Panmarino – Italian Rosemary Bread

Using herbs in loaves of bread provides an earthy characteristic and an intoxicating fragrance. When you add olive oil to the mix, it blends the elements together to form the perfect environment for a savory meal.

I particularly enjoy making breads with rosemary.  As the bread is baking, the aroma of the herbs drifts out of the kitchen and follows me around the house until I succumb to it’s invitation.

It was this experience I was thinking about when I selected the monthly bread for the Bread Baking Babes. I’m the host kitchen so I wanted to present a bread that was simple, yet full of flavor and one would go well with a variety of foods.

I chose an Italian Rosemary Bread called Panmarino.

 

 

Panmarino is unique in it’s simplicity, but also in it’s history. Legend has it that it originated in the area called Ferrara, near Venice and was created by a baker named Luciano Pancalde.

The idea for Panmarino came about as Luciano was reading the chronicles of the d'Este family who once ruled Ferrara. When he learned about the magnificent court banquets where they served rosemary bread with a crust that "sparkled with diamonds," it gave him the idea to create his own loaf. He experimented and baked and tested some more until finally, he had the bread he was aiming for, an aromatic, dome-shaped bread that is scored in the pattern of a star and sprinkled with salt crystals.

Panmarino is a delightful loaf. If you are looking for a fragrant loaf that utilizes the freshest of ingredients, this is the loaf for you.

Don’t confuse simplicity with lack of taste or method. This is a fairly easy bread to make, but it takes about 20 hours from start-to-finish. Most of that time is spent on the overnight biga so the hands on time is minimal.

 

Panmarino – Italian Rosemary Bread

Adapted from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking from The French Culinary Institute. 

The source of the story about the origins of Panmarino is found here

These loaves are charmingly small and make great companions for an evening meal. I made two loaves and gave one away. If you look closely, you can just barely see the diamonds (sprinkles of salt) in the slashes.

 

The original formula made four loaves. I reduced it two loaves. I did the calculations based on baker's percentages, but you can halve everything and it should be fine.

I used sifted white whole wheat flour instead of bread flour in the final dough because I’m experimenting with home-milled flours, but feel free to use bread flour or regular all-purpose or spelt flour to make this bread.

Adapted Formula (makes 2 loaves)

Biga

• 71g (~1/2 cup) bread flour
• 60g (scant 1/4 cup) water
• pinch instant yeast

Final Dough:

• 442g (~3 1/2 cups) bread flour *
• 240g (1 cup) water
• 22g (2 T) milk
• pinch instant yeast
• 44g (1/4 cup) olive oil
• 4g (2 T) rosemary
• Biga, all
• 11.5g (~ 3 tsp.) salt **

* I started with 568g of whole wheat. After I sifted out the bran, I ended up with 472g so I had a little extra for sprinkling, if necessary.

** Some of the other bakers thought this was too much salt. Feel free to reduce the amount of salt to suit your tastes.

 

Original formula (makes  4 Loaves)

Biga:

• Bread flour 143 grams/5 ounces
• Water 122 grams/4 1/4 ounces
• Pinch of instant yeast

Final Dough:

• Bread flour 884 grams/1 pound 15 ounces
• Water 477 grams/1 pound 1 ounce
• Milk 44 grams/1 1/2 ounces
• Biga 265 grams/9 1/3 ounces
• Salt 23 grams/3/4 ounce
• Pinch of instant yeast
• Olive oil 88 grams/3 ounces
• Chopped fresh rosemary 9 grams/1/3 ounce

Prepare the Biga:

Combine the flour, water and yeast in a mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk until well blended.  Scrape down the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest at 75 degrees F. for 14 to 16 hours.

Making the Final Dough:

Combine the flour, water, milk, and biga in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until blended.

Add the salt and yeast and mix on low speed for 5 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 7 more minutes, or until the dough is smooth.  When the gluten is fully developed, mix in the olive oil and rosemary on low speed.

Lightly oil a large bowl. Scrape the dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough ferment for 45 minutes.

Remove the dough to a lightly-floured work surface and divide it into four (or two if you halved the recipe) 450-gram /16-ounce pieces. Shape the dough pieces into rounds. Cover with plastic wrap and let them bench rest for 15 minutes.

Place two couches on a separate work surface or bread board and dust them with flour.

Uncover the dough and, if necessary, lightly flour the work surface. Gently press on the dough to degas and carefully shape each piece into a tight and neat rounds.  Place one loaf on one side of the couche, fold the couche up to make a double layer of cloth to serve as a divider between the loaves, and place a second loaf next to the fold.  Repeat the process with the remaining two loaves and the second couche.  Cover with plastic wrap and proof for 1 hour.

