Garlic Cheese Crescents

I found Mónika’s (aka "kreatív konyha") garlic-cheese crescent this Friday and I should say, it was love at first sight. Sadly, I cannot smell these pastries through internet, but my nose was immediately triggered. The other pastry I initially planned to bake today was postponed to Sunday.

INGREDIENTS (16 crescents)

25 dkg pastry flour

25 dkg all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon salt

pinch of pepper

1 dl lukewarm milk

1 packet dried yeast

1 coffee spoon sugar

2.5 dl lukewarm water

5 dkg oil (yes, in dkg not in dl)

For the filling: 10 dkg soft butter, 15 dkg grated cheese and 2-3 cloves of garlic

I really tried to follow the recipe step by step, but as usual something had to be wrong. For example the water was too much, and I needed to add more flour.

1)      Mix the lukewarm milk with the yeast and the sugar. Cover it up and wait until foams appear on the surface.

2)     Mix flours, salt and pepper together.

3)     When yeast is ready, add it to the flour together with the lukewarm water and the oil.

4)     Knead the dough with your hands for 5-6 minutes. You really have to bring your strength here as it is a yeast dough. I have to knead it hard until it doesn’t stick anymore.

5)     If ready, make a nice ball and put it in a bowl that you have previously oiled. Cover it up and keep it in a nice warm, but not too warm place. (Yeast kind of dies at this point if they are on more than 100 Fahrenheit.) The dough needs to rise and double its size.

6)     In the meantime, you can make the filling. Use a fork and mix the grated cheese, the soft butter and the smashed or grated garlic together.

7)     If the dough reached twice of its original size, knead it again.

8)     Cut the dough into two and roll them out (one by one) into a circle as regular as possible.

9)     Slather the rolled out dough with the filling and cut it into 8 identical pieces to get 8 triangles.

10)  Roll up all triangles one by one into a "croissant" and put them on a baking sheet in an oven pan. Leave them there for 30 minutes before baking. They should still be in a warm, but not too warm place.

11) Grease them with eggs.

12) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (390 Fahrenheit) and bake them for 25 minutes.

SOME TIPS:

- You definitely need an apron as I was covered with flour from tip to toe.

- The board you roll the dough out should be large enough as I only had a wooden cutting board and rolling out was - let's just say - painful.

- If you have no warm place to rise the dough, you can use your oven. Heat it up to 40 degrees (100 Fahrenheit) and put the bowl with the dough (still covered with a kitchen towel) inside. When it reached double size, it is ready. Plastic bowls will not melt.

- Alternatively, if the minimum heat option is 80 degrees (175 Fahrenheit) as in may case, I put the bowl with the dough (still covered with kitchen towel) to the edge of the stove, opened the oven door for 10 cm (4 inch) to guide the heat to the bowl. It worked perfectly.

- Alternatively, you fill up your kitchen sink with warm water, and put the bowl with the dough (still covered with kitchen towel) in. If the size of the dough doubles, it is ready. If the water starts to cool, pour some warm water in. Not boiling water!!!

- You should roll up the crescents tightly as the butter-cheese-garlic mixture will flow out. If it flow out you will get some pretty tasty grilled cheese, but nothing will remain inside. :))) No complains though, my husban loved them.

- If the mixture flow out, use some paper towel to mop up the butter before serving.

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It was a perfect match for my husband's black mussels.