I made my first croissants a few months ago and have become obsessed with laminating dough ever since. This dough recipe is an adaptation of Clair Saffitz’s croissant recipe, which you can find on youtube or The New York Times. She is amazing at explaining how and why you do each step and I would highly recommend watching her croissant video. I now feel confident in my skill to produce a buttery, flaky pastry. So, naturally I have started experimenting with different flavours and techniques.

This one is genuinely one of the most delicious things I have made. I generally have a more savoury palette, so wanted to make something a bit salty and thought a char siu inspired meat would work really well against the buttery pastry. Char siu is a Cantonese roast pork marinated in a variety of spices producing a fatty, sweet, savoury tender meat. Here I have used smoked bacon to recreate the roasted meat flavour and a marinade that is by no means traditional, but perfectly reminiscent of char siu. It brings together two great food cultures together with French pastry and Chinese roast pork to produce a perfect bite.

Creating these is a 24 hour process, so definitely requires patience and skill to successfully laminate dough, but most of that time is hands-off resting, allowing the gluten to relax and the butter to chill. They are worth the work.

CHAR SIU DANISH

Makes 10
EQUIPMENT
rolling pin, sharp knife, wheel cutter, wire rack, parchment paper, cling film, baking sheets

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH
462g bread flour
45g caster sugar
9g maldon salt
6g active dried yeast
163g water
92g whole milk
43g chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

BUTTER BLOCK
260g unsalted butter
plain flour for rolling

FILLING
24 rashers smoked streaky bacon
2 tbsp boiling water
1 pouch Lobo roasted pork seasoning
1 tsp five spice
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp hoisin sauce
25ml gin

GLAZE & TOPPINGS
2 tbsp of marinade
4 tbsp apricot jam
3 tbsp sesame seeds

METHOD

DAY ONE
Add Lobo seasoning powder and boiling water to a bowl. Stir till dissolved. Then add all the remaining marinade ingredients minus the gin and stir together. Remove 2 tbsp of marinade to a new bowl. Add the gin to your remaining marinade and add the bacon, make sure it is all evenly covered. Cover and put in the fridge to marinade.

Add the apricot jam to the remaining 2 tbsp of gin free marinade. cover and refrigerate ’til tomorrow.

Start the dough. Add flour, sugar, salt, yeast, water and milk to a mixer. Mix on low for 5 minutes or until the dough has become smooth.
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave for 10 minutes.

Add the cubes of butter to the dough and mix on medium-low for 10 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally as butter will gather there. The dough should be smooth and not sticky. Cover with cling film and let rise at room temperature till it is 1 ½ times its original size (about 45 minutes to an hour). Then rest in the fridge for between 4 to 12 hours, the longer the dough sits in the fridge the more flavour develops.

While the dough is resting, make your butter block. Fold your parchment into a 20cm square. Then slice your butter blocks to roughly the same thickness and arrange in the middle of the parchment with the sides touching each other. Fold the sides of the parchments so the butter is encased. Turn over and lightly beat with a rolling pin, this will soften the butter and fuse them together, you can flip over and do the same on the other side.
don’t worry if the parchment tears a little. if it tears too much that it interferes with rolling, just re-wrap in new parchment

Now the butter should be a cohesive block. Place your rolling pin across the block diagonally and start pushing the butter into the corners of your parchment square. Keep turning and rolling till you have a neat square with an even thickness all the way round. Place the butter back into to the fridge.

When you dough has rested for an adequate amount of time, remove from the fridge with the butter block. Leave the butter on the side to soften slightly while you shape the dough. Sprinkle a little flour on your clean work surface and shape the dough into a 20cm square (you can wrap in cling film to help with this in the same way you used parchment for the butter block). Once you have a 20cm square, roll one length to 40 cm to create a rectangle.
keep even pressure when rolling to control the shape and ensure an even thickness.
don’t worry if you corners aren’t perfect.

You want the pastry and butter to feel the same when laminating. If the butter is too cold it will break, if it is too warm it will leak out the pastry. Check the butter, you should be able to bend it without it breaking, if it feels brittle let it warm up for a few more minutes.

