Cheese Croissants

Right now my baking environment is pretty much out of my comfort zone. I am baking in somebody else's kitchen and the kitchen is surrounded by Scandinavian  heatwave - which means +30 degrees of C during the day and +20 degrees of C during the night! I am baking for a party for about 50 people so I need to be efficient, well-prepared and very profound in planning the cakes and savoury pastries to be served at the party. Time is running fast and so is sweat!

I started my baking marathon with cheese croissants which are now happily in the freezer waiting to be defrosted just before the party. My favourite filling is a combination of blue cheese and ham so I baked one batch of them. For those who are not blue cheese fans, I made another batch filled with strong emmental cheese and chopped ramiro paprikas.

I love the looks of the croissants, they are friendly-looking little pastries and they are fairly easy to make, too. Using fresh yeast is a must for me, it makes the dough more airy and chewy in a good way.

Cheese Croissants (makes about 24 middle-sized ones)

5 dl / 2 cups milk (I use fresh/full fat milk)

50 g fresh yeast (or 2x7g bags of dried yeast)

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar or honey

1 egg

150 g butter

about 1 kg plain flour

Filling(s):

250 g blue cheese and 250 g smoked ham chopped into small cubes

or

250 g grated emmental cheese and 1 ramiro paprika chopped into small cubes  

or

400 g your favourite hard cheese

1 egg for brushing

sesame seeds or poppy seeds for sprinkling

1. Warm up the milk so that is about 40 degrees C.

2. Whip in the yeast, salt, sugar and egg.

3. Start adding flour gradually.

4. Melt the butter and pour it in the dough after you have added about half of the flour.

5. Add more flour until the dough is not sticky any more.

6. Let the dough rise about ½h.

7. Roll half of the dough into a rectangle (about 5 mm thick).

8. Using a pizza cutter, cut out triangles and fill them with your choice of cheese (ham, paprika...)

9. Roll the triangles tightly into croissant shapes.

10. Let the croissants rise for about ½ h.

11. Preheat the oven to 225C / 435F.

12. Brush the risen croissants with egg and sprinkle with seeds of your choice.

13. Bake the croissants in the oven for 12-15 minutes.

14. Enjoy! 

I love croissants with my afternoon coffee. They are excellent party food - try making party-sized ones, mine are always too big for some reason... They are brilliant for brunch. The choices for filling are countless. Even plain butter will do as filling.

[To be honest, I do not know if these should be called croissants. The consistency of the dough is far from the buttery French croissant dough. Cheesehorn does not sound right, either. Investigation needed.]

Yeast loves hot weather...

Risen dough with fillings - blue cheese, Emmental, ramiro paprika and smoked ham.

Dough rolled flat, cut into triangles and filled with blue cheese and smoked ham.

Filled croissants rising on the baking tray.

Croissants are brushed with egg just before baking in the oven.

Croissants in the oven - they are brushed with egg and sprinkled with poppy seeds.

Ready croissants cooling. I sprinkled the ham&blue cheese ones with poppy seeds and the paprika&emmental ones with sesame seeds.