Le Croissant

Recipe:

Ingredients:
625g strong bread flour, 12g salt, 75g sugar, 20g dried yeast, water for mixing, 500g butter chilled, 1 egg beaten

Instructions:
- Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl using a wooden spoon, slowly adding a little water until the mixture forms into a pliable dough.
- Place the dough on a floured surface and knead well
- Put the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover and put in the fridge for 1 hour
- Take the dough after one hour onto a floured surface and roll it into a rectangular shape, around 60cm by 30cm
- Roll out the chilled butter into a rectangle about 1cm thick, around 20cm by 30cm. Place the butter rectangle in the centre of the dough rectangle, so it covers roughly two thirds of the dough
- Fold the remaining dough third over the butter layer, so that the dough is now in 3 layers
- Return the dough to the refrigerator to chill for a further hour
- Scatter some more flour over your table and roll out the dough to a rectangular shape, around 60cm by 30 cm
- Repeat the folding process, then return the dough to the fridge for another hour. Repeat this process of folding and chilling twice more and then wrap the dough in cling film and leave it to rest overnight
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the rested dough to 3mm thickness.
- Cut the rolled out dough into squares of 20cm by 20cm.
- Cut each square diagonally, making 2 triangles from each dough square.
- Place the dough triangles on a lightly floured surface with the narrow point facing away from you. Roll each dough triangle up over itself and curl the dough roll around into a crescent shape.
- Place the shaped croissants on baking trays lined with baking parchment and leave to rise for 1 hour, 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.
- Lightly egg-wash the croissants and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Region details:
Crescent-shape bread has been made since the Middle Ages but modern croissant dates to 19th Century Paris. There are many different stories about the origins of the croissant but the most common and well-known one is the Battle of Vienna. Bakers in Vienna, Austria created the "kipfel" which is the German word for crescent. The kipfel was then adapted into France and was called the croissant. Café culture in England and worldwide expanded in the 20th Century and croissants became available not only in specialist cafés but stocked in supermarkets.