Viva la France!

There's something wonderful about French cuisine. Perhaps it's the quality and the simplicity with which it's made. Perhaps it's the incredible ingredients you need to use. Or perhaps it's the lifestyle surrounding the food itself.

The traditional French breakfast is quite simple and light. French bread like baguettes or farmhouse bread with jam and or butter and a cup of black coffee. On weekends or as a special treat, the French will eat Croissants for breakfast in place of bread. They'll generally be taken with fresh jam only (adding butter to a butter pastry is a bit of overkill), or will be dipped into a coffee bowl.

The perfect French husband will pop down to the local baker at 7am on a Sunday morning to get some Croissants, hot from the oven, for his family to enjoy.

We decided to make some for a change instead of buying them, just to see how difficult it really is.

Things you'll need for the Croissants:

• 1½ cups of unbleached white bread flour
  
• ½ cup fine French plain flour, or Italian '00 flour
  
• ½ tsp salt
  
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
  
• 7g (¼oz) fresh yeast. You can get this from any good deli.
  
• ½ cup lukewarm milk
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
  
• ½ cup good butter
  

Things you'll need for the Glaze:

• 1 egg yolk
  
• 1 tbsp milk

Sift the flours and salt together into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Put the yeast into the lukewarm milk and make a cream. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the milk and yeast mix as well as the lightly beaten egg. Mix into the flour until it forms a dough.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes. Place in a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour.

The entire section above can be done using a bread machine - simply add all ingredients and set your bread machine to 'dough'. The kneading and proofing will all be taken care of.

Punch down the dough (to remove excess air), then re-cover and chill for another hour. Meanwhile flatten the butter into a block about 1cm thick. Knock back the dough again and turn out on to a lightly foured surface. Roll out to a 20cm square, with the edges thinner than the centre.

Place the block of butter diagonally in the centre and fold the corners of the dough like an envelope, tucking the edges to completely enclose the butter.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 2cm thick, about twice as long as it is wide. Fold the bottom third up and the top third down and seal the edges with a rolling pin. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.

Repeat the rolling, folding and chilling twice more, turning the dough by 90˚ each time. Roll out on a floured surface into a 63x33 cm rectangle, then trim the edges to give a 60x30 cm rectangle. Cut in half lengthways, then into 8 equal triangles.

Place the triangles onto baking sheets, cover with clear film and chill for another 10 minutes.

To shape the croissants, place each one with the wide end at the top, hold each side and pull gently to stretch the top of the triangle a little, then roll towards the point, finishing with the pointed end tucked underneath. Curve the ends towards the pointed end to make a crescent. Place on two baking sheets, spaced well apart.

Mix together the egg yolk and milk for the glaze. Lightly brush a little over the croissants, avoiding the cut edges of the dough. Cover the croissants loosely with oiled plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until they've doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220˚C. Brush the croissants with the remaining glaze and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving warm.

For those who are wondering, these were wonderful, especially with our home made strawberry jam. Yes, they were a bit of a pain to make, what with the rolling, chilling, waiting etc. - but the satisfaction they provided was greater than the struggle of making them. We also experimented by adding a little chopped chocolate to the wide end of a couple of croissants before rolling them up. They were really nice, especially when dipped in coffee.