Unwrap the butter, leaving one side on the parchment paper. Flip the butter block onto the centre of your pastry. You should have an equal piece of pastry showing on each side of your butter block. Using a sharp knife cut these side pieces of pastry off. Flip them onto the butter block with the neat cut edges on the outer sides. Pinch the centre seam together.

Lift the dough up and lightly flour your surface again. Place the dough down so the seam is vertical. Using your rolling pin firmly press the top edge of the dough and then the bottom edge of the dough so they become indented. Then from the bottom do this pressing motion all the way up to the top (this is softening the butter and making it easier to roll). Keeping your 20cm width throughout, start rolling your dough to be 60cm long. Keep lifting off the surface to make sure it is not sticking and flour if needed.
use as little flour as possible and brush away any excess flour before folding when rolling push towards and away from yourself rather than down.

If your edges aren’t squared off use a sharp knife or wheel cutter to trim off excess dough, so you have a neat rectangle. Brush away any excess flour from the dough’s surface. Fold both of the shorter sides of the rectangle into the middle of the dough leaving a ½ cm gap between them. Then fold one half onto the other, so it resembles a book. With a sharp knife slice the folded edges, so the layers are exposed. Wrap tightly in cling film and freeze for 15 minutes. Then put in the fridge for 1 hour

Remove from the fridge and let sit for 5 minutes at room temperature. Place on lightly floured surface and roll out to a 20x60cm rectangle using the same technique as previously. This time you will do a letter fold, fold the top third over the centre third and then fold the bottom third up and over. Press gently and slice the sides as before. Wrap and cool as before

Remove from the fridge and let sit for 5 minutes at room temperature. Place on a lightly floured surface, press the dough in the same motion as before and then roll out into a 41cm x 31cm rectangle or as close as you can get to it before the dough starts springing back. Wrap tightly and place on a baking sheet to keep it straight. Rest in the freezer for 15 minutes then transfer to the fridge to chill overnight (8-12 hours)

DAY TWO
3 ½ hours before you want your pastries ready, place a frying pan of just boiled water in the bottom of the oven. The steam will make the ideal proofing environment for your danishes.

Unwrap the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to 41cm x 31cm rectangle. Using your ruler and knife or cutting wheel trim off any uneven edges, so you have an even rectangle measuring 40cm x 30cm.

Place the pastry with the long side parallel to your body. Brush a light layer of the syrup all over the pastry. Place your pre-cooked bacon strips vertically across the dough leaving a 5cm gap along the top and bottom of the dough. Fold the bottom length of dough over the bacon and then wrap up like a roulade. You want bare dough at the end to seal the pastry, the bacon will start pushing up slightly as you roll, so trim any off if the end isn’t bare. When rolled into a long sausage lightly push down on it to seal it, measure the length and if it has reduced in size firmly but gently tease if back to a length of 40cm. Scatter the sesame seeds on the work surface evenly and roll your dough in them, so they stick to the surface. Wrap and rest flat in the fridge.

After 30 minutes check the temperature of your oven. You want the temperature in the oven to be between 22c – 26c, any higher and the butter will start to melt and your pastries will become dense. If it is in this range (I generally aim for 24c) then you can start prepping your pastries for proofing. If not leave for another 10 minutes and check again.

Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the pastry from the fridge and mark 4cm intervals along it length ways, giving you 10 even pieces. With a sharp knife slice into individual pastries. Place 5 on each baking sheet. Place them so the sealed edge is facing the side of the tray, with a 4cm gap to allow for expansion whilst proofing and cooking. This is so when they cook they don’t unravel too much and give you a more uniform look.

Place in the oven to proof. They will take between 1 hour and 1 ½ hours to prove. Half way through i like to swap the positions of the trays and turn them, as those on a higher shelf seem to prove quicker. When done they should have puffed up and be jiggly when you lightly move the tray.
be very gentle when moving trays during proofing, as they are very delicate

Remove the pastries from the oven and place the trays in the fridge to chill for 10/15 minutes whilst you heat your oven.

Remove the pan from the bottom of the oven and heat to 200c/180c fan.

Add the pastries and cook for 15 minutes. Do not open the oven during this time. Then swap the trays to different shelves and flip the trays round so they all get an even cook. Cook for a further 10 minutes. They should be nicely browned at this stage.

Remove and immediately brush the glaze over each pastry, transfer to a wire rack to cool