Martha Stewart Makes Croissants 4 Ways | Martha Bakes Classic Episodes

Today we are going to learn how to make quasal. It is a complicated process, it takes a long time but it is definitely worth it when you see the final result, so we start with a quarter of a cup plus two tablespoons of warm water at about one hundred degrees. don't make it hot just warm and this recipe really works best if you have fresh cake yeast 17 grams or 0.6 ounces the small package of fresh yeast is 0.6 ounces and to give the yeast something to eat while it is fermented, two teaspoons. of sugar just sprinkle that over the yeast and let it soften, let it sit, you can push it with a wooden spoon so it starts to bubble and you'll see it gets a little bit foamy now about a third and a third. cups of warm milk again around 100 degrees add a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon plus a teaspoon of sugar, this will be added to the yeast and now three and a half cups of all-purpose flour, I am using hecker's flour which I really like There is also a very good flower called King Arthur that works very well, so dip it and measure two and a half and add the warm milk with sugar to the flour mixture and a quarter cup of canola or grape oil. seed oil and unflavored vegetable oil this keeps the dough soft and pliable so now stir this

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a very sticky wet dough this is the start of our hustle it's very exciting and now you can turn this over on a lightly floured surface and get all a little bit we're going to use this bowl again for the first rise of the dough, so keep it handy and use a bench scraper.

I love this plastic on the marble, just move it around and sprinkle a little more flour on it and what you want to do is get a soft dough that's not too sticky but still holds its shape a little bit mmm boy it's that beautiful oh look, it's already a good dough, don't put too much flour in it, just enough so that you can lift the dough like this and place it back in the bowl and now this will be covered with plastic wrap. Make sure you place the plastic over the dough first, you don't want air to get to the dough and then another.

A piece of plastic over the container is quite airtight and should be placed in a warm place a little warmer than normal and left to rise until it triples in size for about three or four hours and look what happened: the fermentation and yeast have caused gases to rise. pushed the plastic wrap, this is the plastic wrap, turned it into something like a balloon, like a membrane, there, deflate, I love doing that, taking the plastic off, oh, it smells so good, oh, and I love it the smell of yeast, this is what really gets you when you start making bread, it smells like yeast and now you scrape it out, it's sticky and bubbly, this is what it's supposed to be and you turn it out onto a lightly floured surface again and You're going to roll it into an 8 by 12 inch rectangle.

It's a beautiful dough. I have a big ruler, it's great to have when you're baking a lot and a great rolling pin, flour the pin and roll it out basically 8 by 12. What you want to do is lay it flat. enough so that you can then fold it in a third, now fold it in thirds and put it back in the container, cover it again with plastic and let it rise again in similar conditions to about 70 75 degrees for about two hours, but you can also put it in in the refrigerator overnight so now this dough has had two major rises oh yeah, it's very good and it's developing its texture and now we're going to incorporate butter into the dough and that's done through a series of folds with a gentle pat. of butter.

I need 14 ounces of butter and we're going to soften it with a tablespoon of flour in our mixer with a flat beater, you add a tablespoon of flour which gives it a little bit of body, otherwise it's going to be a little greasy, okay? Let's let it be nice, smooth and lump-free, we don't want lumps, we just want a smooth butter and we're going to roll the dough into a 16-by-11 rectangle. What a beautiful dough, try to make it the same thickness, 16 by 11. It al

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feels okay when it fits exactly right, so it's nice and soft and we're going to spread this butter over two-thirds of the dough very well, now fold this this way and then this this way and wrap it up. this in plastic and put it right in the refrigerator and chill it for half an hour or so until you can roll it up again and now this is turn number two, this has cooled, it's risen a little bit in the refrigerator, okay, the butter is in Here and we need to put this on a floured surface and roll it into a 20 inch by 9 inch rectangle and fold it into thirds.

You don't want to let the excess flour work too well. Put this back on for at least half an hour. and we'll do our final twist, which is two turns instead of thirds, we'll do it in quarters, so after an hour and a half this is what it looks like, place this on a well floured surface and this will be the end. turning it into a really beautiful dough and rolling this into a 20 inch by nine inch rectangle. Now we're going to fold this in half and in half like this and then you're going to fold this one like this so it's actually four layers and this is going to Wrap it one more time, put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour and a half, possibly two hours, and then you are ready to roll out the dough, cut it and shape it into a quasal.

