Breakfast Pastries: Croissant Dough Shaping and Baking

This is the second part of making the straight dough croissants. When we let it rest in the refrigerator overnight the dough still fermented and gave the appearance of raising, just like bread dough does. This post will cover how to roll out and shape a traditional hand cut croissant and pain au chocolat. A thing to note is that these are the only two traditional flavours of croissant. Other things can be added to the croissant, but the traditional French flavours that get baked are these two.



When the dough in taken out from refrigeration it should look larger and more airy because of the fermentation. On a very lightly floured surface press into the dough with a rolling pin, this will gently work the dough without letting out too much gas. When it looks managable, start to roll out the dough. You want to get the dough to be a little over 12" wide and 1/8" thick; this is assuming that we are producing a pan of traditional croissants and a pan of pan au chocolat. Make sure that you keep the dough floured but dust sparingly so that the dough has something to grab on to while you are rolling it out.

To cut the traditional croissant you can either use a chefs knife or a croissant cutter. For either method be sure to cut from the edge so that you are not wasting the dough.

• using the cutter: roll the cutter across the length of your dough. this will give you several triangles to use. Only use the ones that have a perfect complete shape. The size of  the triangle should be 8"x4". You might need to go back with a chefs knife to make sure the cuts are deep enough.

Roll up the croissants. Take a triangle, point facing away from you, in
your left hand. On the inside of the large end there is a slit, fold the dough on either side of the slit up and press in. Stretch the two outside points out with your thumb and pinkey. With your right hand pull the tip away from you while rolling the larger end towards the pointed end. You should end up with a 7 layer horn that you can bend into a crescent shape. Place the croissants on a parchment lined sheet tray spaced evenly, you can fit 15 comfortably on a sheet tray (3x5). Gently egg wash the croissants. Put the sheet pan into proof at 75-80 degrees with at least 80% humidity. You want to let it proof slowly so that the butter doesn't melt, let it proof for an hour to an hour and a half.

For the pain au chocolat you want to cut a long 5" strip from the remaining dough. Use your chefs knife to mark 3" portions; if using chocolate batons (chocolate baking sticks) they are 3" and you can use these to space or measure your pieces. Place one chocolate baton on the far edge of the rectangle and another half way. On the edge closest to you brush a line with egg wash. Roll the croissant towards you. Make sure when you place the croissant on the lined sheet pan that you have the seem directly in the center, press down on the croissant to flatten it slightly and to make sure the seem is in the center. Gently egg wash the croissants. Let the croissants proof at the same temperature and for the same time as the traditional form.

Take the croissants out when done; when you shake the sheet tray the croissants should jiggle.  Egg wash the croissants again before baking. Bake with 2-3 seconds of steam in a convection oven at 385 degrees Fahrenheit.