both in a vortex. I think this morning's breakfast will be very special! But before tasting them, I 'll show you how I made them. To make 8/10 croissants I used 500 g of flour with an average strength between W 260 and 280, 100 g of water at room temperature, 150 g of whole milk at room temperature, 50 g of sugar, 80 g of butter, 5 grams of salt, and 10 grams of dry yeast. First they slightly soften the butter that I have prepared in pieces, I do it by passing it in the microwave for a few seconds, obtaining this consistency, then a part that is a little liquid is a part that is still solid but rather soft. Then I add the dry yeast to the flour and mix lightly to mix everything, like this! Now let's move on to the liquid part: combine the milk at room temperature, the water at room temperature and the sugar and mix to dissolve the sugar in this mixture. Once the sugar has melted, I simply begin to add the flour, a little at a time, and I help myself with a whisk, in this way the dough will be homogeneous and there will be no lumps, and I bring the dough to the consistency of a batter in this batter I go to add the salt, I mix lightly to let the salt dissolve, and then I go with the butter all at once. Thanks to the help of the whisk and with the softened butter, it will be very easy to incorporate it into this batter. Then I mix lightly to mix everything, when I have a rather smooth batter again, I continue to add the flour a little at a time. At this point I no longer use the whisk because the dough begins to take on consistency, I help myself with a pot lollipop, always adding the flour a little at a time. When the dough begins to be a little drier and therefore no longer sticky, I move on to knead it with my hands, still inside the bowl, adding the flour and working it lightly. Once I have finished adding all the flour, I move to the counter and gently working the dough I finish with incorporating the remaining flour with very delicate movements. We should continue until no dry parts of flour are visible on the dough, then I continue to knead and I will stop when the dough is smooth and soft enough. At this point I stop, put it in a bowl that I close well with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. During this time I prepare the butter for the next day, for the flaking. I take two sheets of parchment paper and draw a 20 x 20 square on each sheet, which I will then overlap. We come to the great protagonist, to butter! We must choose an excellent quality butter that has a minimum percentage of fat equal to 82% We must look behind the packaging of our butter for the nutritional values, and look at the item fat: here we must choose a butter that has at least 82 grams of fat. In this case I am using a butter that has 83 grams of fat. I proceed to prepare the butter for the next day, then I place it in the center of the square, place the other sheet of parchment paper on top, centering the square well and with the help of a rolling pin began to crush it. By giving it a few strokes, like this, to try to widen it and soften it. After having widened it, if necessary I reposition the sheets of parchment paper a little to center them, and with the help of the rolling pin I go to bring the butter towards the perimeter of the square, without getting too close and without going beyond it! Then I fold each side of the square, in this way, and I'm going to create a real bag, which will contain our block of butter! Closed the bag with a rolling pin I finish to spread the butter that will have to fill the whole bag so well in the corners. In this way the butter will have softened in the meantime so it will be quite simple. All four corners and now always with the help of a rolling pin I go to uniform this tile, to make it as smooth as possible, then in the end we get a 20 x 20 tile. Perfect finished, I go to place it in the coldest part of the fridge to all night. Now the mass will have rested, we will find it already leavened a little. Let's prepare a container: it must be rectangular and rather small, not much larger than the 20 x 20 of the butter block we have prepared. I deflate the mass a little and work it a few more seconds, not much because it doesn't have to take a lot of strength, just to get it a little smoother. Just a few seconds, finished like this. With the help of a rolling pin I crush and spread the mass a hair, and put it back in the container. At the bottom I put some film. I squeeze a little more to make them take the shape of the container, in this way, and I go to close with the film. I cover the whole surface, and then with another film I close the container. We need to be sure it won't dry out during refrigerator hours. I put the fridge away for 8/10 hours. The following day we got to the big day, the peeling, I'm always excited when I have to do it. There are ideal temperatures at which to work the butter and dough. For the dough they are about 4/6 ° Celsius, so as soon as it is taken out of the refrigerator, for the butter about 14/16 °, it means that we will take the butter out of the fridge about ten minutes before processing. Let's start: we prepare a veil of flour on the counter, take the dough and with a rolling pin we will begin to roll it out, to stretch it. We will have to reach a size of 20 x 40, therefore a rectangle 20 x 40. It is