Croissants - Butter and Chocolate

Laminated dough recipes are lengthy! That is important to remember as you start on this recipe. The first time I made a laminated dough was when I was in 6th grade. I made a puff pastry, under the watchful guidance of my mom who walked me through what each step meant. And the main thing I remember about that was that it took us the entire day to make it. So, I'd not been tempted to make such a pastry again till a few weeks ago.

I came across a video in which they showed a bakery processing dough and laminating it and then finally adding a layer of chocolate dough and baking beautiful chocolate filled croissants. That was motivation enough for me to attempt the croissants. The main difference between croissant dough and puff pastry is that the former is a yeasted dough. You still need a lot of butter, refrigeration between steps and a lot of patience. Now that I am older (and hopefully wiser) I had enough patience to spend a day and half in preparing these. The end result was fantastic! Beautiful lamination, very buttery and flaky!

I used the King Arthur Flour recipe and made modifications as I tried to attempt the beautiful technique I had seen in the video of making the chocolate croissants. I weighed out most of the ingredients and for some noted the volume measurements too which I have noted below in the recipe.  I used only half the dough (the rest is in the freezer) and was able to shape 18 medium sized croissants out of these.

Watch the video to visualize the key steps which has the key techniques and tips that go along with the method described below.

Ingredients
2 Eggs
Water, room temperature (read method for quantity)
660 gms + 1 cup all purpose flour (this is about 7 cups of flour in total)
2 1/4 tsp yeast
32 tbsp (4 sticks)  unsalted butter
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2.5 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tsp of cocoa powder
2-3 tsp water

Method

For the sponge
In a measuring cup which can hold 2 cups of water, add the two eggs. Then add enough water, so that the mixture measures a total of 2 cups. You will need about 1 and 3/4 cups of water for this.  In a bowl of a stand mixer, mix together 1 tbsp sugar, 360 gms of all purpose flour and the yeast. And then add the water and egg mixture to this and mix well to create a sticky dough. Cover it and let it rest while you get the butter ready.

For the butter slab
Cut out the 2 tbsp of butter from the 1 of the sticks of butter, so that you have 30 tbsp butter. The butter should be at room temperature so that it is malleable. Mix together 60gm (1/2 cup) of all purpose flour with the butter. The easiest method is to use a stand mixer and use a paddle attachment to mix it till you cannot see the flour. Or you can cut the flour into the butter with a fork and then use a spatula to mix it together. Do not whisk it! Then place it on a plastic sheet and then shape it into a 8 inch square.  Cover it well and place in the fridge till you work on the dough.

For the dough
Switch out the paddle with a dough hook on your stand mixer and in the same stand mixer bowl which has your sponge, add 2 tbsp of softened or melted butter. I added butter which was very soft and was easily mixed in. In a separate bowl, mix together 3 tbsp sugar, 300 gm of flour, dry milk  and salt. Use a whisk to mix these thoroughly and then add the flour mix to the sponge and knead till a dough forms. Add the vanilla. Knead it for 5 minutes and if it is still sticky add more flour till the dough is no longer sticky but still soft. I used about 1/2 cup of flour for this. Once the dough is ready, place it onto a plastic wrap sheet and using your palms and fingers push it out into a 9 inch square. Don't worry if your corners are rounded. Cover it and place it in the fridge to rest for 30 mins. This is to relax the gluten before we start the lamination.

For the final chocolate dough layer, separate out about 1/4 cup (a fistful) of dough and mix in 2-3 tsp of cocoa powder into the dough. Add a couple of tsps of water as needed to make sure that the dough consistency remains the same. Refrigerate this till we are ready to start rolling out the croissants.

Lamination
Remove the butter after about 15 mins of refrigerating the dough. If you have been doing other tasks while getting these components ready, make sure that the butter is not so solid that it will be very hard compared to the dough. The idea is to have the two be of the similar stiffness so that when the dough is rolled out with the butter sandwiched, the butter will spread evenly.  My butter was a little harder and I had to let it rest for a bit as I tried to roll it out,  and the edges did not have a lot of butter, but after 4 folds, there was no impact to the lamination.  If the butter is too soft  in comparison to the dough, it will start to spill out. In that case, place it back in the fridge for 10-15 mins.

Turn 1
Roll out the 9 inch square dough into a 12 inch square. Place the slab of 9 inch square dough on the rolling surface which is well floured. Then, place the slab of butter at a 45 degree angle (so it looks like a diamond) and place it on  the dough square. Now, there will be 4 triangular corners of the dough which can be seen. Now, bring each triangle of dough into the center of the butter and join all four corners to completely package the butter inside the dough. Use a little water if needed to seal the edges and pinch them so that they are well sealed.  Now, flour the rolling surface well, flip over the package and then gently roll out the dough into a rectangle which is 20x10 inches, ensuring that the butter is getting spread.  Flour the surface by picking up the dough as you roll it so that it does not stick to the surface and rip. Once the dough is rolled out into the desired size, bring 1/3rd of the dough and cover the center 1/3rd of the dough with it. Then fold the remaining 3rd onto the center to create a package. This will look similar to how a business letter is folded and is called a letter fold. Use some water to seal the edges so that the folds do not slip while rolling the dough. If the dough and butter have softened too much, refrigerate for 15 mins.

