Make Perfect Croissants With Claire Saffitz | Try This at Home | NYT Cooking

[00:00] i i want to get one thing out of the way

[00:02] before

[00:03] we start talking about croissants which

[00:04] is that i'm going to refer to these as

[00:06] croissants for the rest of this video

[00:08] and not croissant okay because i can't

[00:12] i can't do that every time so excited

[00:15] hey everyone i'm claire saffits and

[00:16] today i am showing you how to make

[00:18] croissants like the highest achievement

[00:21] in all of pastry gum i don't think i

[00:23] will ever ever get tired of eating these

[00:25] so we're gonna make basic all butter

[00:27] croissants ham and cheese almond

[00:29] croissants panna chocolate there's

[00:30] nothing better than a freshly baked

[00:32] croissant but then like somehow it gets

[00:34] better when you add chocolate and ham

[00:35] and cheese i really want to encourage

[00:37] people to try this at home because it's

[00:39] fascinating and fun and challenging and

[00:41] like you might get obsessed like i did

[00:43] and just make them like 15 times in a

[00:45] row

[00:48] for this recipe i

[00:50] became like a woman possessed about

[00:52] making croissants i made them at least a

[00:54] dozen times at home and there is so much

[00:56] to learn now i'm very like attuned to

[00:58] the flaws in the recipes that i make but

[01:00] even at my worst batch they were still

[01:03] so delicious you can get very very good

[01:05] results at home like i've never had a

[01:06] bigger thrill than when i pulled out

[01:08] eight beautiful golden

[01:11] like puffy

[01:13] gorgeous layered croissants from my oven

[01:15] croissants are in a category of pastry

[01:17] called vienwazuri and generally speaking

[01:20] these are pastries that are something

[01:22] called laminated so laminated is kind of

[01:24] a technical jargony pastry term

[01:26] for a layered pastry butter is rolled

[01:30] into dough rolled out and folded and

[01:32] rolled out further and this creates a

[01:34] series of sheets of butter separated by

[01:36] layers of pastry and that is what

[01:39] creates this layered crispy effect in

[01:41] things like puff pastry and danishes and

[01:43] of course

[01:44] croissants

[01:45] there's just so much to talk about in

[01:46] this recipe if i were editing this video

[01:48] this would be like a four hour video so

[01:49] in order to adjust the recipe so that

[01:51] you are able to have freshly baked

[01:54] croissants

[01:55] before noon we do this over two days so

[01:57] this is like perfect for a weekend

[01:58] baking project where you'll do the

[02:00] majority of the work on a saturday and

[02:02] then sunday morning you wake up you form

[02:05] the croissants let them rise and bake

[02:06] them on day two the first step for

[02:09] making croissants is to make something

[02:11] called the ditch home and that is the

[02:12] dough

[02:13] that we're using that's gonna enclose

[02:15] the butter for our lamination i'm gonna

[02:17] say this at every single point in this

[02:19] recipe this step is very important and

[02:22] you need a strong dough to support all

[02:25] of those layers of butter and to

[02:27] not collapse when you bake it in general

[02:30] if you can find a flower between 11 and

[02:32] 13 protein that's a good selection

[02:34] something in that range that's what i

[02:35] recommend

[02:37] now i gotta talk about yeast again

[02:39] so many things to talk about

[02:40] i'm using acne dry yeast because for

[02:42] people at home that's by far the easiest

[02:44] kind to find almost every recipe that

[02:46] i've made with active dry yeast i'll

[02:47] tell you to activate the yeast or proof

[02:49] it which basically means dissolving it

[02:51] in a warm liquid 99 times out of 100

[02:53] your yeast is alive and it's fine i'm

[02:56] pretty confident that you can just mix

[02:58] it right into the dough i've never had a

[02:59] problem doing that at home

[03:02] it's

[03:02] 12.

