Challenge #2: The Classics! The Best of French Pastry

 For me there could be nothing more challenging like croissants, Puff pastry, Pate a choux, and Macron . Actually I have already tried Puff pastry and Pate a Choux, so there left only Croissants and Macron. This time I choose Croissant because they are all time Favourite not only for breakfast every one love them having in lunch as croissant sandwiches and in dinners too along  French onion soup.
They are really challenging for me because I am Pakistani and French cuisine was totally unknown to me since two years before. My knowledge to Pastry was not enough pastry means to me just a piece of cake in past. As we moved to Libya my interest in baking and pastry became my passion. I started reading about baking and how it works. Now I think I can give them try lets see.  
A croissant is a buttery flaky bread or pastry, named for its distinctive crescent shape. It is also sometimes called a crescent or crescent roll. Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry. The yeast dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, a technique called laminating.
Crescent-shaped breads have been made since the Middle Ages,  possibly since classical times.
Croissants have long been a staple of French bakeries and patisserie. here is a list of french pastries by wikipedia.
This innovation, along with the croissant's versatility and distinctive shape, has made it the best-known type of French pastry in much of the world.

History

The word croissant means crescent in English. This delicious breakfast treat was invented about three hundred years ago, not in France, but in Austria by French chef . The armies of the Ottoman Empire (whose symbol was a crescent) were attacking Austria.
In a hard fought battle, the Austrian armies defeated the forces of the Ottoman Empire. To celebrate, the French chef employed by the Emperor of Austria decided to make a pastry in the shape of a crescent. When this was eaten, it would become a symbol of the way in which the Austrian forces had consumed their enemies.

On his eventual return to France, the chef introduced the pastry to the French who immediately made it very popular.

CROISSANTS ARE MADE FROM LAMINATED DOUGH:

Croissant, Danish and puff pastry are all made from laminated (layered) dough. That is encasing butter in dough, and taking it through a series of folds, rolling and turns to produce layers of butter in between sheets of dough.
The leavening in laminated doughs is derived mainly from the steam generated by the moisture in the butter during baking. The laminated fat acts as a barrier to trap the water vapor and carbon dioxide formed during baking. As the steam expands in the oven it lifts and separates the individual layers. While croissant and Danish dough do contain a small amount of yeast to aid in leavening, puff pastry relies solely on steam and requires a higher percentage of butter and a more elaborate folding process that creates nearly 800 layers.
There seems to be two ways of making croissants:

The first one is to make a dough (détrempe) and leave it in the fridge overnight. The next day, you incorporate the butter do the turns.

The second one, advice you to make the dough, let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so then incorporate the butter, doing the turns.  you can leave the dough in the fridge between 2 hours or overnight.
The first method would produce a slightly more flavorful dough since the detrempe is given the chance to slowly rise overnight. Also, the long rest would ease gluten formation or relax the dough. Chilling does the same. The less the yeast and the longer the rise is always better with yeast breads in developing flavor.

For the second method, I let the dough rest about an hour and a half and then proceed with the butter. Obviously the second method is faster, but you'd still have to rest both dough overnight before forming. 
You can combine the two techniques. Make the dough, add the butter and do the first turn. Then let it rest overnight well-wrapped in the refrigerator and do the next turns the following day. It usually wasn't until the third day that you can divide the dough, and roll croissants.
Laminating is accomplished in croissant and Danish dough by encasing a 3/4" x 12" x 14" block of butter in dough creating 3 layers, 2 of dough and 1 of butter. This is then rolled out and folded several times creating a total of 81 alternating layers of butter and dough. The key to success in this process is maintaining the integrity of each layer. If the lamination is successful and the layers are maintained the product will be light and flaky.
There are other factors that affect the success of the lamination. The dough must have a well-developed gluten structure to be able to support the expansion in the oven. The fat must be rolled evenly in continuous layers. To accomplish this the butter must be in a "plastic" state when laminating. That is, able to be rolled out easily without breaking into pieces (not too cold) but firm enough that it won't squeeze out of the edges of the dough layers or allow moisture to seep into the dough (not too warm). The butter and dough should be at approximately the same temperature, and the layers of each must remain distinct from each other or the product will resemble brioche more than delicately layered and flaky laminated dough.
Allowing the dough to rest between turns allows the gluten structure to relax, making the dough more extensible and less likely to tear. Puff pastry, lacking yeast and its dough conditioning benefits, is more susceptible to tears and shrinkage during baking. Since it is also laminated to a further degree, the rests between turns are even more critical to ensure extensibility. If any of these doughs are overworked without being allowed to rest, the gluten structure will tear, the dough will become tough and the finished product won't have the desired volume or texture.
Classic French Croissant 

