Make bakery-quality croissants at home using plain flour

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl, except for the butter.
2. DDT for the dough is 24-26 C. If your kitchen is cold, your water temperature needs to be heated (ie. 40C) in order to reach the DDT. If your water temp is 40C, do not add the yeast directly to the water.
3. If the initial dough temperature is very cold, the initial proofing time will be very long.
4. Add the soft butter when a shaggy mess forms after the dough ingredients are combined.
5. The surface of the dough won’t tear when you touch the sides under.
6. Check the dough temperature with a thermometer.
7. Make the butter slab. Draw a 20cm x 18cm rectangle. Roll the butter into the rectangle. You can also use a zip lock bag to roll with butter. This can be made days in advance.
8. The dough should trip in size. Degas and fold into a rectangle. This will give more strength to the dough.
9. Place the dough in the fridge to proof again overnight. The slow fermentation not only allows the gluten to fully develop but also gives a nice flavor.
10. Before we laminate, take the butter slab out of the fridge 20 minutes earlier. Roll it a few times until it's malleable. The texture of the butter must be the same as the dough.
11. Once the dough has finished resting overnight, roll it twice as big as the butter slab, keeping it rectangular.
12. Perform a 3-4-3 folding process once the dough is 2x the butter size. Start with placing the butter slab in the middle, trim off 2 pieces of dough and place them on top of the butter. All sides of the dough should flush with butter like a perfect sandwich. That’s why you should keep your butter and dough rectangular at all times. Try to match the flaps. This prevents gaps of flour from not having any butter!
13. Use bench flour to start rolling. Tap the dough first before rolling with the rolling pin. This helps the butter distribute more evenly.
14. Roll out the dough to about 60 cm lengthwise. We will be working in the landscape position (ie. the Short side is up-down, the long side is left-right).
15. First fold (double turn). Bring 1/3 of the dough in to meet the center from one side. From the other side, bring 2/3 of the dough in the center so both sides meet in the middle. Flatten out the dough and with a rolling pin and then close it in half right at the middle like a book.
16. Cut open the corners to release pressure (from the yeast).
17. We just stretch the dough in one direction (ie length-wise), now we stretch it in the opposite direction by recreating a 60cm rectangle (ie height-wise). If you keep rolling the dough in the same direction, it will tear and resist. From the opposite direction, roll out the dough to 60cm again.
18. Second fold (single-turn). Fold in 1/3 of the sides from both directions meeting in the middle. You should get even 1/3 sections. Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for one hour.
19. Take out of the fridge 5 minutes before rolling so the butter is not too hard. If you roll it straight away the butter layers will shatter.
20. Roll the dough to 4mm thick. 50cm x 35cm by rectangle.
21. Trim off all sides to get a straight edge. Next portion 10cm width x 30cm in length triangle (isosceles triangle).
22. Roll the croissant dough upwards from the bottom of the triangle as the base.
23. Brush them with milk before proofing them.
24. Put croissants in a turned-off oven, and place a tray of steaming water under to provide heat and humidity. Be careful! If the temperature is over 27C the butter inside the croissants will melt! Proofing time should be about 2 hours depending on the temperature.
25. When the croissants are ready, they become bigger, the layers visibly separate slightly and wobble nicely.
26. Brush them again with milk before baking, you can also use egg wash.
27. Bake at 190 C, fan-forced for 20 minutes.
28. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool. Make sure they cool completely before slicing.