Spelt Croissants

Who doesn't love buttery and flaky croissants? They are rich, decadent and irresistible! According to Jeffrey Hamelman, when you know it's a good croissant after you take a bite and look at your shirt: if it’s covered with flakes of golden pastry that shatter from each bite, then it's a good one. It took me two days to make 16 croissants, and my husband finished 4 at one go in 20 minutes. So I strongly suggest you double the recipe!

• 250 ml Whole milk
• 30 g Fresh yeast
• 40 g Brown sugar
• 300 g Spelt #630 flour
• 100 g Whole spelt flour
• 2 tsp Salt
• 300 g Cold and unsalted butter
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten

1. Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and fresh yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add spelt flours, and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Wrap the dough with a cling film and chill for 1 hour.
3. Place butter between two sheets of cling film and roll with a rolling pin to form 8x5 inch/20x12 cm rectangle. Chill until firm. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 16x10 inch/40x25 cm rectangle.
4. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold the bottom up over the butter, brushing off any excess flour, and then fold the top down over the butter to seal the butter.
5. With a heavy rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 15x10 inch/38x25 cm. Fold the length of dough into thirds, as for a letter. Turn so that the open ends are at twelve and six o'clock. The first simple “fold” is completed. Wrap well in plastic and chill overnight.
6. Repeat the simple fold one more time. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill 1 hour. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on the floured work surface. Unwrap and roll out to a rectangle, about 15x10 inch/38x25 cm. This time fold the top and bottom in so that they meet in the middle of the dough, then fold the dough in half again so that there are four layers of dough. Chill the dough, wrapped with plastic, in the fridge for 2 hours. Repeat the double fold once more. This is the final fold before rolled out and cut into croissants.
7. To shape the croissants, roll the dough into a 25x15 inch/64x38 cm rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. It should be about 1/4 inch/6mm thick. From the long side, fold the dough into half and using a yardstick as a guide mark the folded strip into 8 triangles and the scrapings of dough at each end. Cut each double triangle into two. So you’ll have 16 triangles.
8. Make a small slit in the base of each triangle, place a piece of dough trimming at the base. Starting at the base of the triangle, roll the dough up into a log. Tuck the tip the triangle under the body of the croissant. Bend in two corners to form the crescent shape.
9. Place the croissants on a baking sheet and allow them to rise for 1 to 2 hours until almost doubled in size. Half an hour before finishing the proofing, brush the croissants with the lightly beaten egg. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F with a shallow dish filled with water at the bottom of oven. Bake the croissants for 20-25 minutes. Allow them to cool on a rack before serving.