[03:04] 120 grams of whole milk

[03:09] the first thing i want to do is hydrate

[03:11] everything and do an initial mix

[03:14] so i'm going to start by just mixing

[03:15] this on low

[03:18] so this is going to look dry and shaggy

[03:20] but let the mixer go for a few minutes

[03:22] and it will come together

[03:24] so here we have

[03:26] our initial mix of the dough it like

[03:29] looks kind of like a cauliflower it's

[03:31] not smooth it doesn't really have any

[03:33] elasticity to it you can see it just

[03:35] breaks but that's okay we want to now

[03:36] let it rest i want to give time

[03:39] to the proteins and the flour to hydrate

[03:42] this is going to help us to develop the

[03:43] right amount of gluten that we want my

[03:45] butter pieces here are cold which is

[03:47] important and i'm going to add these to

[03:49] the mixer this is the part where it's

[03:51] more helpful to have the mixer with a

[03:53] dough hook by hand

[03:55] it's really the step of adding the

[03:57] butter that's a little bit more

[03:58] challenging to do so i'm happy to let

[04:00] the mixer take care of it

[04:02] a nice slow mix though is the

[04:05] one of the keys to the right texture of

[04:06] dough the dough has transformed you can

[04:08] see what a different texture it is

[04:11] it's completely absorbed the butter it's

[04:13] much stretchier it's a very very smooth

[04:16] and supple dough and that's what we want

[04:18] it extends easily and seamlessly

[04:21] envelops the butter and here's a great

[04:23] tip so this is something that i picked

[04:25] up in culinary school

[04:27] i'm going to cut a slash in one

[04:28] direction

[04:30] and then a slash in the other direction

[04:32] basically reoriented the gluten strand

[04:34] so that as it rises this will expand and

[04:37] then i'll have an easier time forming it

[04:39] into a rectangle which is the shape that

[04:41] we need for the lamination

[04:45] and i'm going to let this sit at room

[04:46] temperature until it's

[04:48] about 50 percent expanded in size so one

[04:51] and a half times

[04:52] and then we're going to transfer to the

[04:54] fridge and let it chill and finish a

[04:56] nice long slow rise for a few hours

[04:59] all right butter

[05:03] now we're going to talk about butter the

[05:05] flavor of croissants

[05:06] is butter so that's where you want to go

[05:10] for the highest quality stuff you can

[05:11] find the recipe calls for european or

[05:14] european style butter that designation

[05:16] means that there's a higher percentage

[05:18] of butter fat butter should have some

[05:20] plasticity which means the ability to

[05:22] bend without breaking or snapping

[05:25] kerrygold has that even when it's cold

[05:27] and as we get into the lamination i'll

[05:28] explain why that's really important just

[05:30] going to sort of loosely fold up the

[05:32] parchment paper

[05:36] and i have this kind of loose packet and

[05:38] i'm going to use my rolling pin

[05:40] to lightly beat the butter i don't want

[05:42] to like

[05:43] in order to

[05:44] soften it without warming it up and make

[05:46] it pliable

[05:49] i cannot imagine that my neighbors loved

[05:51] hearing this noise day in and day out

[05:52] but then i would at least bring them

[05:54] croissants the next day so just this

[05:56] part's a little noisy

[06:01] and now i want to focus on getting very

[06:03] clean straight sides and i'm making a

[06:05] very level block of butter

[06:08] somewhere around an 8 inch square a

[06:09] little bit bigger is fine

[06:11] i would say there's like a surprising

[06:13] number of recipes where i call for a

