My first croissant / はじめてのクロワッサン

When I was in Linz to work on my art project last month, YouTube suggested a video by NY Times.

It looks so so so tasty. Croissant is one of my favorite breads but I have never made it at home by myself. I wanted to try to make croissants once I was back at home.

Since I had a quite relaxed schedule last weekend, I decided to make croissants. It's a two day project; on the first day, I make the dough and the next day, I shape and bake it.

I forgot to take photos of the first day. I was totally into folding the dough with a butter block inside .......... It was the process I hesitated to do at home and kept me away from making croissants. I thought it will be super messy with greasy melted butter 😅 But in reality, it wasn't. The process was quite smooth. Wow!

After I made the dough and kept it in the fridge to let it rest, I took a look at a lot of other YouTube videos to see the shaping process. I don't remember but I might have dreamed of croissants while I was sleeping ...

Next day, I woke up early, stretched and cut the dough with a ruler and a pizza cutter so that they have an even size and shape. They look not too bad for the first attempt :)

And yes, there were just four pieces with 300g of flour. They were huge American croissants!

I let them rise in the oven for two hours. After the proofing, they got slightly fluffy.

I was happy to see the layer of butter and dough.

I brushed egg wash on top and started baking. I know I shouldn't open the oven in the middle but I couldn't help seeing how they were doing.

According to the recipe, I turned the baking tray and baked for another 10 minutes. Unfortunately they became more than golden brown ... 😭 I should keep the first bake for 12-15 minutes and the second one for 10 minutes. Learning by doing. That's baking.

The cut surface was more like brioche-ish than croissant ... I think I was folding the dough too much.

But at least I was happy with the taste of the croissants and look forward to work on further improvements.

We made sandwiches and ate them as our Sunday lunch.

When I make croissants for the next time, I will reduce salt a bit, make them smaller, be more gentle for the dough folding process, reduce the baking time ...

It was my weekend baking project. Have a nice week everyone!

🥐 🥐 🥐 🥐 🥐

先月、リンツに滞在していたときに、YouTubeがNY Timesのクロワッサンの作り方の動画を推薦してきました。ツボなやつです。私の好みをよくわかっているな w

クロワッサンは大好きなパンの一つですが、家で自分で作ったことはありません。でもこの動画を見て、家に戻ったら一度クロワッサンを作ってみたいと思っていました。

先週末はかなりゆったりしていたので、クロワッサンを作ることにしました。初日に生地を作り、翌日に形を整えて焼く2日がかりの作業です。

初日の写真を撮るのを忘れてしまいました。バターのブロックを中に入れて生地を折る作業にすっかり夢中になっていたのです。この作業を敬遠していたんですよね。バターが溶けてべとべとになって大惨事になると思い込んでいました。でも実際はそんなことなく、かなりスムーズにできました。私は何を恐れていたんだ。。

生地を作って冷蔵庫で休ませた後、翌日の作業のイメトレといわんばかりにYouTubeでクロワッサンの成形の動画を見まくりました。寝ている間にはクロワッサンの夢を見たかもしれません・・・ w

翌日、朝早く目が覚めて、定規とピザカッターで生地を伸ばし、大きさと形が均等になるようにカットしました。バターロールよりもすなおに巻けて、初挑戦にしてはまずまずの形です。

成形してみてクロワッサンの巨大さに驚愕しました。300gの粉（だいたい食パン一本分）で4個なのです。アメリカサイズです。。

オーブンで2時間寝かせるとふわふわになりました。

生地を切った面をよく見ると、バターと生地の層が見えます。よしよし。

卵液を塗って、焼き始めました。途中でオーブンを開けてはいけないのはわかっているのですが、ついついのぞいて写真を撮ってしまいました。