I tried again this week to make pitas and failed again. They didn’t puff at all. I cannot seem to get my pitas to form pockets, no matter what I do or what recipe I use.  This time, though, they were thick enough that I could cut pockets into them without just poking holes through them.  (Maybe that’s the problem?  Maybe I didn’t get them thin enough this time? I’ve had them puff before, but they only puffed in parts, with “pinched” places in between so that the resulting pockets weren’t usable.)

Another type of bread that I have tried in the past, though, is croissants.  They worked – and were actually surprisingly easy.  There is some rolling involved, so they’re moderately time-consuming – but even that is not nearly as bad as you might think.  It takes a long time, but not a lot of hands-on time, so it’s fairly similar to making regular bread.  (And the hands-on time is not much more than that, really.)

Because croissants are known for their high butter content, I’m going to link this recipe up for the October Fest Carnival of Super Foods at Kitchen Stewardship.  This post (the one you’re reading) only includes the recipe itself (for easy printing).  This older post includes pictures.

Croissants

Dough
4-1/2 c. freshly-ground whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp. instant yeast
1-1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. honey
1-2/3 c. whole milk, cold
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
Butter Square
24 Tbsp. (3 sticks) butter, kept cold
2 Tbsp. flour
Egg Wash
1 egg, beaten

Mix all dough ingredients to form a soft dough. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour. Meanwhile, make the butter square. Unwrap three sticks of butter and cut each one into eighths. Sprinkle the flour over top and begin kneading these together to form one relatively smooth ball. Lay out a piece of plastic wrap, plop the butter-flour ball on top, and pat and squish into a 7-inch square. Wrap up well and refrigerate until the dough is ready.

When dough has chilled, roll it out on a well-floured surface to a an 11-inch square. Put the butter square diagonally on the dough, so you have a butter diamond on a dough square. Fold the corners of the dough in to cover the butter and meet. Pinch the edges together. Roll this out from the center to form a 14-inch square. Fold into thirds to form a long, narrow rectangle. Then fold into thirds again the other direction to form a small square. Each of these “into-thirds” folds is called a turn; you have now turned the dough twice. Wrap and refrigerate again for 2 hours.

Repeat the rolling and folding again so you have a total of four turns, including the earlier ones. Then roll the dough out into a 20-inch square. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough in half. You should now have two long rectangles. Cut each of these into thirds, then cut each of those thirds diagonally to form two triangles each. Roll each triangle up from the wide end to the narrow end. Place on a parchment-lined, rimmed baking sheet, curving the ends to shape. Brush with the egg wash and allow to rise for 30-40 minutes. (They don’t rise much.)

Bake at 400 degrees for about 18 minutes.

Variations:

For chocolate or raspberry croissants, place a scant tablespoon of filling on each croissant before rolling up.

This post has also been submitted to this week’s Make-it-from-Scratch Carnival.