[06:15] ruler

[06:16] and i'm not i'm not trying to bug you or

[06:18] like

[06:19] the reason i'm calling for in the recipe

[06:20] is because i think if you use it it will

[06:22] make your life easier down the road like

[06:24] it like a present

[06:28] you can see that i've folded the

[06:30] parchment into a square the butter is

[06:32] smaller than the parchment and i'm going

[06:34] to beat it again to fill in all of those

[06:36] spaces

[06:40] and at a certain point you'll be able

[06:41] just to roll without beating it so i'm

[06:43] going to just move

[06:44] to a rolling motion and force the butter

[06:47] into any places within the square

[06:50] where there's an air gap

[06:56] you can see that

[06:59] let this firm up in the fridge while the

[07:01] ditch finishes its rise

[07:04] i have a swap it has finished its rise

[07:07] in the fridge and is now cold and is

[07:10] basically about doubled in size so i'll

[07:11] show you what this looks like

[07:14] you can see how the dough has expanded

[07:17] and like those four

[07:19] points have become almost like corners

[07:21] now so that's going to make it easier to

[07:22] form into a rectangular shape

[07:25] and there's just a quick kind of

[07:26] intermediate step that i want to do

[07:28] before we move on to lamination and that

[07:30] is

[07:31] actually getting this into the freezer

[07:33] the steaks get higher when we

[07:35] incorporate the butter we have to

[07:37] control fermentation of the dough and

[07:39] that just means that it becomes very

[07:40] important to control temperature and to

[07:42] keep the dough very very cold so that

[07:44] the yeast stay very sluggish and calm

[07:47] and they don't produce gases that is

[07:49] going to make it a lot harder to roll

[07:50] out

[07:52] if anyone has a great at-home

[07:54] replacement for plastic wrap for this

[07:57] purpose let me know i'm going to

[07:58] actually use a technique similar to the

[08:00] one i used for the butter at this point

[08:02] i have to be i'm not like concerned

[08:03] about thickness or dimensions i just

[08:04] want it to be even

[08:06] i don't want to freeze it solid that's

[08:08] not going to help me when i want to roll

[08:09] it out i just want to get it super super

[08:11] cold and firm so about 20 minutes should

[08:13] be about right

[08:16] all right

[08:19] so the next stage is locking in the

[08:21] butter so it is enveloping the butter in

[08:23] the dough and then i'm going to roll it

[08:24] out and do the folds for the lamination

[08:27] the important thing here

[08:29] is that

[08:31] my dough and my butter are a similar

[08:33] texture and that is going to help the

[08:34] butter to roll out evenly inside the

[08:36] dough and for them to be the same

[08:38] texture i need the dough to be colder

[08:40] than the butter so that's why we had it

[08:41] in the freezer in general i want to go

[08:43] through all the steps of lamination

[08:44] without adding a whole lot of excess

[08:46] flour so i'm going to

[08:48] roll out

[08:49] my dough or detromp

[08:51] into a slab that is basically the same

[08:54] width as the butter block

[08:56] but twice as long you try to maintain at

[08:59] all times

[09:00] your square sides i keep kind of running

[09:03] my hands under it just to make sure that

[09:05] it's not really sticking

[09:07] you can also give it a flip we're

[09:09] looking for butter that can

[09:11] bend but not snap i'm going to place it

[09:16] in the center of my dough

[09:20] and close the butter in the dough by

[09:22] folding

[09:23] the longer sides down into the center of

[09:25] the butter

