I haven’t made a dessert in a while. What? Sadness. Remember when I asked you what I should bake?
The answer was croissants. Argentinian croissants. Medialunas.
Which is not really dessert, but breakfast. A dessert-y breakfast.
Here’s the deal.
I never really eat croissants (except in Paris because when in Paris, one eats croissants) and while there’s a fantastic little Belgian bakery near work that slaves away for 18 hours to make just one…it sort of goes the way of the donut IMO. However, in Argentina, these are a breakfast favorite served alongside some strong coffee, and Sunday it was raining here in Chicago and this is what happened. And I’m glad it did. Turns out croissants are not that daunting.
And when I was done, I thought…Oh S&*%, now I can make croissants.
And you can, too! It really is not that hard. All is takes is a little time and a little love and isn’t that just what makes everything taste better?
Medialunas are to Argentina like bagels are to New York. Everywhere, and there are two main varietals: medialunas de manteca (butter medialunas), and medialunas de grasa (‘fat’ or ‘grease’ medialunas), the former being a little bit thicker and a little bit sweeter, and that is what I bring to you today. I can get on board with that.
They can be flavored any which way, and I decided to fill some of mine with chocolate (because chocolate!) and some with the jammy remains of these fantastic vanilla plum moscatos (because recycling!). Both were very well received at work and last 0.045 seconds after I put them on the table.
The recipe I used I adapted from Rebecca, and if you need a visual of her method below, check out her pretty pictures. I took no such pictures, so…sorry for that.
Medialunas
Ingredients
- 6 TB warm water
- 14 g active dry yeast
- 2 cups all-purpose four
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 TB sugar
- 7 TB unsalted butter
- jam or chocolate, to fill
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Mix together the water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Cover, and set aside in a warm place (like the microwave) to proof.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt together. Make a well with the dry ingredients and add the yeast mixture. Add the beaten egg and mix with a wooden spoon, switching to your hands with the spoon starts to be more difficult. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Add the butter to a cutting board. Cover with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and pound flat into a square. Set aside.
- Once the 30 minutes is up, roll out the dough on a floured surface until1 cm thick. Place the square of butter on top of the dough, centered, with a border of dough around it. Fold the edges of dough so that the butter is still visible. This should form a square. Then fold the square in half to make a rectangle. Finally, fold the rectangle in half to make a smaller square. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Once the 30 min is up, roll the dough into a 1 cm thick rectangle. Then, just as above, fold the edges of the dough together to form a square. Fold the square in half to form rectangle, and then again to form another square.
- Once the 30 minutes is up, roll out the dough until a thickness of 1 cm (in a rectangular shape). With a sharp knife, cut the edges to form a rectangle. Then cut the rectangle horizontally in half. You should now have two rectangular strips. Cut congruent equilateral triangles across the strips (in the shape of Pillsbury crescent rolls- come on, you know it). Pull apart and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Fill the triangles as desired - they may be easier to pull a little at room temperature.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown. While the croissants bake, make the glaze by adding the sugar and water to a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar dissolves and let simmer about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
- Once the croissants are out of the oven, brush with glaze and serve immediately.
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