1  table spoon yeast

4  cups unbleached flour

¼  cup white or packed brown sugar

3 table spoon butter

1 teaspoons salt

1 cup milk or more

300 g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons flour for dusting

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence                                                         

Place the yeast, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt,melted butter and the milk and mix for 2 minutes until forms a soft moist dough. If most of the flour isn''t moistened, add more, a tablespoon at a time until it is moistened and smooth, using up to 4 tablespoons. knead for 10 to 8 minute.

Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured board, cover with a damp tea towel and allow it to rest for 15 minutes to relax the gluten. Remove the towel and, using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10 by 9inch rectangle. Wrap in plastic then cill to two hours or overnight (I prefer two hours).

Ten minutes before the dough is done resting in the refrigerator, prepare the butter. Beat it with your rolling pin on a floured surface to soften it and form a rectangle 6 by 8 inches. Place it between parchment paper or plastic wrap and set aside.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it on a floured work surface into a 10 by 15-inch and 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Brush any excess flour off the dough. Place the dough horizontal  in front of your body on the work surface. Place the butter in the middle, long-ways. Fold the right up over the butter and brush off any excess flour and then fold the left  over the butter to overlap and encase the butter. Press down lightly with the rolling pin to push all the layers together and make sure they have contact.

Continue rolling the laminated (layered) dough to form a long rectangle, patching any holes with a dusting of flour where butter may have popped through. Fold into thirds, like a letter, brush off any excess flour and mark it with an indentation made by poking your finger once at the corner of the dough meaning you have completed the first "turn".

Pic left to right long rectangle after encasing the butter to first turn

Wrap well in plastic and chill 1 hour . Do this again three more times marking it accordingly each time and chilling in between each turn.

After the fourth turn, you can let the dough chill overnight.Cut the dough in to two pieces like this

cut the dough in to two

Layering of butter and dough

 Roll each piece out  a little less than 1/4-inch thick and cut out your croissants and shape them.

I roll out my dough and cut it with a pizza cutter wheel into 8-inch strips then cut them into triangles, 6 inches wide at the base of the triangle.Stretch these triangles again 9 inches long, then give a small cut at base of triangle.

cut triangle with a cut on base

Roll the triangles up towards by stretching you starting at the wide end and place them 2 inches apart on a parchment lined sheet pan with the tip tucked under and the ends slightly curved in to make a crescent shape. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk and brush the croissants with this egg wash.

cut helps to stretching

shape the croissant

Line into try 

To proof the croissants, place them in an oven that is warm but not turned on, with a pan of hot water in the bottom to create a moist environment like a proof box. Set aside to proof for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours until puffed up and spongy to the touch. Remove from the oven.

Spritz a preheated 425 degree F oven with water, close the door, and get the croissants. Place the croissants in the oven and spritz again, close the door and turn the oven down to 400 degrees F. After 10 minutes, rotate your pan if they are cooking unevenly and turn the oven down to 375 degrees F. Bake another 5 to 8 minutes until golden brown. 

    Some other classics from my blog

Croquembouche

Tiramisu

Buche de Noel

Cheese Cake

Lasagna

Quiche

Puff Pastry

Palmier