[09:26] you can do any tugging that you need to

[09:28] in order to even out the thickness of

[09:30] the dough you do not need them to

[09:32] overlap you just need them to

[09:35] meet so you can see i have an even

[09:38] thickness of dough all the way around

[09:39] and now i'm going to pinch along the

[09:41] sides just to prevent the butter from

[09:44] peeking out i've now locked the butter

[09:46] in

[09:46] and i'm going to roll it out and do my

[09:49] first turn i rotated the dough 90

[09:51] degrees so that seam running down the

[09:52] middle of the butter block is now

[09:54] vertical i'm going to beat the dough to

[09:56] begin to lengthen the slab and also thin

[09:59] out the butter

[10:01] i found that beating it and like paying

[10:03] extra attention

[10:05] to

[10:06] the sides will help keep straight

[10:08] parallel sides

[10:14] so periodically lift it up make sure

[10:15] nothing's sticking

[10:17] now i'm going to go in with my rolling

[10:18] pin

[10:19] and start to roll and i'm going to make

[10:21] a very long narrow slab

[10:24] about two feet long the length isn't as

[10:27] important as the thickness i'm going to

[10:28] go for about between a half and quarter

[10:30] inch thick i'm not pressing down if you

[10:33] press down you risk squeezing out the

[10:35] butter and fusing the dough together you

[10:37] know then you won't have that definition

[10:38] of layers so really it's like an uh

[10:43] a kind of pushing motion outward and

[10:45] toward yourself

[10:49] so this is actually called a double turn

[10:51] we're going to fold the dough in a way

[10:54] that quadruples a number of layers right

[10:55] now i have dough butter dough but when

[10:58] we fold it we multiply the layers of

[11:00] butter in between the dough and that is

[11:02] what gives us the flakiness fold

[11:05] one end of the dough up toward the

[11:07] midline

[11:09] and take the other side of the dough and

[11:11] fold that down and now i'm going to fold

[11:12] the entire thing in half crosswise

[11:15] and this is now called the book so you

[11:17] can see i have now a slab of dough

[11:19] that's four

[11:21] thicknesses one two three four i've now

[11:24] quadrupled the number of layers in my

[11:26] slab this is called the first turn and

[11:29] each time we roll it out and fold those

[11:31] layers get thinner and they multiply at

[11:33] this stage the butter is now warming and

[11:35] the dough is also getting warmer

[11:38] and we've also worked the dough so it's

[11:40] going to want to spring back when i go

[11:42] to roll it out so we want to chill it

[11:43] before we do get another turn

[11:47] maybe a little bit of a rolling out

[11:49] because

[11:50] the thinner it is the faster it will

[11:52] chill down i reserve the plastic from

[11:54] before

[12:00] you can see that it has firmed up quite

[12:02] a bit

[12:03] so i'm going to roll it out and we're

[12:05] going to do the next turn the second and

[12:07] final which is called a simple turn so

[12:09] it's a slightly different orientation

[12:10] than the first beating with the rolling

[12:12] pin

[12:14] it just kind of kick-starts that

[12:16] lengthening process

[12:24] so you might find that you have little

[12:26] air bubbles that's normal that is partly

[12:28] because of the fermentation partly just

[12:30] because you maybe had some air pockets

[12:31] between the dough and the butter you can

[12:33] just go ahead and pop them

[12:38] like dust it with flour and then i wipe

[12:40] the excess off

[12:43] i'm talking a lot but you also want to

[12:45] try to go faster than i'm going

[12:50] [Music]