Here is our final dough. I'm going to spread it out a little so I can cut it in half, reserving half for the interesting quasal filling and the other half for the traditional crescent-shaped rolls that we all crave with our breakfast cappuccino and now here's our half. dough, bring a piece of parchment paper at this point and roll the dough to 16 by 20 inches, okay this is great, put it on a flat sheet if you have a proofing sheet and again just put it in the refrigerator to chill a bit. a little bit more, then we'll cut it into triangles that will form the half moons, so here's our big rectangle of croissant dough, so now cut it in half lengthwise and we'll start forming our croissant.

I'm going to mark every 5 inches 5 10 15 and then up here every two and a half inches and we're going to cut this into our kosong triangles so pull the tail which is the tip and stretch the base and roll it tightly and quickly before the dough softens and forms a crescent, so now, if you want to change the regular croissant for something a little more extraordinary, you can add almond paste (a quarter ounce of almond paste folded right into the bottom of the kossol and roll it like I would do it with the normal croissant). regular and let it rise and now before they start to rise wash them with an egg with a teaspoon of water mixed just try to cover only the upper surface of the croissant and then to allow them to rise you must cover them with plastic wrap two or three of these glasses of juice upside down like this and cover them with a large sheet of plastic so that the plastic doesn't touch the interference as it rises and then they should be placed in a warm place until they double in size.

Now look what happened, the yeast continues to work and you can see that the first beaten egg is still there but we need to put a second one in so again with a light brush and a light hand just cover that surface again trying not to deflate the pretty . live dough the ovens are preheated to 425 degrees so there we have our almond castle and our normal coastal and they are going to go into the oven right now set the timer for 15 minutes oh look how pretty they look, they look fantastic, look at these Don't they they are magnificent?

They are light, flaky, perfectly tender kossel, so here we have a piece of dough, it's the rolled dough, all cold and it's better to use something like a pizza wheel that a sharp knife can pull, so it's good to use a wheel and we want three inch pieces here, let's see so we can mark five and two, three, which is right, that'll do and I'm just going to cut them after years of practice. I cut pretty straight lines, now here's another tool one would use. use to make croissant this is my original croissant cutter when you roll it it cuts exact triangles it's a fabulous tool that if you have one you can use it so here on the parchment paper there are rectangles that measure seven by three and two teaspoons of chocolate, right? here, I cut this with a serrated knife, this is the best semisweet chocolate, some bakeries use it as a real chocolate bar, but I don't like the way it looks, so I cut my chocolate like this. and roll this tightly making sure the chocolate stays inside and before you get to the edge use a little bit of water as glue along the last edge and keep that last edge underneath like this, this will be the best chocolate pano you have ever tasted.

These two will need to grow to double before putting them in the oven. You can also make muffins like this with Gruyere cheese and put a little bit of beaten egg right on top, so now these two will need to be covered with plastic. wrap them until they double in size, a nice warm place to grow, the chocolate panda doubles in size, maybe even a little more, and these will go straight into the same 425 degree oven after the second egg is washed. They look absolutely delicious. timer for 15 minutes a little more and here are the wonderful chocolate breads that come out of the oven, light but crispy, filled with the best chocolate.

You'll love serving them to your family and friends for a holiday weekend or for breakfast anytime and here's another good use for croissant dough, little ham and cheese rolls that are simply delicious. We use a cheese compote and a little piece of French ham and you just roll them up, use a little bit of water as glue on the end and that's what you would do. You can use puff pastry for this too, but it works so well and is so tasty. I use the mandolin to cut the cheese and the butcher pre-cut the ham. A very good bayonne ham and these will double in size again and can be baked with egg glaze, an excellent hors d'oeuvre, very pleasant at breakfast time, very tasty and you can make them any size, you can make them the same size as the chocolate panel and you can even shape them into a half moon as a mini coison.

We use a five inch base for our normal cross stitching. You could use a three-inch base for the triangles. You could make it bigger for a giant croissant. Now just egg wash these little ham and cheese rolls, place them tightly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and cover them. and let it rise until it doubles in volume and now I'm just brushing on the final beaten egg, they have also doubled in size and they're going to go in the same oven at 425 degrees and they'll probably take a little less, maybe 10 minutes, so now you can Place your mini ham and cheese croissant like this with a bowl of grainy mustard right in the middle and serve them as a delicious hors d'oeuvre.

They are very delicious and you can prepare them in advance. Store them in the refrigerator. Pop them in the oven just before your guests arrive, they will be very, very happy, so today we learned how to make a light, flaky, perfectly tender croissant dough that can be turned into a simple croissant like this one that can be eaten with just a bit. a little more butter and a little jam, how delicious, or chocolate almond kosong pano, which is the chocolate sack or mini size of ham and cheese, enjoy and I hope you try the croissant after seeing me make them at Martha Bakes.