I proofed the loaves on cornmeal-dusted parchment paper instead of a baker's couche. I baked the loaves on the parchment paper on a preheated baking stone and used a cast iron skillet on the top shelf as the steam pan.  You can proof the loaves in a proofing basket if you prefer.

About an hour before you plan to bake the loaves, place a baking stone (or tiles) into the oven along with a steam pan (underneath) or iron skillet (on the top rack) and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Uncover the dough and score the top of each loaf in a star pattern using a lame or sharp knife.

Optional: sprinkle sea salt into the crevices as the original baker did to make it "sparkle with diamonds."

Carefully transfer the loaves (on the parchment paper) to the preheated baking stone using a peel or the back of a baking sheet. To make the steam, add 1 cup of ice to the iron skillet or steam pan. 

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the crust is light brown and crisp and the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Remove the loaves from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

I’m sending these loaves to be yeastspotted.

These are easy and pleasant loaves for summer baking.  I think you’ll enjoy them.

 

Check out how the other creative Babes handled this bread:

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

 

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy?

I’m the host kitchen this month and I’d love for you to bake along with us. 

Here’s how:

Just make the Panmarino, then email me your link (or email your photo and a bit about your experience if you don't have a blog). My email address is breadexperience (at) gmail (dot) com.  Submissions are due by July 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along, then watch for a roundup of all of the BBBuddies posts a few days after the close of submissions.

I hope you'll join us this month!

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Burgundy Grape Cluster Bread

The Bread of the Month for the Bread Baking Babes is Beaujolais Bread from A Passion for Bread by Lionel Vatinet.

Beaujolais is a red wine from the Beaujolais Region of France. Beaujolais is part of what’s considered the Burgundy wine region, but instead of using Pinot Noir grapes like the rest of the region, Beaujolais is made from the fruity Gamay grape.

Every year, on the third Thursday in November, at one past midnight, over a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau are shipped around the world. This event marks the first fruits of the harvest of Beaujolais Nouveau.

These wines are barely given time to ferment so they are easy-to-drink, fruity wines that are as close to white wine as you can get. The wines go well with food, especially ham and cheese and even Thanksgiving fare (the event falls close to Thanksgiving in the U.S.)

In his book, Lionel shares how he spent his youth surrounded by a vineyard at his grandparents’ lovely stone house near the Rhone region of France. He created Beaujolais Bread, which is shaped like a grape cluster and filled with salami, to pay homage to the first grape harvest of the year.

To celebrate the release of Beaujolais Nouveau each year, Lionel recommends that you serve this bread and invite guests to pull off a “grape” to enjoy with their glass of wine.

 

Burgundy “Grape Cluster” Bread

I called my version Burgundy Grape Cluster Bread because I used Pinot Noir instead of Beaujolais. I couldn’t find any Beaujolais. The Pinot Noir was described as “lush and velvety” so I pictured a lush and velvety, burgundy-colored dough.

 

Adapted from A Passion for Bread by Lionel Vatinet

Makes: 1 large cluster of rolls

Ingredient	Volume	Weight	Baker’s %
Home-milled white whole wheat flour*	~3 1/2 cups	550 grams, sifted = 452 grams	100%
Fine Sea salt	1 1/2 teaspoon	9 grams	2 %
Instant yeast	1 1/4 teaspoon	4 grams	1 %
Honey	1 tablespoon	21 grams	5%
Beaujolais Wine	1 1/4 cups, plus 2 tbsps.	320 grams	71%
Salami, room temperature, cut into 1/4 cubes	~1 cup	113 grams	25%

* I used 82% extraction flour. Extraction means the bran and germ are extracted from the whole grain flour to get to a lighter flour that is closer to the coarseness of regular bread flour. To do this, I milled white whole wheat berries into bread flour, then I took 550 grams and sifted it twice using a sieve. I ended up with 452 grams of flour.

 

Mixing the Dough:

Mix together the flour, salt & yeast in a large bowl. Add in the honey and incorporate into the dry ingredients using your hands or a Danish dough whisk. Make a well in the center of the dough and gradually add in the wine, in a slow, steady stream. 

Rotate the bowl as you add in the wine and mix the dough using your other hand. It might seem like you need three hands for this but it comes together fairly easily. Use a dough scraper to scrape the dough off your fingers and to gather all of the ingredients into a dough.  It will be slightly wet and sticky.

