(For plain, chocolate and ham & cheese)
- Night before: The croissant dough should be pulled from the freezer the night before and placed 4” apart on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Place them in the refrigerator overnight to rest and defrost.
- 1.5 Hours before serving: In the morning, remove the croissants from the fridge and allow them to proof (uncovered) to about 2x their original size. This can happen in your make-shift proofer oven (see Cook's Illustrated instructions below), or simply on the counter in a warm kitchen. Best results will come from the addition of humidity so we recommend giving the proofer a try! Give yourself about 1 hour for this process, depending on the temperature of your home or proofer. Trust us — Do not proof them straight from the freezer and do not proof them beyond doubling in size.
- Once the croissants have about doubled in size, take a brush and paint a layer of egg wash on the top of each croissant and bake at 375 degrees in a convection oven for about 18 minutes (in a conventional oven at 425 for about 20 minutes) or until sufficiently colored.
- Allow the croissants to cool before removing from the parchment. Then enjoy!
HOW TO CREATE A PROOF BOX
Although our Persephone bakers have done the relatively hard part of hand laminating the dough for your bake-at-home pastries, you really must simulate a proofing box for them to get close to the real thing. Cook's Illustrated offers tips to achieve the best results.
Turning Your Oven into a Proof Box by Cook's Illustrated, published January 2012
Professional bakers often have a proof box on hand. Home cooks don't. Or do they?
When professional bakers let dough rise, they often make use of a proof box: a large cabinet that holds the air temperature between 80 and 90 degrees and humidity around 75 percent—conditions ideal for yeast activity. Whenever our kitchen is particularly cold or dry, we start to wonder about homespun imitations. After trial and error, we finally landed on a consistently effective method.
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and place a loaf or cake pan in the bottom of the oven.
- Place the container of dough on the middle rack and pour 3 cups of boiling water into the pan.
- Close the oven door and allow the dough to rise as instructed (Persephone Note : we provide instructions with every bake-at-home item!).
- If you limit the time that the oven door is open, the proof box can be used for both the first and second rise without the need to refresh the water.