First post in my new kitchen - crumpets, crumpets and more crumpets!

This is my first post in a few months, largely because I've had no kitchen, which has made cooking and baking rather difficult. I've moved house and now that the building work is finally finished I have a kitchen with an actual working oven!
After so long without being able to do what I love I thought for a while about what I'd like to make and settled on crumpets. They're so easy, yet delicious and very comforting.
I use a Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall recipe which can also be used to make pikelets (flat, pancake shaped crumpets) which are great if you don't have crumpet rings.
Basically you whisk all of the ingredients together and leave them somewhere warm until yeast does it's job and the mixture gets nice and bubbly. Alternatively if you want them for breakfast you can make the mixture the night before and put it in the fridge over night. By morning it will be ready to cook.
If you want to make crumpets heat up a frying pan and place some greased crumpet rings in the pan. Carefully pour a spoonful of mixture into each. If the mixture runs under the rings it is too thin so whisk in a little more flour. They are ready to turn over when bubbles have formed on the top and the batter is pretty much cooked. If bubbles don't form the mixture is too thick so add a little water to the batter before cooking the next one.
To make pikelets whisk in about 50g more flour and simply spoon the batter into a hot pan and cook in the same way you would cook pancakes.
Here is one of the crumpets




And here is a pikelet




Recipes
Crumpets
Hugely satisfying to make. Makes 12.
450g plain white flour
350ml warm milk
350ml warm water (approximately)
5g powdered dried yeast
10g salt
1 tsp baking powder
A little sunflower or vegetable oil
In a bowl, whisk the flour, milk, water and yeast into a rather runny batter the consistency of single cream. Cover with cling-film and leave for an hour until really bubbly (or three to four hours, if need be).
Heat a heavy-based frying pan or flat griddle over a medium-high heat. Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter. Lightly grease the crumpet rings and pan. Put one ring in the pan, fill to just below the top – the batter should stay in the ring and lots of holes should appear on the surface after a minute or two. (If it dribbles out underneath, it is too thin, so whisk a little more flour into your batter mix. If lots of holes don't form, it's too thick, so whisk in some water.) Assuming your test crumpet is OK, after five minutes or so, when the surface is just set, flip it over, ring and all. (If the cooked base seems too dark, turn down the heat.) Cook for two to three minutes, until golden on the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter in batches. Butter and eat at once, or cool on a wire rack for toasting later.
A pikelet variation If you don't have rings, whisk an extra 50g flour into the batter, to stiffen it, dollop spoonfuls into a greased, warmed pan and cook for a couple of minutes a side.

From http://m.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/14/crumpets-muffins-pikelets-farls?cat=lifeandstyle&type=article

Although I love cake...Wholemeal Spelt Loaf

I do try and eat cleanly. I try and make things from scratch, avoid refined/processed food and so on. Don't worry though I'm not completely fanatic about it. If I'm at a friends or out and about I just eat what I'm given. I just try and eat cleanly at home.

As it is that time of year when everyone is trying to compensate for the excesses of Christmas I thought I might blog about some of the healthy food I cook over the next couple of weeks. I know I normally write about baking and sweet things so sorry to anyone who doesn't want to hear about more healthy food!

Still keeping with the baking theme I will start by writing about a recipe for spelt bread. I am suspicious of the stuff in the supermarket that has a list of tons of ingredients and doesn't go off for the beat part of a week, so I make virtually all of my own bread.

This is the easiest bread recipe (well that needs kneading and rising anyway for an even easier one check out this sourdough bread) that I know of. It only has 4 ingredients and one of them is water! It also doesn't mind what flour you use, so pick your favourite. Here I'm using a Dove Farm wholemeal spelt. For anyone who doesn't know spelt is an old wheat flour which has far less gluten in than modern equivalents and therefore is easier to digest. It also has less of an impact on blood sugar levels. Still too much gluten for someone who is coeliac but a good option for someone just avoiding gluten.

If you have a bread maker it's even easier. Simply chuck all of the ingredients in and set it to the dough setting. Once it's risen give it a quick knead and put it into a greased 2 litre loaf tin and leave to rise again in a warm place for about an hour. Bake it in an oven pre-heated to 230C reducing the temperature to 210C as soon as to put it in. It will take about 40 mins to bake.