Transfer the dough to a clean work surface. The dough will be sticky, but resist the temptation to add flour to the work surface or the dough.

Lionel’s method for kneading wet dough:

He always says, “Your hands are your memory!”  If you use a stand mixer, you won’t know how the dough feels. You need to pay attention to how it feels as it comes together.

Hold hands, palms facing up, at opposite sides of the dough mass. Slide your fingers under the dough and lift the dough an inch or so from the surface. Squeeze your thumbs and index fingers together to form a tight OK sign through the dough.

While holding the OK sign, continue to curl thumbs and index fingers tightly together to pinch off a portion of dough. Working as quickly and smoothly as possible, moving the dough mass in approximately 1 to 1.5 inch increments, until the entire dough mass has been worked through. You should begin to feel the dough coming together.

Turn dough a quarter turn and continue lifting, pinching and turning until it begins to take on an identifiable shape and becomes less and less sticky; taking anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.  Resist the urge to add flour. A scraper is useful in collecting all the dough off the work area. Consider the dough kneaded when it forms into a ball. The dough should be soft, pliable and hold it’s shape; it should not be stiff and dry.

Form dough into ball: using both hands, lift front and fold over, quickly dropping it down to the counter. Repeat 4-5 times until a ball is formed. Use the scraper to ensure all the dough is gathered. Using the palms of your hands, flatten the dough ball into a rectangle. Scatter the salami evenly down the middle. Wrap the sides up and over salami, pinch dough together, turn and repeat until the salami is incorporated.

Form into a ball. Again lifting from the front, fold it over onto itself in one movement then dropping down onto the counter. Repeat 4 to 5 times until ball forms. Using your scraper to be sure all the dough is gathered. The dough should no longer be sticky. If it continues to be sticky repeat the folding process until it is no longer sticky.

 

Bulk Fermentation

Due to the addition of the wine, the fermentation time is extended to three hours.

Place the dough, seam side down in a large container and cover with plastic wrap. He recommends that you can use a glass container so you can watch the dough will its rising.

Let the dough ferment in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour.

Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Remove the dough from the container and place it onto floured surface. Pat it into a thick square using your fingers. Lift the two right corners and fold into the center patting the seam lightly. Lift the left two corners and fold into the center lightly patting the seam down. Repeat with the top two corners and the bottom two corners meeting in the middle patting down the seams.

Return the dough to the bowl seam side down, cover and return to a warm draft free place for about an hour. Repeat this process one more time. Total Time: three hours.

Dividing

Scrape the dough onto the counter and allow to rest 30 seconds.

If the dough is very sticky at this point dust your hands with flour but do not add additional flour. Use the bench scraper to lift the dough if it sticks to the counter but do not pull and do not stretch the dough. Press the dough into a rectangle 12 inches x 5 inches. Be sure the dough is not sticking to the counter by lifting it to gently up. Cut the dough into 16 equal pieces with the bench scraper.

Shaping

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Roll 15 pieces into a small ball shape for rolls, the last piece will become the grapevine. Create a triangle by setting four balls together in a line followed by a line of three balls then two balls and finally one ball. Angle the remaining four balls to one side of the triangle so that the entire piece resembles a large cluster of grapes with the smaller one to the side.

With the last piece of dough roll it into a rope about 10 inches long and shape it into a curved grape vine shape that you attach to the top of the grape cluster. Dust with flour.

 

Final fermentation

Final fermentation may take anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes. Set the timer so that you can record the time it takes for the final fermentation. If the dough over proofs, it will be unusable.

Place the baking sheet in a warm, draft free place. Determine if the dough is ready to be baked by uncovering and making a small indentation in the center of the role with your fingertip. The dough is ready to be baked if the indentation slowly and evenly disappears.

Baking

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a baking stone on the bottom rack and a iron skillet on the top rack of the oven. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. for at least 20 minutes.

Carefully slide the parchment paper (with the rolls on it) onto the pre-heated baking stone and remove the baking sheet. Place three to four ice cubes in the iron skillet to generate steam.

Bake until the bread is golden brown and has a thick crust. The total bake time should be about 25 to 30 minutes.

Transfer the cluster to a cooling rack for at least one hour to cool.

 

Thanks to Tanna for choosing this beautiful bread for our bake this month.

 

Check out how the other creative Babes handled the dough:

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy? Just make the Beaujolais Bread and then send Tanna your link  (refer to the info in her announcement post).  Submissions are due by June 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along.