important that this size is respected because it must perfectly contain the butter. Then I stretch it until you get a rectangle of 20 x 40, remove the excess flour, take the butter which in the meantime will have reached the right temperature, gently release it from the parchment paper and place it exactly in the center of the dough! Here this curve tells us that the butter is reaching the right temperature and is starting to become more plastic, to have the same plasticity as the dough. I place it exactly in the center, very important it must match exactly with the edges of the dough, so there must be no space between the butter and the dough. Positioned in the center, with the help of a very sharp knife I go to cut the two lateral ends of the dough, the first and the second, leaving practically only a square of dough and butter. The two ends I try to make them as rectangular as possible, without widening them too much, in this way, and I go to position them in the center, with the less regular side inwards, so I make them fit together perfectly. I overlap them slightly, I have to get a perfect square in the end. Well, a veil of flour and let's start: I press lightly with a rolling pin to seal and I begin to stretch, only to always stretch only in the vertical direction. Always only in this direction, we will never go horizontally. From time to time we will make sure that the dough comes off the counter, and if necessary we will add a veil of flour. We continue to roll out until the dough is 60 centimeters long, so we will only take care of the length. I changed the direction only because the desk on this side is longer. I continue to roll out in the vertical direction until I reach a length of 60 centimeters. At this point I prefer to adjust the end to have a rectangle as precise as possible . Let's start now with the first fold. I fold the dough about a third of its length, bring the other flap to match and fold it again. In this way we would have done a fold at 4. At this point without pausing, we begin to stretch it again, to make a new fold. Then I seal with a rolling pin and start to stretch again, always only vertically. I stretch up to bring it to a length of 60 centimeters, I have always placed myself horizontally for convenience, for my desk. I always make sure that it does not stick, when you get to 60 cm off the excess flour. Fold in half, remove the excess flour, fold the other half over. At this point I wrap it in plastic wrap, put it in the container, and it will go into the refrigerator to rest for about an hour and thirty minutes. After this time we take it from the refrigerator: we will find it slightly leavened. We prepare for the drafting: a veil of flour and we will have to create a rectangle of about 50 x 30 He began to roll out, at this point we will go in both directions, vertical and horizontal, until we reach the desired size, i.e. a rectangle of 50 x30 we always make sure that it comes off the counter well, if necessary a veil of flour. Here it is our rectangle of 50 x 30. At this point, always with the knife I cut away some irregular ends to have a rectangle as precise as possible and I go to make four small incisions on the two bases of the rectangle, at a distance of about 10 centimeters. one from the other, thus creating five bands of dough. Now guided by the incisions I go to cut out triangles of dough with the knife. Cut them all into triangles I make an incision at the base of the triangle and roll it up on itself, pulling the tip slightly and without pressing too much. Here it is created the first Croissant .... and I go on like this with the others: small incision, roll up by pulling slightly ... and so on. Once all our Croissants are formed I place them on the baking tray lined with a sheet of parchment paper, for the second leavening I will give a light brush of milk on the surface, to ensure that they do not dry out during the rest that will follow. Now I place them in the oven, they will have to rise at about 26 °. To reach this temperature we have two possible solutions, the first is to leave the oven light on, but in this way the croissants closest to the bulb will have too much heat and those that are not far away. Then I put a container with warm water on the bottom of the oven . I recommend it must be lukewarm not boiling, at most 40/50 ° I put on the bottom of the oven, turn off the light and close. I let it rise for an hour and a half, after an hour and a half the croissants will be doubled. The peeling will be very visible at this point, perfect now I take out the two trays and preheat the oven for cooking: I place a grill in the center of the oven. 180 ° ventilated program. Preheat for about 30 minutes, until the temperature is reached. In the meantime, I'm getting ready to brush the croissants with an egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of milk. I go over the entire surface of the croissants and as soon as the oven is ready I bake the Croissants Ventilated program at 180 ° for about 20 minutes. Here they are cooking, fantastic. You can't imagine the scent that filled the whole kitchen, fantastic! Here they are very colorful very very beautiful. Immediately transfer to a grill to cool them. I am really very very happy, they are beautiful and seem almost weightless. Now it's time to taste them. Hello!
