It’s quite fun to make this type of dough with the grating frozen butter, folding, rolling, and chilling steps, so I thought why not make another video with it. This time we’ll not only laminate the dough with loads of butter, but we’ll also layer it with custard.
The method is almost identical to the one we used in both the kouign-amann and pain aux raisins videos, so if you have made any of them you should be able to make this very easily. And even if you have never made anything like it you should be able to after watching the video.
You can proof and bake the knots in large muffin tins. The individual ones I used measure 8cm (3.15in) across and 4cm (1.57in) deep. This recipe makes 8 knots.
Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.
Ingredients
For the dough –
250g (8.8oz) white bread flour
3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.32oz) fresh yeast
4g (0.14oz) salt
25g (0.9oz) sugar
25g (0.9oz) melted butter
130g (4.6oz) water*
2 x 100g (2 x 3.5oz) frozen butter for the layers
½ egg for glazing before baking
For the custard –
25g (0.9oz) sugar
10g (0.35oz) cornstarch
10g (0.35oz) butter
4g (0.14oz) vanilla paste or vanilla essence
½ egg
100g (3.5oz) milk
To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.
The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration.
If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.
Method
- Make the dough. Combine the water, yeast, salt, sugar, and melted butter. Mix well to dissolve the salt and sugar, and to hydrate the yeast. Add the flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature around 25C (77F).
- Cover and ferment for 45 minutes.
- Fold.
- Ferment for 45 minutes.
- Roll the dough out to a large rectangle. Grate one of the frozen butter pieces evenly all over the surface. Fold the dough into three layers. Roll it out again and fold it in three once more.
- Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and repeat the exact same steps as above. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. I left mine in the fridge for 24 hours.
- Make the custard. Combine all the ingredients in a pan and set it on medium-high heat. Cook while whisking continuously for 2 minutes or until thickened. Transfer to a bowl, cover with clingfilm so that it’s touching the surface. Refrigerate until needed.
- Shape the pastries. Roll the dough out to a large rectangle once again. This time larger than before. Around 50cm (20in) x 40cm (16in).
- Trim the edges and spread the custard evenly all over the dough. Fold the dough into three layers horizontally.
- Cut the folded dough into 8 equal pieces and then cut each piece into 4 strips. Braid the strips into 4-strand knots. Place in the muffin tins.
- Cover and final proof for 3 hours. The final proof may take less time if you only chilled the dough for 1 hour after the final fold.
- Brush the knots with egg and sprinkle with sea salt or pearl sugar or leave them plain.
- Bake at 170C (340F) fan on for 25 minutes or until golden brown all over.
Leave to cool down and enjoy!
Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.
Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.