I hope you will join us!

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Quinoa, Onion & Rosemary Rolls for BBBs

It’s that time again! Time to reveal the monthly bread for the Bread Baking Babes (BBBs). The host for this month’s bake is Karen of Bake My Day and she chose the Wild Rice and Onion Bread from Peter Reinhart’s book Artisan Bread Every Day.

 

Instead of following the recipe as presented, I took a different approach. I went to the back of the book, got the baker’s percentages, and worked from there.

I have several of Peter Reinhart’s books, including this one, and I really enjoy making breads from them. One of the things I like about this book is that he includes baker’s percentages for every recipe so you can easily customize all of the breads.

Of course, you can make every bread in the book without using baker’s percentages, but the percentages come in handy when you want to adjust the ingredients up or down or add in additional components. You can do this without a formula, but the percentages are really easy once you get the hang of it. I fought this concept, you know the whole math thing, but now that I’ve jumped in, the water is fine. 

 

Using the BreadStorm™ iPad app helped get me over the learning curve with baker’s math.  You just plug the percentages (or weight by grams or kilograms) into the tool and voila! It calculates the other percentages for you.  I just love apps, but at some point, you really do need to know how to do it by hand.

All you do is decide how much flour you want to use and that becomes the 100%.  All the other percentages are based off of the flour %.  I wanted to make rolls so I reduced the amount of flour to 500 grams. The original recipe uses 765 grams of flour which is enough to make two loaves of bread.  I didn’t want that many rolls. My adjustments made 12 rolls and that was plenty. I was able to enjoy some now and freeze some for later.

I didn’t have any wild rice so I used quinoa. I added in some rosemary because I thought the flavor would go well with the quinoa and dried onions. Well, really it’s because I just got a new rosemary plant, and I don’t want it to go to waste.

You can also use brown rice in this recipe, but the quinoa gives it a unique texture. I used kefir milk, but feel free to use any kind of milk in this bread. I’ve been maintaining some kefir grains so I need to continue to find creative ways to use the milk. The kefir worked really well in this recipe.

 

 

 

Quinoa, Onion & Rosemary Rolls

Adapted from: Artisan Bread Every Day by Peter Reinhart

Yield: 12-18 Rolls (depending on how big you shape them)

Original Formula (percentages):

• 100% unbleached bread flour
• 2% salt
• 2.4% yeast
• 7.4% brown sugar
• 44.5% water
• 15% Buttermilk or any other milk
• 3.7% dried minces or chopped onions or
• 30% diced fresh onions

Adapted Formula (percentages):

• 100% unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2% salt
• 2% yeast
• 7.5% brown sugar
• 44.5% water
• 15% Kefir milk
• 3.7% minced onions
• 22% cooked Quinoa
• Chopped fresh Rosemary

Formula by weight:

• 500g all-purpose flour
• 10g salt
• 10g instant yeast
• 37g brown sugar
• 225g water
• 75g Kefir milk
• 18g minced onions
• 110g cooked Quinoa
• 2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
• Melted butter for brushing *

* You can use an egg wash if you want the rolls to be shiny, but I wanted to soften them up so I brushed them with the melted butter right after removing them from the oven.

 

Do Ahead (the day before or a few days earlier):

Combine all of the ingredients, except the melted butter, in a large mixing bowl.  Stir for a minute using a wooden spoon or a Danish dough whisk. The dough will be sticky and shaggy.  Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Continue mixing, adjusting the flour or water as necessary to form a dough ball. At this point, the dough should be soft and supple and slightly sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board and knead for a couple of minutes. Add more flour if necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to the work surface. The dough will still be soft and slightly sticky, but it should hold together in a ball.

Place the dough in a clean bowl (lightly oiled if preferred), then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it immediately.  Let it rest in the refrigerator overnight or up to 4 days.

 

On Baking Day:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 hours before you plan to bake the rolls. Sprinkle a little flour on the work surface to keep the dough from sticking. Divide the dough into 12 (or 18) equal pieces and shape each piece into a round ball. Place the rolls on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Cover the pans loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the rolls rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until increased to about 1 1/2 times their original size.

I used a roll stamper to add a unique imprint in the dough. However, the imprint sprung back so it just barely shows up on the baked rolls. 

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. about 15 minutes before it’s time to bake. Slide the baking sheets into the oven on the middle and bottom racks and let the rolls bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Rotate the pans for even baking and let the rolls bake another 10 minutes until they have a rich golden color. The total bake time should be about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the rolls to a wire rack to cool.  Brush with the melted butter (if desired) and allow the rolls to cool for at least 20 minutes (if you can).

