Many people have heard that the croissant was created in 1686 in Budapest, Hungary by a courageous and watchful baker, at a time when the town was being attacked by the Turks. operating late one night, he heard odd rumbling noises and alerted the city's military leaders. They found that the Turks were attempting to urge into the town by tunneling below the city's walls. The tunnel was destroyed and the baker was a hero, however a humble hero — all he wanted in reward was the only right to bake a special pastry commemorating the fight. The pastry was formed like a crescent, the symbol of Islam, and presumably meant that the Hungarians had eaten the Turks for lunch.
The problem with this story is that it's all created up. It first showed up within the first version of the good French food reference Larousse Gastronmique, in 1938. Later on, the story switched locations to Vienna, during the Turkish siege there in 1863, however that was also a fabrication.
The sad thing is, the reality during this case is not nearly as fascinating because the myth. nobody knows when or where the primary croissant was baked, however it had been positively in France and definitely not before 1850. The word was first utilized in a dictionary in 1863. the primary croissant recipe was published in 1891, however it wasn't an equivalent kind of croissant we tend to are familiar with these days. the primary recipe that would manufacture what we tend to consider to be a flaky croissant wasn't published until 1905, and, again, it had been in France.
A croissant , may be a buttery flaky bread named for its distinctive crescent form. it's also sometimes called a crescent. Croissants are fabricated from a leavened variant of puff pastry. The yeast dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, a method called laminating.
Crescent-shaped food breads are created since the center Ages, and crescent-shaped cakes (imitating the often-worshiped Moon) probably since classical times, however the fashionable croissant dates to 19th-century Paris.
Croissants have long been a staple of French bakeries and pâtisseries. within the late Nineteen Seventies, the development of factory-made, frozen, pre-formed however unbaked dough created them into a quick food which may be freshly baked by unskilled labor. Indeed, the croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style quick food, and these days 30-40% of the croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries are frozen.
RECIPE
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp flour
3 sticks butter (3/4 pound) of butter or margarine, equally divided and softened at room temperature
4 cups all-purpose flour, approximately
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
2 packages dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1-1/2 cups milk, warmed to 80°F to 90°F (27°C to 32°C)
1/2 cup half-and-half, warmed
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
Instructions:
Sprinkle 3 Tbsp flour over butter and blend together on the work surface. On a length of foil, fashion a 6" square of soft butter; fold over the sides of the foil to enclose. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 2 to 3 hours.
While the butter is chilling, prepare the dough. To mix by hand, in a large mixing or mixer bowl, blend 2 cups of the flour with salt and sugar. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add it and the warmed milk and half-and-half to the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon or the flat blade of an electric mixer to thoroughly blend the batterlike dough, about 2 minutes.
Stir in additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time, to make a soft but not sticky dough (it will stiffen when chilled.) Knead by hand or under a dough hook for 5 minutes to form a solid mass.
If using a food processor, attach the steel blade. Place 2 cups flour in the work bowl and add the dry ingredients. Pulse to mix. Pour the 1/4 cup water, milk, and half-and-half through the feed tube. Pulse once or twice to be certain that all dry ingredients are moistened. Add the balance of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, turning the machine on briefly after each addition. When the mixture forms a mass and begins to clean the sides of the bowl, knead for 30 seconds. Don't overknead!
*from variety sources