Croissants

After watching "The Great British Bake Off" last night I felt inspired to tackle something a little more challenging. So what better than the French breakfast classic, the croissant. I used too much yeast so when I left the croissants to rise they completely unraveled! But I just rerolled them and they seem to have turned out all right.

• 275ml milk
• 25g sugar
• 1 x 7g sachet fast-acting yeast or 15g fresh yeast
• 450g strong white flour
• 275g salted butter, softened
• 1 egg, whisked with 1 tsp milk

1. In a small saucepan, heat the milk until warm, remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and the yeast. Allow to sit for 5 minutes to get slightly frothy.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl and rub in 50g of the butter. Add the milk and yeast and mix to a dough. Knead until smooth - for 8-10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in a food mixer. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for 2 hours.
3. Beat the remaining butter with a rolling pin into a thin slab, about 8mm thick, between cling film. Take the dough out of the fridge and, dusting the work surface and the top of the dough with flour, roll into a rectangle about 20 x 40cm. Using a pastry brush, brush off any excess flour.
4. Place the butter on one half of the rectangle about 2.5cm from the edges, and fold the other half over it. Roll out the dough into another rectangle of roughly the same size as before and fold in three. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
5. With the open ends facing towards and away from you, roll out the pastry again, and fold in three. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave for 15 minutes.
6. Roll into a rectangle once more and fold in three again.
7. Roll out the pastry to 1/2cm thick, 35cm wide and as long as possible - about 55cm. Trim the edges and cut in half lengthways. From each long thin rectangle cut out approximately 9 triangles: the base of each should be about 15cm wide.
8. Starting at the base, roll towards the tip of each triangle and curve the edges inwards slightly. Place on a baking tray spaced slightly apart. Brush gently with some of the egg wash and put in a warm place to prove for 30-45 minutes. When doubled in size, gently brush with egg again.
9. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas mark 7. Place the croissants in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 and bake for 10 more minutes until crisp and golden brown.

(Recipe taken from "Bake" by Rachel Allen)