Today’s class served to introduce some new ideas and concepts to our Monday baking labs. This would be the first day that we’d work with yeast. Over the next few weeks we will be preparing different types of breads, all of which rely on the reproductive activities of this crazy little microorganism as their source of leavening. As we learned in class, yeast usually becomes dormant in temperatures of about 50 degrees and below. Dormant yeast serves no purpose in bread making, as Chef D explained. Bakers must ‘wake’ yeast up, preferably with a warm shower and something sweet (just like people)…110 degree water and sugar, to be exact. As the yeast feeds off the sugar, it begins to reproduce. The reproduction process produces two very useful things, alcohol and carbon dioxide, with the former serving a very imporant function as a social lubricant and the latter serving as the rising agent in bread making.
Additionally, this week marked a shift in our general attitude towards gluten. When making the pie crusts and puff pastries from weeks past, the objective was to produce tender products, meaning that we’d have to take steps to inhibit gluten production. When making breads, generally you want to encourage gluten production…the gluten provides the bread’s structure and elasticity. For purposes of this class, we treated danish and croissants as a bridge product connecting the concepts covered over the last few weeks with material to be covered in the next few weeks. How so? Well, methods employed in danish and croissant making use tactics from both pie crust and puff pastry making as well as bread making.
The class was split into two teams with half of the class being assigned to the croissant making team and the other half assigned to the danish making team. Each student would be responsible for preparing a batch of dough. The teams would work togther once the doughs were ready to be rolled out and filled, using fillings that were made while the doughs were in their resting stages (more on that in a bit). Since I am totally addicted to chocolate croissants, I volunteered to be on the croissant team. So how does one make a croissant? The method employed in class began with making a starter. To do this, we’d have to combine the yeast, sugar, and a small amount of flour and mix just until a ball formed. Once this ball formed, it was placed at the bottom of a bucket filled with 110 degree water. When this ball rises to the top of the bucket, it’s ready to be used. Immediately remove the starter from the bucket, place into a bowl, add warm milk, a pinch of salt, flour, and mix until the dough is tacky…it can’t be so sticky that it can’t be handled and it can’t be too dry either. It is important to not add all of the flour all at once…the amount of flour needed will vary depending on the relative humidity in the room and other factors, so it should be added in small amounts until the dough achieves the correct consistency. Once that happens, remove the dough from the bowl and place onto a floured work surface. Using a pastry scraper, gather the dough together, raise it up off the surface and literally throw it down on the surface. This technique is referred to as ‘crashing’ and is repeated about 30 or 40 times.
From here, shape the dough into a square, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and let it chill for 30 min. The rest of the process from here is almost identical to making a classic puff pastry. Take butter and work it into a smooth paste, form that into a square. Combine the dough (basically, a detrempe) and butter square in order to make a paton, then you’ll need to make 6 ‘turns’, allowing a 30 minute rest between every 2 turns. After the final turn, the dough is rolled out, shaped, filled and then allowed to proof (a final rising period for the dough after it has been shaped) until it has doubled in size. Once that has happened, doreur (apply egg wash to) the dough, bake, and eat, ideally without allowing the scalding hot croissant filling to scorch the roof of your mouth.
Here are a few croissants, sitting on a cooling rack after removing from the oven:
We made a whole bunch of them in 4 different varieties; chocolate, almond, ham and gruyere, and spinach/mushroom/feta. Since croissant dough contains no sugar, they can be made in both sweet and savory varieties.
A cross-section of what is, without a doubt, the best chocolate croissant I have ever had in my entire life. The chocolate filling requires no preparation at all…you buy pre-made small chocolate batons and place as many as you want in your croissant. Then you fold the dough around the batons and bake.
The process for making danish (there is no plural for danish, although we did have a good time referring to them as danisheses and danai) is somewhat similar to making croissants. We employed a slightly different technique in class and didn’t rely on a starter. Rather, the yeast was activated and left to sit in a small bowl for a few minutes (a small bowl is used because it will give less surface area for the heat from the warm water to dissipate). Once activated, add to a large bowl and add eggs, sugar, cardamon, salt, and milk that was been warmed slightly. Combine this all together, then add the flour, a little at a time until it achieves the same tacky consistency in croissant making. Once it has achieved the proper consistency, roll the dough out into a rectangle and liberally apply a coat of softened butter to one side of it (lengthwise). Fold the unbuttered half over the buttered half, then fold that into thirds, and there you have a turn (just like a puff pastry turn). Chill for 30 min, make two more turns, chill for 30 more min, make 1 more turn, chill again, then roll, shape, and fill the dough. After filling, allow the dough to proof, then bake it and immediately place onto a cooling rack. Traditionally, a simple syrup glaze is applied to the top while the danish are still hot. for shine and a little additional sweetness (danish are usually sweet by design since the dough contains sugar). Once they cool, white icing is drizzled on top.
Danish fresh out of the oven with syrup being applied:
Different shapes and flavors of danish:
The danish were filled with different combinations of sweet cream cheese, sweet and lemon custards, almond paste, blueberries, apricots, and strawberries. These danish were unlike any others I’ve ever had…they were so incredibly good. Now I know how to make these at home and I can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing. Chef D said that students should never volunteer to make either these danish or croissants at home because once you do, you will forever be expected to prepare these items on a moment’s notice. After repeated samplings of what we made in class, I’m inclined to agree with her. But she did have some notes for the brave home chef; you can prepare the dough way in advance and refrigerate it overnight or freeze it for longer periods once the final turn has been completed (actually, so long as the dough hasn’t been proofed, it can be frozen/refrigerated). Also, if you plan on undertaking the entire process from start to finish in a day, to save time, use the 30 min resting periods between turns to prepare your fillings. The croissant team began work a little after 10am and I don’t recall eating my first croissant until around 2pm or so. But man, was it worth the 4 hour wait.
