Christian's Croissant Recipe

Christian, a good friend who lives in Athens, GA, and is the most amazing cook, shared a recipe with me for croissants. He was actually writing it for someone else, but then we started talking about it and offered to send it to me. While I may never make them, I like the idea that if I ever want amazing croissants from scratch, I've got a recipe. Christian said this is his version of Julia Child's recipe so she should get some credit too.

If you make these, be sure to send me a picture!

Ingredients:
4 1/2 sticks butter (not added until about 5 hours in)

combine in bowl A:
1t yeast
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 T warm H2O
1 1/2 T sugar

combine in bowl B:
3T sugar
1 1/2 T salt
3 cups warm milk

add to 36oz flour with 5T vegetable oil
note: you will need more flour for the table and some extra oil to keep the dough from sticking. also, an egg is needed if you decide to do the eggwash- described at the end.

stir just until combined in a mixing bowl. pour onto a table; let sit for 5 minutes (i usually wash the bowl in this time). gently knead 8-10 rotations; just want it to hold together, but no serious gluten formation. (i find using latex gloves and a bench scraper invaluable at this point. the dough is a super sticky mess at this stage.)
pour a little oil in bowl to prevent sticking. move dough back to bowl and cover. let sit 3.5 hours.

pour on a floured table. fold in thirds and return to bowl. cover and let sit for 1.5 hours.

let butter warm to a workable temp.
pour out dough onto floured table. push into a rectangular shape like a giant piece of newspaper and about as large.
spread butter onto top 2/3 of dough. (i like to start this between parch paper or film and then lay it on top of the dough.)
fold up the bottom third of the dough and then fold the top third over the remainder. rotate the dough 90 degrees, so the length is pointing out from you. (this is the first turn.)

roll the dough out to about 24x16 inches and fold again in thirds, starting from the bottom. (this is the second turn.)
place the dough on a sheet tray in the fridge for 2.25 hours. this is the perfect stopping point if you want to leave it overnight. just weigh down the dough so it does not rise too much.
pull the dough and let warm a little for 15 minutes (longer is it stayed in all night).

lay the dough lengthwise away from you on the table and beat gently with a pin if the butter is still tough. (if it is especially cold, you may need to wait longer before working with it. trying to roll out too early, the butter will break through all the layers. it's not a disaster if this happens. it will still bake up nicely, but some flaky layers will be lost in final product. ) roll out to 24x16 inches; fold; rotate. (third turn.) roll out, fold (fourth turn), and put back in the fridge. let rest 1.5 hour.

cut into 3 portions. taking each portion one a time, roll out on a floured surface and cut in half, making two squarish rectangles. cut each half into halves again. this final rough square, cut on the diagonal. roll it out a little thinner and grabbing two points in your hand roll toward the third point. tuck the third point under, bend in the two other ends (making the classic croissant shape). place this croissant on a greased pan to rise for an hour. repeat for rest of dough. let rise one hour, until about double in size..
brush with egg wash (egg and water beaten together. this is optional but makes a shiny crust). bake at 400 15-20 minutes.

makes 24 roughly 7oz croissants