If you don't have a bread maker place the flour into a mixing bowl, make a well and add the yeast and salt. Pour some of the water into the well gradually incorporating the flour and adding more water as necessary. Once it is all incorporated tip it out onto a floured surface and knead well until it is smooth and silky. Leave in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour. Once it's risen give it a quick knead and put it into a greased 2 litre loaf tin and leave to rise again in a warm place for about an hour. Bake it in an oven pre-heated to 230C reducing the temperature to 210C as soon as to put it in. It will take about 40 mins to bake.





Ingredients

500g flour (if you can use bread flour)
7g dried yeast
1tsp salt
350g water

I'm not sure where I originally got the recipe, possibly from my mum.

Raspberry Loaf Cake

I'm sure my Christmas list must have looked very odd to lots of people. Nearly all of it was food related in some way shape or form. I think it is now bordering on an obsession. Even people at work joke I work to fund my baking habit!

One of the things I asked for was some freeze dried raspberry powder. I have read about using it in macaroons or reconstituting it for drinks, coulis etc but I decided to try it in a cake.

I used a basic sponge recipe and simply added some of the freeze dried raspberry powder to give flavour and colour. Once baked I made some raspberry flavoured icing by adding the powder to icing sugar and enough water to make a pouring consistency. I then used a small sieve to remove any lumps and drizzled it all over the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. I expected the colour to be a light pink colour but it was actually quite dark and almost purpley.

Next time I will whizz up the powder a bit more before using it as some of the pips were still whole. And as much as I don't like food colouring I might put a few drops in to change the colour.

It turns out its a fab way of getting the taste of raspberries without buying out of season.



In the background is a lemon drizzle cake which is one of my all time favourite quick recipes.

Recipe
For the cake:
2 eggs weighed with the shell on
The same weight of self raising flour
The same weight of caster sugar
The same weight of margarine
A splash of milk
3tsp freeze dried raspberry powder

For the icing
Approx 3 tbsp icing sugar
3 tsp freeze dried raspberry powder
A little water

Pre-heat the oven to 190C
Incorporate all of the ingredients for the cake together
Pour into a lined 1 litre loaf tin
Bake for approx 25-30 mins depending on your oven.
Remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool

While it cools sift the icing sugar and raspberry powder into a bowl and slowly stir in enough water to make a dropping consistency.

Once the cake is cool drizzle the icing over the top of the cake allowing it to drip down the sides

Macaroons

From my Mum's birthday cake there were some extra macaroons so I sandwiched them with a chocolate ganache. Half with slivers of crystallised ginger and half with little chunks of marzipan.

As mentioned in my previous post these were from a recipe from @hollybellmummy, which was the most detailed recipe. I would certainly recommend giving it a go!

Chocolate and ginger macaroons






Chocolate and marzipan macaroon

Christmas Eve Pancakes

As I might have mentioned before Mary Berry is a bit of an idol of mine. Her book was my first baking book and is still my first go to point. Christmas eve is my mum's birthday and for the last few years we've had pancakes for breakfast. The deep fluffy kind, Scotch or American rather than thin crepe type pancakes.

One of my favourite recipes is Mary Berry's Scotch Pancakes which we had this morning. I had mine with apple butter, my mum had orange syrup (a simple sugar syrup with fresh orange juice squeezed in) or they're also yummy with maple syrup and berries.





Recipe

175g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g caster sugar
1 egg
200ml milk

Start by putting the flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the middle and add the egg and about half of the milk.

Use an electric whisk to gradually incorporate the dry ingredients. Once mixed together add as much of the rest of the milk as you need to make a thick smooth batter.

Heat a non-stick frying pan up and grease with a little large or flavourless oil. Carefully place 1 heaped desert spoon in the pan and smooth out slightly to form the pancakes.

Once the top starts to set and bubble turn the pancake over to cook the other side. Serve hot with your chosen topping.

If you have any mixture left over save it in the fridge for the next day or make extra pancakes and freeze them.

Recipe from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Bible.