 

I’ve been enjoying these rolls all week. I froze half of them and the rest I’ve been eating (one per day) for a snack. They taste great warm with butter. However, I’ve decided that adding some cheese to the dough would enhance them even further.

Thanks to Karen of Bake My Day for choosing this delicious and easy bread for our bake this month.

I’m also sharing these rolls with YEASTSPOTTING and BYOB!

 

Check out what the other creative Babes made this month:

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy? Just make the Wild Rice and Onion Bread (of course you may adapt) - and then send Karen your link  (refer to the info in her announcement post).  Submissions are due by May 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along.

I hope you will join us!

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Make these Pretzel Croissants and Smile

I adore soft pretzels and when you pair them with flaky, buttery croissants, what’s not to like about that? 

When I found out we were making pretzel croissants for the Bread Baking Babes, I knew it was going to be good. The problem for me was the timing. I reviewed the directions and wasn’t sure if I could fit these rolls in my schedule. I had to do a bit of planning to make it work, but I’m happy to say I figured it out and it was well worth it!  These pretzel croissants are a flaky, crispy and buttery delight!

 

It’s best to read the instructions all the way through (a couple of times) before you even begin to think about making these croissants. And make sure you’re not rushed or in a grumpy mood when you start. You’ll save yourself a lot of frustration.

I was fussy and grumpy when I started the process of making these croissants. As a result, the dough and I were not in agreement. The dough would not cooperate. I finally realized (or admitted) it was me that wasn’t cooperating. So I took a step back, and told myself to “Smile! Stop complaining and just enjoy the experience.” Once I did that, things went much smoother. Remember, it’s all about the dough. So just relax and work with it not against it.

 

It takes a few days to make these pretzel croissants, but it is worth it when you bite into one of the crispy, buttery rolls. You’ll be transported into another zone and forget all about the time you spent planning.

I was able to fit these delights in my schedule because the dough can be frozen for up to a week. I made the dough one weekend and baked the croissants the next weekend.

If you want to extend the enjoyment like I did, bake half the croissants one day, refrigerate the remaining dough (wrapped in plastic to keep it from drying out), and bake the rest of the rolls the next day. I actually waited two days to bake the remaining rolls so I could share them with a friend and not eat them all myself. Both batches tasted great! My taste tester enjoyed them as much as I did.

 

Pretzel Croissants made with kamut

yield: 1 dozen

slightly adapted from Pretzel Making at Home by Andrea Slonecker

Note about timing: The dough takes from 24-48 hours from start to the time you form them. The butter block should be formed sometime while the dough is rising. Baked baking soda is an alternative to using lye; it needs 1 hour in the oven (see notes at end).

For the dough:
1/2 cup (120 ml) lukewarm milk (~110° F)
7 g (1/4 ounce / 2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar (golden or dark)
410 g (3-1/4 cups) unbleached AP flour + more for sprinkling (I used white KAMUT flour instead of all-purpose flour)
2 tsp. fine sea salt 1 ounce (2 T) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temp
1/2 cup (120 ml) cold pilsner-style beer*

*I used water instead of beer. KAMUT flour absorbs more liquid than regular flour so I used 3/4 cups + 2 T of water 

For the butter block:
340 g (12 ounces / 24 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

To finish:
60 grams (1/4 cup) baked baking soda (see notes at end)
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
coarse salt
sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds, optional

Making the dough:

Stir the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar into the lukewarm milk and allow to sit  until foamy, 5 minutes or so.

Whisk the flour, remaining brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour mixture, breaking it up into tiny flour-coated pieces the size of breadcrumbs. Stir in the yeast mixture and the beer using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to form a shaggy mass.

Turn the dough out onto an unfloured work surface and knead eight to ten times, until all of the flour is just incorporated. You don't want to over work it, because you don't want the butter to melt too much. The dough will not be a smooth mass; you will see some flecks of butter. It should be soft and tacky, but not sticky. Adjust as needed with flour or water.

Place the dough in a large, clean bowl. You can oil the bowl before placing the dough in it, but I found it wasn’t necessary because of the butter in the dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours (24 will give you the best flavor).

 

Making the butter block:
Beat the butter and flour together in the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment until it forms a smooth mass (or by hand, using a lot of elbow grease). This should take about a minute. You want the butter to be pliable without beating air into it or melting it.

Spread the butter between 2 large sheets of plastic wrap (or parchment or wax paper), and use a rolling pin to shape into a rectangle that is about 8"x9". Use a straight edge to form corners, but work quickly as you want the butter to stay cool. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until you're ready to roll out the dough.

1st turn:
Scatter a little bit of flour on your work surface, then turn the dough out onto it. Roll it out into a rectangle that is 10"x15" and about 1/4" thick. Using your hands, gently pull and stretch the dough to form straight edges and sharp corners. Brush excess flour off of the dough. Set the dough with a long edge facing you.
Mentally divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Place the butter block over the right 2/3 of the dough, leaving a 1" border on the outer edges. Fold the empty left portion of the dough over the middle third. Now, lift and fold the right section of dough over that. You should have 3 layers of dough that encase 2 layers of butter. Pinch the outsides and the seams together and lightly press the layers together using a rolling pin. This completes the first turn. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2nd turn:
Remove the dough from the fridge and set it on your lightly floured work surface. Roll dough out into a 10"x20" rectangle, pulling and stretching to form straight edges and sharp corners. Brush off any excess flour. Set the dough with a long edge facing you. Fold both of the short ends in to the center, leaving a 1/4" gap where they meet (think of a book jacket). Fold one side of the dough over the other. Lightly press the layers together using a rolling pin, and square and sharpen the edges and corners. This completes the second turn. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3rd (and final) turn:
Lightly dust your work surface and the top of the dough with flour. Roll dough out into a 10" by 15" rectangle. Do another trifold, as done in the first turn (mentally divide into thirds, then fold one third over the center, followed by the last third). Square the edges and sharpen the sides; wipe off excess flour. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but up to another 24 hours.

(At this point, you can wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, slide it into a freezer baggie, and freeze for up to 1 week. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator before proceeding to final shaping.) This is what I did.

Final shaping:
Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Lightly dust your work surface and top of your dough with flour. Roll out into a 15"x18" rectangle that is ~1/4" thick. Pull and stretch to form straight edges and sharp corners. Patch any holes where butter may have popped through by dusting them with flour.  Brush any excess flour off the dough.

Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise, creating two 15"x9" sheets of dough. Using a pizza cutter or bench scraper, cut each piece of dough into three equal strips, the short way. Then cut each strip in half diagonally, so that you left with 6 triangles. Repeat with other piece of dough.

Beginning at the base, roll the triangles up, tugging on the tip to elongate it slightly, then gently pressing it into the dough. Place on the prepared baking sheets with the tips tucked under, and curve the ends to form crescent shapes.
Cover the croissants with damp, clean kitchen towels and allow to rise at cool room temperature until they have almost doubled in size and feel spongy, ~2 hours.

At this point, slide the croissants into the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you prepare the dipping solution. Preheat oven to 425° F, positioning one rack in the upper third of the oven, and one in the lower third.

Prepare the dipping solution:
Add the baked baking soda in 8 cups of cold water and stir until completely dissolved. One by one, dip the croissant dough into the dipping solution, allow the excess to drip off, then set back on the lined trays.

Finish them off (finally):
Brush the tops with the egg wash, then sprinkle with coarse salt and sesame seeds or poppy seeds, if using.

Slide into preheated oven immediately and bake for 14-18 minutes (rotating pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through), until they are deeply browned, crispy, and flaky. They should feel light and airy if you pick them up.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving. They are best enjoyed the day they are made, ideally warm from the oven. Store any extras in a paper bag for a day. You can reheat them by placing them in a 350° F oven for ~5 minutes.

 

Notes:
Baked baking soda is an alternative to working with lye that still lends pretzels their dark, burnished crust. To make the baked baking soda, spread 1/4 cup (~70 grams) of baking soda out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or foil (or in a pie pan). It will decrease in weight, but shouldn't decrease in volume. Slide it into an oven that has been preheated to 250° F/120° C and bake for 1 hour. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature. If you see lots of pretzels in your future, make a large batch to store since it keeps indefinitely.

Remember to smile while you’re making these. You’ll be rewarded. They are fabulous!

Thanks to Heather of girlichef for choosing these rolls as the monthly challenge for the Bread Baking Babes.

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

 

If you want to join in as a Bread Baking Buddy, just make the Pretzel Croissants (you may adapt) - and then email Heather your link at girlichef (at) yahoo (dot) com.  Submissions are due by April 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along, then watch for a roundup of all of the BBBuddies posts a few days after the close of submissions.

 

 

Happy Baking! 

Cathy