Turn 2
Now, turn this by 90 degrees and roll it out again into a 20x10 inch rectangle, rolling out the longer side to 20 inches and shorter one to 10 inches. Then do a letter fold again. This completes the second fold.

Turns 3 and 4
Now repeat steps 2 and 3 to complete a total of 4 turns. Refrigerate in between these steps, as needed.

Once 4 turns are completed cover loosely with plastic and refrigerate. Now refrigerate this for a few hours. I refrigerated it for 4 hours. The dough had started rising and created a dome in the center. Now, cut the dough into two equal halves. You can freeze haf for later use or refrigerate remaining half of the dough while you work on the first half, so that the butter does not melt.

Now, roll out the chocolate dough, which we had kept aside, to a thin sheet which is about 3-4 mm in thickness. Place it on as the final layer and make sure it adheres to the surface and then refrigerate if needed.

Now flour the rolling surface well and roll this out into a 12 inch by 18 inch rectangle. Trim the ends that are not open and are fold ends along the edges, so that the layers are revealed from all sides of the dough. The folded edges can impact the rise.  Then cut it into 3 equal halves width wise to create strips that are about 4 inch by 18 inches.  Then cut these strips into approximately 3 equal pieces to create a total of 9 rectangles. Now, you can cut each rectangle along the diagonal to make triangular pieces which can then be rolled into crescent shaped traditional croissants. Or you can cut them into smaller rectangles (length wise or width wise) and then shape into log shaped rectangular croissants.

About 1/2 of my dough had was laminated with a top chocolate layer and I used those pieces to make the log shaped chocolate croissants. The rest which had just a little bit of chocolate or no chocolate layer, I rolled into crescent croissants.

Shaping the croissants

For rectangular filled croissants, stretch out the dough a little (use a rolling pin to lightly roll it into a wider and longer piece, but not too thin) place chocolate chips in the center, along the width (shorter length) and then roll the dough similar to a letter fold and then score just the top chocolate layer with a knife to reveal the dough underneath. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet for final proofing.

For crescent shaped croissants, stretch out the dough a little (use a rolling pin to lightly roll it into a wider and longer piece, but not too thin). Now make  3/4th inch long slit  in the center of the shortest base of the triangle. Then start rolling the croissant from the base to the tip, till completely rolled. Pull on the two ends, to shape into a crescent and place on a parchment lined baking sheet for final proofing.

Let this prove at room temperature and rise and get puffy for at least an hour to upto 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 400F. Bake this for 7 mins at 400F and then reduce the temperature and bake it for 5-10 mins at 350F till a deep brown.

Let the rest for 10 mins before serving warm!

These are delicious and flaky and perfect!!

Tips
If using salted butter, reduce the quantity of salt in the recipe to 1.5 tsp.  I was only going to laminate 1/4th of the total dough with chocolate dough covering, and that is why I only separated out 1/2th cup or a fistful of dough.
I followed the steps of refrigerating the butter and then the dough and when I did the first fold, the butter was too hard. So, make sure that the butter and dough have a similar stiffness when you fold the butter in. For that you must bring out the butter at least 15 mins before you get the dough out. Dust  the rolling surface with flour often and liberally to ensure that the dough does not  stick to the surface. Dust off excess dough gently using a brush before folding.
Keep an eye on the croissants while baking to make sure they don't burn.

Paneer Chingari and How to Add Smoky Flavor to a curry

We visited India last summer and explored the foods at the restaurants that we used to frequent while growing up. I was lucky to find that all the restaurants were still around and we soon got down to eating the food that was deeply embedded in our memories.

Finally, after sampling everything we had craved over the many years, we decided to try something new.  At one of the restaurants we asked the restaurant manager to recommend something that we should definitely try out, a speciality of their restaurant. He recommended "Paneer Chingari". Paneer is fresh cheese and "chingari" means spark. The combination of these words was intriguing and we ordered this along with naan and dal fry.  It was a most delicious meal!! The paneer was cooked with a variety of vegetables in a rich and extremely flavorful gravy. And to top it all it had a smoked aroma which added the "chingari" touch to it. I made several notes after we came home as I just had to recreate this dish.

I was able to reverse engineer the recipe and it was just lip smacking good. Extremely flavorful, colorful because of the variety of vegetables used which are not overcooked and the smokiness from the charcoal takes this to another level. The recipe has a few steps, and it is important to follow these to obtain the right flavor and texture. Don't be tempted to take a shortcut, stick it in the pressure cooker and just cook it all together, that will bring it down to a common place gravy. Follow the recipe and you will love the end result.