[12:52] this time we're doing what's called a

[12:53] simple turn where i'm folding it in

[12:55] thirds like a letter so this is just a

[12:57] slightly simpler method

[13:00] just like that

[13:02] you can see that my ends have rounded a

[13:03] little bit which is a very very common

[13:05] problem

[13:06] i'm just tugging on the ends of the slab

[13:08] to try to square them off so this is

[13:11] your second turn a simple turn and your

[13:13] final turn take advantage of the tension

[13:15] against the plastic wrap

[13:18] and use your rolling pin to force it

[13:19] into like a square tape again and to

[13:21] create sharper corners

[13:26] the dough slab has been chilling so it's

[13:28] rested and now the last step on day one

[13:32] of the croissant process is to roll out

[13:34] the dough into a slab kind of like a

[13:36] pre-shaping step it's to get it ready

[13:37] for rolling and forming croissants

[13:40] tomorrow you're going to want to spring

[13:41] back try rolling in the other direction

[13:42] so roll perpendicular to the direction

[13:44] you were going and it should extend that

[13:46] way the dough is starting to resist me a

[13:48] little bit this is a good time to

[13:51] wrap it up again get it back in the

[13:52] fridge and then tomorrow when it's nice

[13:54] and rested we can roll it out if needed

[13:57] to the right dimensions and we're going

[13:58] to cut

[13:59] roll proof and bake our croissants i

[14:02] told you it was a process i know it's a

[14:04] lot but

[14:05] it's worth it

[14:06] we've

[14:07] made the dough we let it rise we

[14:11] enclosed the butter

[14:13] we rolled it out

[14:15] we did the first turn the second turn

[14:18] and then we left it overnight we're

[14:19] getting into the really exciting part

[14:21] where we're nearing the end of the

[14:22] process so we want to create an ideal

[14:24] proofing environment for the croissants

[14:26] this is a really important part of the

[14:28] process because this is what's going to

[14:29] determine how light and airy and flaky

[14:32] your croissants are so we're going to

[14:34] use our oven to create an enclosed area

[14:37] for proofing i have a skillet of water

[14:39] right here i want to get this

[14:41] to an active simmer and i'm going to

[14:43] place it in the oven which is our

[14:45] proofing area

[14:46] then while we form the croissants the

[14:49] water will cool off a little bit and all

[14:51] that steam will make this ideal humid

[14:53] environment just get really nervous

[14:54] about this part um nervous excited let

[14:56] me go grab the dough

[14:58] so i'm going to give this dough

[15:01] a bear dusting of flour i mean the bare

[15:03] minimum

[15:04] if you see any air bubbles go ahead and

[15:07] just pop

[15:10] them be careful when you're moving the

[15:12] dough so that you're not puncturing any

[15:14] of the layers

[15:16] i am ready to start cutting so

[15:19] the first thing i want to do is

[15:20] straighten the shorter sides because i

[15:22] want even size croissants i am measuring

[15:26] and then making little marks with my

[15:27] cutter and now i'm just going to use my

[15:29] ruler and connect those marks on the two

[15:32] longer sides and slice this into four

[15:34] even rectangles

[15:36] these are going to get sliced into eight

[15:38] triangles and each triangle is going to

[15:40] be

[15:41] one crescent

[15:53] what's the word for a right triangle

[15:55] the right triangle is that what if

[15:57] that's called okay so now i have right

[15:59] triangles i want to make these into

[16:02] isosceles triangles so anyone that

[16:04] thinks that trigonometry doesn't help

[16:06] you later in life just think about

[16:07] making croissants gonna kind of eyeball

[16:09] it you end up slicing like a tiny tiny

[16:12] little triangle off the base you don't

[16:13] really have to do this but i think it

[16:15] helps to form more even crescents and

[16:17] also

[16:19] it does expose some of the layers at the

[16:22] base which i like the way that looks in

[16:24] the final crescent i like to

[16:26] give it a gentle tug along the short

[16:28] side also a little tug

[16:30] to lengthen

[16:32] almost like a witch's hat like a little

[16:34] bit of a wider face a long tapered point

[16:38] so you don't want large gaps by any

[16:40] means but you also don't want to be

[16:43] stressing the dough and creating a lot

[16:46] of tension so i let it rest on the point

[16:48] of the triangle and sometimes give it

[16:50] like a little like a little

[16:51] bop

[16:52] like that because i want that point to

[16:54] stick and it's going to rest on the

[16:56] point stick that right on the baking

[16:59] sheet

[16:59] right there and again pour to a sheet

[17:01] these are going to get really big

[17:05] [Music]