A Trio of Mince Pies

Every year I go Christmas shopping to help one of my oldest friends to buy gifts for his family and we always drop in to see his mum on the way home to have a chat and a drink whilst wrapping the presents up. This year I wanted to take her some mince pies and decided to try a couple of recipes I've wanted to try for a while.

The box I had to put them in was the right size for 6 pies so I decided that 3 different pies would be the perfect number.

I made a normal mince pie with a snowflake top. A mince pie with a frangipane topping based on an alternative Christmas pie by @hollybellmummy and finally a filo and puff pastry number that was on a Jamie Oliver Christmas special a couple of years ago, but I'd never got around to trying.

I started by making some short crust pastry. I sometimes put icing sugar in sweet short crust, which is a recipe I think I originally got from Mary Berry, but for mince pies I always use a basic pastry recipe my mum taught when I was very young, which was probably passed down to her from my nan. Whilst the pastry was resting in the fridge I started on the Jamie Oliver alternative mince pies. On a flours surface. I rolled the puff pastry to a thickness of around 3mm and covered with a layer of mincemeat, lemon and clementine zest and dried cranberries. The original recipe also had chestnuts crumbled over but I didn't have any so did without.



I then rolled the puff pastry into a tight 'Swiss roll' from the wider side



I put two overlapping squares of filo pastry in a greased muffin tin. Jamie just pushes the whole sheet into the holes but I thought it'd be neater to cut squares. I always use a bit of doughy off cut of pastry as a 'pusher' to encourage the pastry into the corners without tearing it with my nails.

I then sliced the puff pastry roll into thick slices and placed one in each filo case.



I finished off by brushing both pastries with melted butter and sprinkling the top with flakes almonds and icing sugar and popped in an oven preheated to 180C for about 30 mins. I found the filo started to go brown long before the puff was cooked so I places a piece of tin foil loosely over the top to prevent burnt edges. When they had cooled I finished them with another sprinkle of icing sugar.

Whilst they were baking I made the frangipane topping by creaming together butter and caster sugar, gradually adding the beaten egg and finally stirring through the almonds to make a shiny paste.

I then rolled out the pastry and lined greased muffin tins. I placed a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each case and topped half with a pastry lid in the shape of a snowflake (brushed with egg or milk for a shiny finish) and half with a spoonful of frangipane topping and three flaked almonds. I then baked them at 190C for about 20 mins.

Here are the three different mince pies cooling on the rack


And boxed up ready to go




Jamie Oliver's Alternative Mince Pies

INGREDIENTS
100g good-quality mincemeat. I used some I had made using a Delia recipe
25g dried cranberries
Zest of 2 clementines and 1 lemon
250g pack of good puff pastry
1 pack filo pastry
50g melted butter
50g flaked almonds
Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/400ºF/gas 6.

2. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a big rectangle about 20x40cm/8x16 inch and 3mm thick. Thinly spread the mincemeat over the pastry, leaving a 1cm/½ inch gap around the edges and sprinkle with the cranberries and zest. Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a Swiss roll.

3. Take two muffin trays (for 12 cupcakes each) and butter each one lightly with the melted butter. Place two squares of filo pastry in each hole ease the pastry into each hole. Brush with the melted butter, then cover with a second layer of filo pastry. Brush with butter again.

Tip: You can freeze the cooked, cooled mince pies in their trays (just wrap the lot in cling film) or in a plastic container. Just reheat them in a hot oven straight from the freezer.

4. Take the puff pastry roll and, with a sharp knife, cut it into 24 slices. Place each slice, flat-side down, into a filo-lined hole. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top of each little pie, then pop both trays in the oven for about 25 minutes, until cooked and golden brown.

5. Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver Christmas Special

Sweet Crust Pastry
8oz flour (self raising if you like thicker fluffier pastry)
4oz butter or margarine
4oz caster sugar
1 egg

Rub the flour and butter together with your fingers until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir in the caster sugar. Add the beaten egg and gradually incorporate it all together being very light of touch until it forms a ball. Tip the ball of pastry into some cling film and rest in the fridge for about 30 mins.

