Hello everyone, I’m Xiao Gao Jie, today we will be a Croissant Loaf.
Let's make the dough first.
High-gluten flour or unbleached all-purpose flour.
water.
We use more yeast than usual, since there is a lot of sugar in the dough.
Eggs, sugar, salt, butter.
You can put butter afterwards.
After the yeast has absorbed the water, mix with the flour.
This dough is harder than normal loaf dough, although there is a word, loaf, in its name.
You don’t have to worry about the bread being dry and hard.
Because 200 grams of butter will be added later.
After the dough absorbs the butter, the inside of the bread will be very soft.
You can also tell from the recipe that it has a lot more sugar and oil than normal bread, so it is sweeter and richer in taste.
Make a ball and put the lid on. Leave for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, knead the dough till smooth.
Pour a little oil in the baking pan.
Press down as much as you can to prepare the the next step.
Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Let the dough cool down completely and stop fermentation.
The next day, let's prepare the butter first.
Butter comes straight out of the refrigerator. Take 200 grams.
quarter.
Place on parchment paper.
After rolling flat, fold up the three sides of the parchment paper.
Into a square.
Roll out the four corners.
If you move fast enough and the butter won't melt, you don’t need to put it in the refrigerator.
Take out the dough.
Roll out the four corners. Roll out into a square.
Compare the size of butter. Just right.
Put butter on and adjust the position.
Fold the four corners and wrap the butter.
After pressing out the air, seal it.
First use a rolling pin to press it out from the middle, and then roll it out.
Flip it back and forth and roll it into a long rectangle.
Fold it twice.
There are 3 layers of butter.
Press flat.
The gluten is tight at this time, and it will shrink if you continue to roll it.
Put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, relax the gluten to prepare for the next step, while the butter will not melt.
30 minutes, roll it in the same way.
Find the midpoint first.
Fold it 3 times.
There are flour layers.
Multiply the previous three layer, you get 12.
Up to this point, its recipe is very similar to croissants.
The biggest difference between them is the last step of shaping.
Continue to put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Before the final shaping, let's prepare the baking pans.
Sometimes, there are holes at the bottom of the baking pan, so the butter will leak out.
Wrap the toast mold with parchment paper.
To be on the safe side, when baking, place an empty baking pan below to prevent the butter from leaking into the oven.
Baking paper and empty baking pan can not only prevent oil leakage, but also prevent the bottom of the bread from being overheated and scorched.
After 30 minutes, come and do the last fold. Continue to roll long.
But it doesn’t need to be too long this time, about half the length of before.
Fold it twice. The final butter layer is 3x4x3=36.
Roll it out slightly, about the width of a hand.
We end up with a thick dough of many layers.
Because we will use the cross section of the dough to create the shape of this bread.
Cut off both ends. Then divide into three equal parts.
You can clearly see the layers of the dough.
Take out one piece. Continue to divide into thirds.
Then the cut side is facing up and do the 3-braids.
tuck in the two ends.
Turn it over and put the leftover material underneath.
Do the same to the other two pieces.
A thick dough, sliced ​​into thin slices, show the layers to the maximum.
450g toast mold, put two.
Put one for the smaller baking pan.
The dough is cold. The final proof time will be long.
It takes 6 hours at the room temperature, and 2.5~3 hours in a warm oven with a hot water tray underneath.
Finally, it reaches 80-90% full.
Put it in the preheated oven. 375°F /190°C.
Bake the small bread for 25 minutes, and 35 minutes for the large one.
Even though the final fermentation time was very long, the power of gluten is still very strong.
The bread has grown a lot taller in the oven.
12 minutes into the oven, it browns the bread nicely. Covered with aluminum foil.
A few minutes later, cover the large bread.
After baked, you can clearly see the layers on the top and side of the bread.
And the color is golden, the bottom will not burn.
The crust of the toast at this time is crispy.
Or wait for it to cool down and put it in a plastic bag.
After some time, it will become soft.
The next day, cut it open.
You see some honeycomb structures. After all, it is very similar to the croissant.
The bread slices are square shape and it hasn't shrunk.
Break apart the bread, you will find layers inside, which can be torn one slice at a time.
Croissant loaf combines the softness of ordinary toast bread with the sweet and rich flavour of croissant.
And its own uniqueness is that it makes the greatest use of the layers in the dough in appearance.
Take a small bite, and enjoy the happiness brought by bread.
Thank you for watching, I’m Xiao Gao, see you in the next episode^^