Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Rosie Makes Croissant Dough For Orange Morning Buns.

 

I recently came across a recipe
 for Orange and Cinnamon Morning Buns
from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco
and I knew I'd have to try these.
These aren't just regular cinnamon rolls.
They're made with a croissant dough
which is light, flaky, and buttery
rather than a chewier, more bread-like dough.
It's been a while since I've made
 pâte à croissants or pâte levée feuilletée,
but I'm up to the challenge.

First, I prepared the starter.
Starter:
3/4 cup non-fat milk
1 TB active dry yeast
1 1/3 cup flour

In a small sauce pan, warm the milk
just enough to take the chill off - 90°.
Pour milk in a mixing bowl,
sprinkle the yeast over the milk,
and stir to dissolve.
Add the flour, mixing until a smooth batter forms.
Cover the bowl with cheesecloth
and let the mixture rise until almost double in volume.
I let mine sit in the refrigerator overnight
and took it out the next morning to continue.

Sprinkle the yeast over the warmed milk.
Stir to dissolve.

Stir in flour.

Stir until smooth.


Cover with cheesecloth and let rise until doubled,
about 2-3 hours.
This has doubled and I'm going to cover it with plastic
and stick it in the refrigerator for overnight.

The next morning,
I'm ready to start on the dough.

Dough
1 TB + 1 tsp active dry yeast
1 3/4 cup whole milk
(I used 1/2 no-fat and 1/2 heavy cream.)
6 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 TB + 1 tsp salt
1 TB unsalted butter, melted
Starter mixture

Transfer the starter mixture and yeast
to the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.
Mix on low speed until yeast in incorporated in the starter batter,
1-2 minutes.
When the mixture has come together
into an even, well-mixed mass,
increase the speed to medium
and mix for a couple of minutes.
Slowly add half of the milk
and continue to mix until the milk is fully incorporated.

Reduce speed to low.
Add flour, sugar, salt, melted butter,
and the rest of the milk.
Mix until the mass comes together
in a loose dough, about 3 minutes.
Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest
for 15-20 minutes.

Turn mixer on to low speed
and mix until dough is smooth and elastic,
no more than 4 minutes.
Cover with cheesecloth and let
the dough rise until volume increases by half,
about 2 hours.

Lightly flour your work surface.
Transfer dough to the floured surface
and press into a rectangle 2 inches thick.
Wrap in plastic and chill for 4-6 hours.

I left this in the fridge overnight.
This is the starter.
If you notice on the bowl,
I put a piece of tape to show where the dough started.
You want it to double.


Add in rest of ingredients and mix.

This went into another bowl to rise.
Cover with cheesecloth.





Turn out onto lightly floured surface.


Flatten into a two-inch thick rectangle.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Now I'm on Day 3.
And the fun part starts - the lamination of the dough
and the rolling and folding.
Oh the rolling and folding.
The way the pastry is rolled and folded
gives you distinct layers of dough and butter
which is what gives the pastry its puffiness.
When the dough is baked,
the butter layer expands and separates the dough layers,
creating a flaky product.
Resting and refrigeration are also essential in the process.
Resting the dough helps relax the gluten,
making the dough easier to roll out.
Refrigeration maintains the pastry and butter
at a certain temperature.
If the butter is too warm,
it will ooze out between the layers,
resulting in a mess and a pastry that won't rise.
If the butter is too cold, 
it can break through the pastry layers.
Be sure you keep your surfaces lightly floured,
else the dough will stick and you'll have a buttery mess.

Start with 2 3/4 cups of butter  (22 ounces).
This is the lamination part.
About an hour before you're ready to laminate the dough,
put the butter into the bowl of a mixer
fitted with the paddle attachment.
Mix on medium speed until malleable,
but not warm or soft - about 3 minutes.
Remove butter from bowl,
form into a rectangle,
wrap in plastic,
and refrigerate to chill but not resolidify.

I mixed the cold butter over medium speed until workable.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate.

Lightly flour your work surface.

Set the pastry dough on the work surface.

Adding flour as needed,
roll into a rectangle 12 x 28 inches.

Place rectangle of butter on left side of dough.

Spread butter over 2/3 of the rectangle.

Fold the uncovered right-hand third over the butter,
then fold the left-hand third over the center.
Press the seams on top and bottom to seal.

 Second turn: 
 Give the dough a quarter turn and flour.

Roll out again into a 28 x 12 inch rectangle and ...

...   fold again in the same manner.

Wrap in plastic wrap
and refrigerate for about 2 hours to relax the gluten.

Third turn:


Dust work surface with flour,
and again roll the dough into a 28 x 12 rectangle.
Fold into thirds
and you should have a piece of dough measuring about 9 x 12
and 1 1/2 - 2 inches thick.
Wrap in plastic and chill in freezer for an hour.

Now we're ready to make the Morning Buns.

Croissant Dough
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
zest of 2 oranges
2 TB cinnamon
pinch salt
1 stick butter, melted


Roll the dough into a 1/4-inch thick, 6 x 18 inch rectangle.
Brush dough with melted butter.
I went for 1/4 inch thick
but ended up with a 12 x 18 rectangle.
Hmmm.
I'm thinking the thickness of the dough
is more important than the dimensions.
Hope the dough is thinking this as well.

Mix the sugars, cinnamon, orange zest, and salt.


Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture over buttered croissant dough.


And roll it up.



Slice into 1 1/2-inch thick pieces.
The recipe said to prepare a 12-muffin tin
by brushing bottom and sides with melted butter
and putting a teaspoon of sugar in each muffin cup.
This isn't working for me.
My buns are too big.
Like I said, I ended up with 12 x 18, not 6 x 18.


Soooo,
I buttered and sugared a 9 x 13 inch pan and 2 ramekins.

Ooooh.
Lookie.
Layers!

Let rise again.
 Heat oven to 375°
and bake about 45 minutes.
The ramekins were done in 45 minutes.
I tented and baked the 9 x 13 pan 15 more minutes.
 

 My kitchen smells amazing.
Cinnamony, orangey, yeasty goodness.

 Lots of flaky, buttery layers.
I had three turns of the dough,
so that would be 27 layers.




Another winner.

I had to hide these in the freezer
since I wanted to save some
for the other two Hawthornelets
 when they come home for Thanksgiving.

I'll try the croissant dough again
and actually make croissants.
I need a little more practice and experience here,
especially in the rolling and folding parts
so I'll do a little more research.

What would I do differently next time?
After rolling the dough into a free-form rectangle,
I would cut it to 28 x 12 inches exactly,
so everything would fold up neatly and evenly.

Oooooh...
I'm already anticipating breakfast croissants.
Orange Marmalade Croissant
Scrambled Eggs and Bacon with Scallions Croissant

4 comments:

Lori K said...

I so want some!!!

Marilyn said...

You have more patience than I do!

Rocquie said...

I am inspired.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Lori, I'll see if I can save you some when you come down.

Mar, it doesn't take patience. I just take my time doing it. No way I could do it all in one day.

Sage, I am honored.