Recipe from my mum

Frangipane topping
50g caster sugar
50g butter
1 egg
50g ground almonds
A few flaked almonds for decoration

Cream the sugar and butter together. Mix in the beaten egg gradually and then stir in the ground almonds.

Adapted from @hollybellmummy's alternative mince pies

Mary Berry's French Apple Tart

Along with my mums guidance I was taught to bake by Mary Berry. More precisely by her Ultimate Cake Book, which is by far and away my most loved and used recipe book. From a very young age I'd try her recipes and this is an old favourite. It's time consuming and a little messy, but the end result is well worth it. This time I decided to use almond pastry instead and replaced just under half of the flour with ground almonds. Either pastry works well so just pick your favourite.

I've recently picked a lot of windfall apples from my parents garden so this is a perfect use for them. The recipe also works well as individual tarts for a gift.

Here is the flan before it goes into the oven.





And when it came out








French Apple Tart Recipe from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book

Serves 8-10

INGREDIENTS
90g butter
1.5kg cooking apples, quartered, cored, and cut into chunks
3 tbsp water
6 tbsp apricot jam
125g caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 large lemon
375g eating apples, quartered, cored, peeled, and thinly sliced
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp caster sugar
6 tbsp apricot jam

For the pastry

250g plain flour
125g chilled butter, cubed
125g caster sugar
4 egg yolks

For the apple topping and glaze

250g plain flour
125g chilled butter, cubed
125g caster sugar
4 egg yolks

Method

Make the pastry: put the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then the egg yolks and a little cold water to make a soft dough. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line the flan tin. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, and add the cooking apples and water. Cover and cook very gently for 20–25 minutes until the apples are soft.

Rub the apples through a nylon sieve into a clean pan. Add the jam, sugar, and lemon zest. Cook over a high heat for 15–20 minutes, stirring constantly, until all the liquid has evaporated and the apple purée is thick. Leave to cool.

Bake the pastry case blind in a preheated oven at 190°C/gas mark 5 for 10–15 minutes. Remove the beans and foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

Spoon the purée into the case. Arrange the apple slices on top, brush with lemon juice, and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake for another 30–35 minutes until the apples are tender and their edges browned.

Heat the jam, work through a sieve, then brush over the apples. Serve warm or cold.

Enjoy!

Tiramisu Cake

This morning I went for brunch at Bills Produce Store in Covent Garden with a large group of friends. As it was such a lovely day afterward we went to sit in the park to enjoy the sun. I made a cake for us to have a slice with a takeaway coffee.

I started by a basic vanilla sponge sliced into three layers. I brushed each layer with plenty of strong, sweet coffee and a good dusting of cocoa powered. For the frosting I used a recipe I got from the course I went to in Italy mentioned in my soup post http://www.cookitaly.it/recipes.htm (recipe below) and put it between the layers and all over the top and sides of the cake.

I dusted the top with a little cocoa powder, icing sugar and gold glitter.




Mascarpone Frosting
1. Separate the egg white and egg yolk from one egg
2. Whisk the egg white into stiff peaks
3. Whisk the egg yolk with 2tbsps of sugar
4. Stir in 250g mascarpone
5. Whip 250ml double cream
6. Fold the double cream and ye egg whites into the mascarpone mixture

Bridesmaids cupcakes

One of my best friends in getting married next May and organised a get together this weekend for her bridesmaids (plus one of the flower girls) to go with her to the wedding fair at Earls Court and various other wedding planning things.

On Saturday evening she planned a girly night and I took some cupcakes over. In keeping with the girly theme I decided to go all floral and pink with a touch of glitter! I used some lovely floral cases and displayed them on a floral card base. The cupcake is a vanilla sponge but I followed the advice in Oliver Peyton's British Baking book and weighed the eggs (with the shells on) and used the same volume of flour, butter and sugar. I used two medium eggs so this was 39g eggs, butter, self raising flour and sugar and I added 1/4 tsp baking powder and vanilla paste. It wasn't a bother weighing the eggs and I do think it resulted in a slightly better texture. I would like to try it when I'm next making a Victoria sponge.

