S'mores Croissants

I made these S'mores Croissants and couldn't stop taking photographs of them... until I started eating them, then I couldn't stop eating them.



S'mores Croissants

The dough is the same dough I used for my Croissants and Pains au Chocolat ... just so you know.

Makes 20

For the Ferment:
100g "00" flour
55ml full-cream milk
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried instant yeast
20g unsalted butter, softened

For the Dough:
935g "00" flour
600ml full-cream milk
60g soft brown sugar
3 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 teaspoons dried instant yeast
500g unsalted butter, for laminating the dough

For the Filling: 

Hershey's chocolate bars, snapped into pieces

White marshmallows

For the Egg Wash:
1 egg
100ml milk
a pinch of salt

For the Topping:

Hershey's chocolate bars, chopped and melted

Digestive biscuits (Graham crackers), crushed

Make the Ferment:
Using electric mixer with the dough attachment, beat all the ingredients together until it becomes a ball. Keep the mixer on low speed and mix for about 10 minutes until becomes elastic and smooth.

Put the ferment in a bowl covered with plastic bag and leave at room temperature for 2 hours to ferment. After, store the ferment in the fridge overnight (this can be kept for few days in the fridge).

Make the Dough:
Using electric mixer with the dough attachment,  put the ferment and all the other ingredients, except butter, in and mix until a dough ball is formed. Keep the mixer on low speed and knead the dough  for 3 -4 minutes, followed by high speed for another 2 minutes.

Put the dough in a bowl covered with plastic bag or cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Laminate the Dough:
About 20 minutes before starting the dough laminating (incorporating butter into the dough) remove the butter from the fridge. Pound the butter with rolling pin between two sheets of baking paper into 20cm flat square. If the butter becomes too soft, store it in the fridge for 15 minutes before using.

Take the dough out of the fridge, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 20 x 40cm. Place the butter in the centre of the dough and fold the dough over the top. Seal the edges of the dough together to ensure the butter is completely enclosed in the dough.

Gently and carefully roll the dough out into a rectangle, about 20 x 90cm (approximately 3 times longer than the piece you started with). Mentally divide the rectangle into three equal sections, top, middle and bottom. Fold the top section over the middle, and fold the bottom to the middle, like folding a letter. Wrap the dough in a plastic bag or cling wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Take the dough out of the fridge and rotate the dough 90 degree so that the dough will be rolled in opposite direction from previous fold. Repeat the rolling, folding, and resting process as above two more times. There will be three foldings and rollings (the term is “three turns”) altogether and you need to rotate the dough 90 degree with each rolling.

After the final rolling and folding, store the laminated dough in the fridge for 20 minutes before shaping into croissants.

Make the egg wash by mixing all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Take the laminated dough out of the fridge and roll it out into a rectangle about 25 x 100cm with 5 -8 mm thickness.

Trim the edges of the dough so that it becomes a neat rectangle.

Cut the dough into 20 even rectangles.  Put the rectangles onto a baking tray and chill for 10 minutes.

Shape the Dough:
Take the chilled rectangles out of the fridge. Lightly flour a work surface and lay the rectangles out. Working at the shorter end, lay a line of dark chocolate pieces along it, then put some marshmallows next to them. Tightly roll the pastry over the chocolate and marshmallows.

Place shaped croissants on trays lined with baking paper.

Brush the tops lightly with egg-wash. Cover the tray with a tea towel. Let it stand at warm room temperature for 2 hours until it almost double in size. Croissants are proofed and ready for the bake when the layers become visible and the croissant are very soft and wobbly.

Bake the Dough:
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees C.

Brush the tops of the croissants again with wash before baking. Put the croissants into the oven, then immediately reduce oven temperature to 190 degrees C and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until they are deeply golden brown. 

Top the Croissants:

Allow the croissants to cool on a wire rack, drizzle with melted chocolate and sprinkle with crushed biscuit (cracker) crumbs.