[17:16] so i want to go loose on the plastic

[17:18] because these are going to get extremely

[17:19] puffy as they rise and i don't want them

[17:22] to

[17:23] encounter resistance against the plastic

[17:26] i did test freezing these but you could

[17:29] certainly do everything up to this step

[17:31] put the baking sheets in the freezer you

[17:32] can even put them all in one sheet

[17:34] freeze them solid take them out put them

[17:37] in your proofing setup just like we did

[17:40] and let them rise when i tested it that

[17:42] way they took seven hours to proof

[17:45] totally possible and the ones that i

[17:46] froze were like one of the best batches

[17:48] i made we're looking at around

[17:51] the two to two and a half hour mark so

[17:53] i'll check on these see how they're

[17:54] doing and then we'll talk about how do

[17:56] you know when your croissants are

[17:57] approved

[18:00] smiling because i'm very excited so

[18:02] these have been proofing for

[18:05] what was it like it's been a while right

[18:07] three hours two and a half hours okay so

[18:09] two and a half hours so on the long end

[18:11] of the range these are proofed to me

[18:12] they remind me of michelin men they look

[18:15] like they've been inflated a little bit

[18:17] the tools that you have to determine if

[18:19] they're proofed enough they're basically

[18:20] all visual because we do not want to

[18:22] touch these they are super delicate

[18:24] while the oven is preheating i'm going

[18:25] to uncover these and actually stick the

[18:27] trays in the fridge one it's going to

[18:30] slow down the proofing so they don't

[18:32] over proof while the oven preheats and

[18:34] second they are going to firm up in the

[18:37] fridge it's going to make it easier to

[18:39] apply an egg wash carefully carefully

[18:41] uncover them because you don't want to

[18:43] disturb any of the layers

[18:47] and as i uncover them i can show you

[18:49] see how there's

[18:51] a little bit of a wobble

[18:53] on these guys

[18:54] when i gently shake the pan that's an

[18:56] indication that

[18:58] there is lots of gas in these and they

[19:00] are proofed we want a beautiful shiny

[19:03] burnished exterior the best way to get

[19:05] that is to

[19:07] brush it with a mixture of egg yolk and

[19:08] heavy cream basically a half

[19:11] eggshell is a tablespoon

[19:14] this gives you both browning and shine

[19:17] the oven is preheated now we're going to

[19:19] apply the egg wash you don't want to

[19:20] poke the croissants at all they are so

[19:23] puffy and light

[19:25] that

[19:26] they're also on the verge of collapse i

[19:27] don't want to coat the exposed layers in

[19:30] egg because the egg could fuse them

[19:32] together and prevent this kind of

[19:34] separation from happening so i'm only

[19:36] going to coat the smooth

[19:39] top surfaces of the croissant with egg

[19:42] wash i think of in charlotte's web where

[19:44] like toward the end where wilbur is

[19:46] getting brought to the county fair and

[19:48] the farmer's wife base meant buttermilk

[19:51] it's just what this makes me think of i

[19:53] think as a child like that image really

[19:55] stuck with me

[20:01] someone told me to stop fussing with

[20:02] them

[20:04] thank you thank you sometimes i need to

[20:06] hear that okay we're going to the oven

[20:13] thank you

[20:18] okay be gentle be gentle and now

[20:22] don't touch them

[20:24] anyone else just want to like sit in

[20:25] front of this

[20:27] the whole time and watch them

[20:33] oh my god it smells so good

[20:35] if if they could pump this smell into

[20:38] like every open house with every house

[20:40] on the market ever a huge spike in house

[20:42] sales is that things like the challenge

[20:44] of cookies when people try to buy your

[20:45] house or whatever oh that's my timer i'm

[20:47] going to rotate each pan 180 degrees so

[20:50] that what's in the front of the oven is

[20:51] going to go toward the back i'm also

[20:53] going to switch racks so what's on the

[20:55] top it's going to go on the bottom

[20:56] bottom to the top this is just all in

[20:59] service of having all the croissants

[21:00] brown evenly croissant troubleshooting a

[21:03] lot of times you don't know when

[21:04] something has gone wrong in the process

[21:06] until you bake

[21:08] so

[21:08] one thing that happens commonly is the

[21:10] butter leaks out of the croissants and

[21:13] pools on the baking sheet during baking

[21:15] it could be that your croissants got too

[21:16] warm

[21:17] during proofing and the butter just kind

