Croissant Day: Easy Croissant Recipe

January 30 is Croissant Day. It is believed that the first croissant dates back to the late seventeenth century. It was a time when Austria was under siege by the Turkish Empire. Despite several attempts, the Turks were unable to get into Vienna. They decided to dig an underground tunnel to enter the city. What they hadn’t accounted for was the bakers of Vienna, who used to work underground. On hearing the digging, the bakers cautioned the army, which finally forced the Turkish Army to retreat.

In celebration of this victory, people baked bread in the shape of a crescent moon, which symbolized the Turkish flag.

Croissant Recipe

Here’s an easy recipe for making croissants. The recipe is for 24 croissants.

Ingredients
Milk: 1 cup warm + 3/4 cup room temperature
Granulated sugar: 1 teaspoon + 1/4 cup
Yeast: 1 tablespoon
Flour: 1 cup + 4 cups
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Egg: 1 well beaten + 1 beaten with cold water
Butter: 1/2 cup melted + 1 cup cold

Steps
Add 1 teaspoon sugar to the warm milk and stir well.
Add yeast to this and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Stir.
Add 1 cup flour and beat the mixture well.
Add cold milk, salt, rest of the sugar and egg.
Beat the mixture until it is smooth.
Add melted butter.
Beat well and set aside.

Take a large bowl and put 4 cups of flour.
Take the cold butter and make small pieces of it (the size of beans) and add to the flour.
Pour the liquid batter into the flour mixture.
Stir well.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours (for the best results leave overnight).

Press the mixture into a compact ball.
Divide the ball into 4 parts.
Roll each into circles of 12″ or 16″.
Cut each circle like a pizza – into 6 wedges.
Roll each wedge towards the point.
Make the shape of a crescent.
Place them on a baking sheet (ungreased).
Let it rise at room temperature until the size has doubled (this may take a couple of hours).
Brush each price with the egg that had been beaten with cold water.
Preheat oven to 400F.
Lower temperature to 350F.
Place them in the oven.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (until golden).

Croissant Ideas

You can stuff the croissant with anything. The most popular is the butter croissant. Other favorites are cheese, chocolate, blueberry sauce, potato, ham, chicken and tuna. However, you can add just about anything to you fancy. So, go right ahead and celebrate Croissant Day with your favorite stuffing!