The recipe here makes a large quantity and will easily feed a party of 8-12 people with enough for everyone to take seconds. Or you can do what I do, cook it once, and freeze it to enjoy over multiple meals. You can reduce the quantities by half or more if you want to make a small amount.

Also, I have used minimal oil and ghee to make this recipe. You can increase these per your taste.

Here is a detailed video of how to make this recipe.

Ingredients
For the gravy
3 tbsp oil/ghee
3 cups finely diced onions
8 whole peppercorns
4 cloves
2 black cardamom
2 inch cinnamon stick

3 green cardamom, peeled- seeds only
3 bay leaves/ tej patta
7 large cloves of garlic or 1 tbsp garlic paste
2 inch long ginger or 1 tbsp ginger paste
1.5 cups of tomato puree (3 tomatoes)
15  cashew nuts OR pumpkin seeds (pumpkin seeds for nut free version)
1 tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek/methi leaves)

Spice/Masala paste for the gravy

1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp cumin powder/jeera powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder/ dhania powder
1 tsp Kitchen King masala
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (can reduce or increase this amount, to taste). For a spicy gravy, add regular chilli powder
1-2 tbsp water to make a paste

For the vegetables and paneer
100 gm paneer cut into cubes
1 tsp ghee

1 cup green beans, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup peas
1 cup cauliflower, floret separated
2 bell peppers OR 5 mini bell peppers
1 1/2 cup onion cut (3/4 onion)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

1 tsp Kitchen King masala

Method
To make the gravy
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp kitchen king masala and 1/2 tsp each of cumin and coriander powders. Add 1-2 tbsp of water and make a smooth paste. Soak the cashews or pumpkin seeds in some water. Keep aside.

In a large pot/pan which can hold all the ingredients, heat up 2 tbsp of oil and add the 3 cups of finely diced onions. Cook onions till pink and starting to brown and then add the whole spices as follows. Add the peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon sticks, green cardamom seeds and the whole black cardamom. Then cook till mixture till the onion is well browned.  After this mixture cools down a bit, peel the black cardamoms and add the seeds back into the onions, throw away the peels.

Put the onion and spices mixture in a blender jar and to it add the soaked cashew nuts or pumpkin seeds, the garlic cloves, ginger and some water and  make a fine paste. 

Add 2 tsp oil or ghee to the same pan you roasted the onions in. Add the bay leaves, cook for a minute till fragrant and then add the onion paste and cook for some time. Then, add the puréed tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are well cooked. This will take some time to cook the tomatoes down. Finally, add the masala paste which had been made in the first step and stir well. Cook this for a few minutes till the spices are well cooked. The gravy is ready.

Preparing the vegetables and paneer

Dice the paneer into small pieces and pan fry these in 1 tsp of ghee.  Remove and keep aside. Now, in the same pan, add the beans, carrots and cook them for a bit. Next add the cauliflower and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Finally add the peas. If you are using any frozen vegetables, then add them later on as they cook faster than fresh vegetables. The vegetables must still retain a bite and their color. Don't overcook them. Now add  half tsp of each of the spice powders -- the garam masala, kitchen king masala, Kashmiri chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Stir in these masalas into the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Remove these onto a plate and keep aside.  

Then in the same pan add and add 1 tsp of oil and then add in the diced onions and bell peppers. Cook till they start to brown a little.  Now, add back the paneer, and the cooked vegetables cook this together for a couple of minutes.  This is now ready to be added to the gravy.

You can prepare the vegetables in parallel while you are working on the gravy as shown in the video.

Putting it together

Add water to the cooked gravy to adjust the consistency to your liking.  It should not be watery though.   Then add the prepared vegetables and paneer mixture and mix this into the gravy. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Let it come to a boil. To add the smokiness, heat a piece/briquette of coal till it is very hot. Place a small steel bowl in the center and balance it  on the gravy.  Then using tongs, place the charcoal into the bowl and add a tsp of ghee onto the charcoal. This will immediately create a lot of smoke. Place a lit on the pot and let it remain closed for 10-15 minutes to retain the smoke and infuse it into the gravy.  Then remove this bowl from the gravy.

For the final finishing touch , crush 1 tbsp of kasuri methi between your palms and add it to the curry and mix it in. 

Serve hot with some naan or roti or rice. Or make it part of your elaborate thali meal as pictured below. Here it is served with naan, jeera rice, dal fry and boondi raita with a side salad.

Tips

See the video for details on how to heat the charcoal if you have a ceramic top or a heating coil stove top.  To do this heat an iron pan till it is very hot and then place the charcoal and let it heat up till you can see the embers. Then it is ready to be placed into the bowl. Don't overcook the vegetables.