Once baked and cooled I cut a small hole from each and filled with a hulled strawberry and topped with a mixture of pink and white vanilla buttercream and a touch of glitter. For pictures of the strawberry in the centre please see my previous blog post 'cupcake heaven'.

Daring Bakers - Croissants

I have been taking part in the Daring Bakers (http://www.thedaringkitchen.com/) for about 6 months now. For anyone who doesn’t know about it the basic idea is that on the 1st of every month a recipe is posted on the website by someone who has selected to host the challenge. Lots of bloggers and non-bloggers from around the world all make the same recipe, sharing their achievements and woes! On the 27th of the month we all reveal the results. The recipes are normally quite challenging and often require a new skill.

I’ve been really looking forward to writing this post and have been patiently waiting until the 27th as this month the challenge was to make croissants. Whilst the recipe wasn’t particularly difficult it does take a very long time due to the number of rises necessary!

Sarah a non-blogging member of the Daring Bakers hosted this months challenge and her instructions were extremely detailed and she had taken the time to take great photos so it was easy to see step by step what to do.

I decided to tackle this challenge over a weekend due to the time needed to allow the dough to rise and also that the outcome was well suited to a lazy Sunday morning breakfast
I made the dough on the Friday night, I used all organic ingredients, including a strong white bread flour from Doves Farm. I was worried it was a little too sticky but once kneaded and after the first rise it was much smoother. After allowing it to rise over night on Saturday I rolled out the dough and added the butter. In future I think I would put the butter on the top 2 thirds of the dough as my normal puff pastry recipe does as only putting it on the top half meant there was a bit of pastry which didn't have a butter 'sandwich' (unless I misunderstood the directions). The second rise happened whilst I was out at a local restaurant having dinner and when I came back I rolled out the dough, and did the turning and folding. I actually added in another stage and did this again after letting it rest for about 1 hour. Then when I got up in the morning I did the final stage, rolled out the dough and shaped the dough into crescents. Following the advice on the forums I egg washed them all twice. I only made 4 croissants as I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment and didn’t want to be tempted to eat more than one. The rest of the dough is in the freezer for croissants on another Sunday morning!

I was really pleased with the outcome. They were lovely shiny with a perfect flaky pastry shell. The inside was light and fluffy and a great texture. For me there was a little too much salt, but I tend to like less salt than most. I served them with some home grown raspberries for a delicious Sunday breakfast!

Thanks to Sarah for a great challenge!

Here are my croissants rising





Here are the raspberries from my parents garden






Here are the croissants cooling





And here is the finished result!



The Recipe came from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two. Julia Child and Simone Beck see the detail below. If anyone wants a copy of all of the photos Sarah took please let me know