[21:19] of melts out

[21:21] the other thing is your dough could just

[21:23] not be super well rested that's another

[21:25] reason why i like leaving the slab

[21:27] overnight generally one that's flat but

[21:30] like wide like a big footprint but flat

[21:32] means that you over proofed them they

[21:33] just don't grow a whole lot then you

[21:35] then you certainly underproof them

[21:36] you're not having this sort of webbed

[21:39] even interior that's the sign that your

[21:41] butter probably got too soft while you

[21:43] were laminating there's a lot of stuff

[21:45] here it's like a lot of it's just so

[21:47] technical and sensitive throughout the

[21:48] process but

[21:49] they're going to taste great no matter

[21:50] what

[21:54] so i prefer a well done or biancui

[21:57] croissant which i think these are

[22:00] none of this like pale

[22:02] this is too high for me to take this off

[22:04] sorry

[22:05] i think

[22:06] all right here they are

[22:08] let them cool on the baking sheets

[22:10] and then

[22:11] we're definitely

[22:12] gonna cut into these and see

[22:18] this one looks great you can see the

[22:20] spiral there aren't huge air gaps which

[22:23] i'm happy about and i do have somewhat

[22:26] of a honeycomb so i'm really happy with

[22:28] this i think this is a great result for

[22:29] people at home there are a few baked

[22:31] goods that i can think of

[22:34] that hit as many textural notes as a

[22:36] croissant and it is this miraculous

[22:38] combination of extremely rich and very

[22:41] light

[22:42] plus this

[22:43] very toasty

[22:45] shattering

[22:46] exterior like to me it's hard to think

[22:49] of a higher achievement of pastry than a

[22:51] croissant

[22:53] so once you know the whole method and

[22:55] process for making the croissanto it

[22:57] opens you up to being able to make lots

[22:58] of different variations on the classic

[23:00] crescent so i'm going to show you how to

[23:02] do a ham and cheese version and a pano

[23:04] chocolate or chocolate croissant version

[23:06] and we're using the exact same dough the

[23:09] slab is rolled into slightly different

[23:10] dimensions and i'm going to show you how

[23:11] to cut and form them and then they proof

[23:13] the same way the croissants proof so

[23:16] these are called that tong or batone

[23:19] these are designed especially for

[23:21] pena chocolat so i've special ordered

[23:23] these these are really not something you

[23:24] can typically find in any kind of

[23:26] grocery store or even a specialty food

[23:27] store if you don't want to order them

[23:29] you can go ahead and use bar chocolate

[23:30] that we can cut into similar sized bars

[23:34] these bars

[23:35] broke when i was carrying them here

[23:37] but that's okay

[23:38] and i'm just going to slice crosswise

[23:40] and i think it actually is easier if you

[23:42] sort of score it

[23:46] all right so the scoring and breaking

[23:49] method to me you get less breakage that

[23:51] way because obviously chocolate is

[23:52] brittle and it's going to want to break

[23:53] up into different pieces these are

[23:55] slightly smaller so we're going to cut

[23:57] 10 rather than eight this is

[24:01] the dimensions that i want

[24:05] i'm gonna mark three inch widths

[24:15] okay that was weirdly hard but i got it

[24:17] i'll lengthen it a little bit

[24:20] place it about between a half

[24:23] and one inch in from one of the short

[24:25] ends

[24:26] then we are going to wrap the dough

[24:28] around

[24:29] the stick of chocolate and then right

[24:31] where you have this seam you're going to

[24:33] nestle in another stick of chocolate and

[24:35] keep rolling make sure that chocolate is

[24:38] fully inside the dough

[24:39] and then

[24:41] look at how cute that is

[24:54] i'm just going to set up another slab

[24:55] exact same way and show you how to roll

[24:57] in the ham and cheese you could really

[24:59] use any kind of thinly sliced ham from

[25:01] any grocery store in like the deli aisle

[25:03] already packaged that's totally fine

[25:05] this is an emmental you could use swiss

[25:07] cheese you could use gruyere

[25:09] perfect i want to make sure that i'm

[25:11] using something around a half an ounce

[25:15] wow i'm kind of nailing it with these

[25:16] quantities and then leave a little bit

[25:18] of a border along the short end so you

[25:21] can kind of get the spiral going and

[25:22] then

[25:24] just fold

[25:25] they're a little bit like chubbier than

[25:28] the

[25:28] kind of chocolate there you go

[25:42] [Music]

[25:44] so there's all sorts of things you can

[25:45] do with steel croissants to revive them

[25:47] and bring them back and one of my

[25:49] favorite things to do is make all my

[25:50] croissants it's like

[25:52] incredible so they come together pretty

[25:54] fast i'm gonna toast it so usually a

[25:56] frangipane doesn't call for this step

[25:58] but i think it adds a lot of flavor

[26:00] you're not having to make it light and

[26:02] fluffy like you would if you were making

[26:03] a cake that's just not necessary we want

[26:05] it well blended

[26:14] it gets that really

[26:16] intense almondy flavor from extract that

[26:19] really almost um

[26:23] i don't know how to describe it

[26:28] [Music]

[26:31] i'm going to make my rum simple syrup

[26:35] simple syrup is just equal parts

[26:37] water and sugar

[26:40] take it off the heat

[26:42] i'm going to add two tablespoons of dark

[26:45] rum and then i have eight

[26:47] really old i baked these a couple days

[26:49] ago croissants they're kind of sad these

[26:53] this batch i overproof so you can see

[26:54] they're really flat i'm cutting them in

[26:56] half like i was gonna make a sandwich

[26:58] the first thing we're going to do is

[27:00] soak the cut sides

[27:02] of all the halves with the syrup when

[27:05] products like this stale they're losing

[27:06] a lot of the moisture so we are

[27:08] replacing some of that moisture that has

[27:09] been lost

[27:11] and i'm going to take half of this

[27:13] mixture and divide it evenly

[27:16] among

[27:17] the eight bottom halves of the

[27:19] croissants spread the frying pan

[27:22] across the entire surface all the way to

[27:23] the edges

[27:25] the lids go back on top

[27:29] like that yeah the second half of the

[27:31] franja pen

[27:33] goes across the tops

[27:36] you can see this is why i didn't

[27:37] assemble on the baking sheets because i

[27:38] have crazy

[27:39] crumbs and everything and those crumbs

[27:41] would burn

[27:48] [Music]

[27:54] oh god okay

[27:57] i love these

[28:01] [Music]

[28:08] i feel like a baking fairy godmother

[28:10] here to say that like you can do this at

[28:12] home

[28:14] i've never made so many croissants in a

[28:17] 24-hour period

[28:18] as i have here

[28:20] feeling very good about all this so here

[28:22] is my ham and cheese

[28:26] i don't know i don't really use this

[28:28] word but these are kind of transcendent

[28:30] truly

[28:32] i don't know it's hard to even describe

[28:33] like so good

[28:36] this looks like it could come from

[28:37] bakery

[28:38] silky is like to me the word that comes

[28:40] to mind just so good

[28:41] it looks like kind of a meager amount of

[28:43] chocolate but the chocolate is a very

[28:45] very strong flavor so i don't think that

[28:47] it actually ends up being too little

[28:48] chocolate

[28:52] maybe this one's my favorite now i don't

[28:53] know

[28:58] if there is anything

[28:59] that comes close to a freshly baked

[29:01] croissant it's a twice-baked croissant

[29:03] it's amazing to take something which is

[29:06] already so delicious the plain all

[29:09] butter croissant

[29:10] and then to be able to transform it into

[29:13] pastries of this variety

[29:15] where like one is more delicious and the

[29:16] next is incredible it's something you

[29:18] can do and try to perfect for the rest

[29:19] of your life and along the way you're

[29:21] gonna eat like a million delicious

[29:23] croissants and that sounds like an

[29:24] awesome project i just think i'm like i

[29:27] don't know i keep like looking down and

[29:28] get like a little getting a little lost

[29:29] in my thoughts because this is still

[29:31] overwhelming um this swirl is

[29:33] hypnotizing i'm enthralled i hopefully

[29:36] if you try these at home you're also

[29:38] enthralled by the process which is to me

[29:40] nothing short of a miracle

[29:41] baking is a miracle oh my god i need to

[29:44] sit down and drink this coffee

[29:55] you