Gluten Free Croissants
After I posted my delicious recipe for Flakey Croissants, I received many requests for a gluten free version. Not one to shy away from a challenge, even one that has me repeatedly measuring out ingredients and waiting and waiting and waiting (do you know how much I dislike measuring and waiting?), I thought to myself, "How hard can it be?" (insert bitter laughter here), and I got to work. I ended up making one version with the traditionally used butter and milk and one with garlic ghee (OMG) and water. If you can't handle butter, you may be able to handle ghee...use that recipe. The method for both is nearly the same.
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Here are the tools you'll need:
1. Mixer with bread hook (I love my KitchenAid)
3. Plastic Wrap
4. Rolling Pin
5. Pizza cutter or pastry cutter
6. Sifter or wire mesh strainer
7. Large glass bowl
8. Measuring spoons
9. Square pan and saucepan if using ghee
10. Super cute apron (guys, you are on your own here)
Here are the ingredients you'll need:
* 1 1/4 cup warm milk (or water for the Ghee version)
*2 TB honey
*3 cups Gluten free flour mix (I used Pamela's and Arrowhead Mills and liked both). 3 cups is about 1 package of mix. You'll need extra flour for dusting surfaces, so I suggest buying 2 bags. Pamela's comes with a packet of yeast, so you won't need extra yeast. The link above for Arrowhead gets you 6 small packages of mix, so you will not need any extra.
*1/2 pound butter or Ghee (I used the garlic ghee)
*1 egg
Step by Step Instructions
1. Proof the yeast. To the mixing bowl, add the warm milk or water, honey, and yeast. Allow to sit until you see bubbles.
1a. If you are using ghee, spoon a little over half of the jar of ghee into a small saucepan and melt on low heat. Pour melted ghee into a parchment paper lined, square pan. Put pan into freezer.
2. Using the sifter or strainer, sift all 3 cups of flour into the glass bowl.
3. Add sifted flour to proofed yeast and use bread hook to mix. Dough should pull away from sides of bowl but still look moist.
4. Flour a flat surface or spread out parchment paper, sprinkle flour, and knead dough for a minute. You want the dough to be moist enough to roll out but dry enough so that it is not sticking to the surface under it. Add enough flour to achieve this, roll the dough out into a long rectangle.
5. Fold dough into thirds; rolling bottom up and top down. Wrap tightly in plastic and place in the fridge. I placed my wrapped dough onto a cookie sheet for extra support. I felt that it kept the dough colder.
6. While dough is chilling, prepare the butter or ghee. If using butter, remove from fridge and slice into equal sized pieces. If using ghee, remove from freezer. Place butter or ghee between two sheets of (dusted with flour) parchment paper and use rolling pin to soften and flatten. Make sure the butter or ghee is not too thin.
7. Remove dough from fridge, and roll it out until it is a rectangle that is about 16" long and 10" wide. I found it helpful to do this on floured parchment paper. Place the butter or ghee in the center.
8. Using parchment paper to assist, fold dough over butter or ghee to completely cover. If you can see that the dough is not big enough to do this, roll out sides further.
9. Seal edges by using rolling pin and rolling gently over the top of the folded dough. Turn dough so that short end is near you, and gently, rolling from center, roll dough. The key here, and where I made my first mistake, is to make sure the butter or ghee does not poke through the dough. If it does, try to stretch dough back over.
10. Again, using parchment paper to assist, fold dough into thirds by folding the bottom third up and the top third down. To release dough from parchment paper, I used my hand to "massage" the bottom side of parchment paper until the dough released.
11. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 3 hours. After 3 hours, remove from fridge and, placing dough short side toward you, roll out again into a large rectangle.
12. Again, fold dough into thirds, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and place in fridge. This time the dough only needs to be chilled for about 30-45 minutes. In my opinion, 45 is better. You will repeat this process of rolling, folding and chilling, 3 more times. After the third time, roll out the dough into a long rectangle. Trim edges to make straight sides.
My kids love to use the scraps to create their own inventions. I pulled out the raisins and cinnamon and let them go to town!
13. Using pizza cutter, cut the dough into rectangles about 1.5-2" wide.
14. Now, cut each rectangle diagonally so that each rectangle is now 2 triangles.
15. Cut a small slit at the bottom of each triangle, and, with that end closest to your body, begin to roll. If you want to add any filling, do so by applying to base and spreading about halfway up the triangle. While you roll, push dough with thumbs to achieve the classic croissant shape.
My daughter wanted to shoot a video of me rolling the croissants. This part takes practice, so maybe this will help.
16. Place rolled croissants onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet and allow to rise for at least an hour.
17. Preheat oven to 400°F. Beat egg in bowl and brush along top of croissants, making sure to avoid the cracks where dough is folded on top of itself. This could seal the dough. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325°F and bake for 6 more minutes or until tops are golden. If using ghee, these do not get golden. You want to check these after the first 15 minutes.
Store croissants in sealed plastic bag.
Some of my Facebook friends wanted to see how these turned out so I did another video with my kids to show them. Enjoy!
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