Croissants
Servings: 12 croissants
Ingredients
¼ oz (7 gm) of fresh yeast, or 1¼ teaspoon (6¼ ml/4 gm) of dry-active yeast (about ½ sachet)
3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water (less than 100°F/38°C)
1 teaspoon (5 ml/4½ gm) sugar
1 ¾ cups (225 gm/½ lb) of strong plain flour (I used Polish all-purpose flour, which is 13% protein)
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
1½ teaspoon (7½ ml/9 gm) salt
½ cup (120 ml/¼ pint) milk (I am not sure if the fat content matters. I used 2%)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) tasteless oil (I used generic vegetable oil)
½ cup (120 ml/1 stick/115 gm/¼ lb) chilled, unsalted butter
1 egg, for egg wash
Directions:
1. Mix the yeast, warm water, and first teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl. Leave aside for the yeast and sugar to dissolve and the yeast to foam up a little.
2. Measure out the other ingredients
3. Heat the milk until tepid (either in the microwave or a saucepan), and dissolve in the salt and remaining sugar
4. Place the flour in a large bowl.
5. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and milk mixture to the flour
6. Mix all the ingredients together using the rubber spatula, just until all the flour is incorporated
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and let it rest a minute while you wash out the bowl
8. Knead the dough eight to ten times only. The best way is as Julia Child does it in the video (see below). It’s a little difficult to explain, but essentially involves smacking the dough on the counter (lots of fun if you are mad at someone) and removing it from the counter using the pastry scraper.
9. Place the dough back in the bowl, and place the bowl in the plastic bag (Photos 1 & 2)
10. Leave the bowl at approximately 75°F/24°C for three hours, or until the dough has tripled in size. (Photo 3)
11. After the dough has tripled in size, remove it gently from the bowl, pulling it away from the sides of the bowl with your fingertips. (Photo 4)
12. Place the dough on a lightly floured board or countertop, and use your hands to press it out into a rectangle about 8 by 12 inches (20cm by 30cm). (Photo 5)
13. Fold the dough rectangle in three, like a letter (fold the top third down, and then the bottom third up) (Photos 6 & 7)
14. Place the dough letter back in the bowl, and the bowl back in the plastic bag. (Photo 8)
15. Leave the dough to rise for another 1.5 hours, or until it has doubled in size. This second rise can be done overnight in the fridge (Photo 9)
16. Place the double-risen dough onto a plate and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place the plate in the fridge while you prepare the butter. (Photo 10)
17. Once the dough has doubled, it’s time to incorporate the butter
18. Place the block of chilled butter on a chopping board.
19. Using the rolling pin, beat the butter down a little, till it is quite flat. (Photo 11)
20. Use the heel of your hand to continue to spread the butter until it is smooth. You want the butter to stay cool, but spread easily.
21. Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured board or counter. Let it rest for a minute or two. (Photo 12)
22. Spread the dough using your hands into a rectangle about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm). (Photo 13)
23. Remove the butter from the board, and place it on the top half of the dough rectangle (Photos 14 & 15)
24. Spread the butter all across the top two-thirds of the dough rectangle, but keep it ¼ inch (6 mm) across from all the edges. (Photo 16)
25. Fold the top third of the dough down, and the bottom third of the dough up. (Photos 17 & 18)
26. Turn the dough package 90 degrees, so that the top flap is to your right (like a book). (Photo 19)
27. Roll out the dough package (gently, so you don’t push the butter out of the dough) until it is again about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm). (Photo 20)
28. Again, fold the top third down and the bottom third up. (Photos 21 & 22)
29. Wrap the dough package in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge for 2 hours. (Photo 23)
30. After two hours have passed, take the dough out of the fridge and place it again on the lightly floured board or counter.
31. Tap the dough with the rolling pin, to deflate it a little
32. Let the dough rest for 8 to 10 minutes
33. Roll the dough package out till it is 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
34. Fold in three, as before
35. Turn 90 degrees, and roll out again to 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
36. Fold in three for the last time, wrap in plastic, and return the dough package to the fridge for two more hours (or overnight, with something heavy on top to stop it from rising)
37. It’s now time to cut the dough and shape the croissants
38. First, lightly butter your baking sheet so that it is ready
39. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for ten minutes on the lightly floured board or counter
40. Roll the dough out into a 20 by 5 inch rectangle (51 cm by 12½ cm). (Photo 24)
41. Cut the dough into two rectangles (each 10 by 5 inches (25½ cm by 12½ cm)) (Photo 24)
42. Place one of the rectangles in the fridge, to keep the butter cold
43. Roll the second rectangle out until it is 15 by 5 inches (38 cm by 12½ cm).
44. Cut the rectangle into three squares (each 5 by 5 inches (12½ cm by 12½ cm))
45. Place two of the squares in the fridge
46. The remaining square may have shrunk up a little bit in the meantime. Roll it out again till it is nearly square
47. Cut the square diagonally into two triangles. (Photo 25)
48. Stretch the triangle out a little, so it is not a right-angle triangle, but more of an isosceles. (Photo 26)
49. Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle up towards the point, and curve into a crescent shape. (Photo 27)
50. Place the unbaked croissant on the baking sheet
51. Repeat the process with the remaining squares of dough, creating 12 croissants in total.
52. Leave the tray of croissants, covered lightly with plastic wrap, to rise for 1 hour
53. Preheat the oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
54. Mix the egg with a teaspoon of water
55. Spread the egg wash across the tops of the croissants. (Photo 28)
56. Put the croissants in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are browned nicely
57. Take the croissants out of the oven, and place them on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving