Today, I'm going to share with you a recipe from my Baker's Illustrated book - crescent rolls.
I've always loved crescent rolls, but these are over the top amazing. They take quite a while because there's a LOT of rising and chilling, but the time you actually spend on them isn't very much.
The first time I made them, I made three mistakes: I didn't use parchment paper, I made them too big and I cooked them too close together. As a result, just one was equivalent to a meal, they stuck to the bottom of by making sheet and some of them joined up to become colossal size. This time, I roller them thinner, cut them smaller and used not only parchment paper, but also my awesome new baking sheets.
Here's the instructions, friends.
For the dough, you'll need 3/4 cup skim milk, 2 sticks unsalted butter, 1/4 cup sugar, 3 eggs, 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon instant yeast and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. For the egg wash, you'll need 1 egg white and 1 teaspoon water.
[Pardon my mess... I was a baking fool last week.]
Heat the milk, butter and sugar to 110 degrees (butter should be mostly melted). I start by microwaving 1:30 and add time as necessary. Whisk to dissolve sugar. Beat eggs then add slowly to milk mixture.
Combine flour and yeast in a separate mixing bowl (if using a stand mixer, fit it with paddle). Mix together. With the mixer going, add the milk and egg mixture. Mix at low speed for about a minute, then at medium speed for about a minute. Add salt and continue mixing about three more minutes.
Slightly oil a large bowl, move the dough to that bowl, cover and let sit for three hours. Next, line a baking sheet with plastic wrap (I use two baking sheets so I can roll my dough out thinner). Form a rough rectangle with dough on a floured service (I use half at a time forming two separate rectangles). Move the rectangle(s) to baking sheet(s) and chill in the refrigerator overnight.
Transfer the rectangle(s) to a floured service and cut as shown below.
From there, take each triangle, stretch it out (2-3 inches longer in length) and then roll it up like a crescent roll. Lay the crescent rolls on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet and let sit in the refrigerator for 2 hours - 3 days.
When you're almost ready to bake them, take them out of the fridge and cover them (says use a large roasting pan, which I don't have one as big as my baking sheets, or cover with a large bag (yes, it was weird putting my food in a trash bag, but it was fresh out of the box and then I used it for trash later)). Let them rise like this for 45 minutes to an hour.
While they're rising, adjust your oven racks to the two lowest positions and put an empty baking pan on the bottom one. Preheat to 425 degrees.
Next, whisk your egg white and water.
Using a pastry brush (or whatever you have), brush some of the egg wash over the top of each crescent roll.
Once your rolls are ready to go and the oven is preheated, get one cup of hot tap water ready. Quickly, pour the water into the baking pan at the bottom of the oven and place your rolls on the higher shelf. Cook at 450 for 10 minutes. Take the rolls out and let the oven cool down to 350 degrees.
If you plan on eating your rolls within 4 days, you can fully bake them. Bake at 350 for 12 to 16 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool on a rack.
Otherwise, you can freeze them for up to a month by partially baking them. Only cook at 350 degrees for 4 minutes, then let cool and freeze. (Once you're ready to eat the frozen rolls, defrost at room temperature and then bake at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes.)
These rolls below are too brown for partially baking - I didn't let the oven cool down to 350 before giving them the 4 extra minutes. (Obviously, my oven doesn't cook evenly either.)
For this batch, I did let the oven cool. These look better for partially baking even though it's still quite evident how uneven my oven is.
I let these two go ahead and bake fully. They were scrumptious.
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