Brioche Croissants filled with lemon curd

These brioche croissants were the first thing I made with my new Kenwood mixer the day it arrived.

I had trouble making brioche before as the dough was so wet, it was impossible to knead without adding loads of extra flour which completely changed the texture of the dough.

With the dough hook on the mixer though, it wasn't a problem.

The dough will be really wet, and needs the overnight rising time in the fridge but is wonderfully easy to work with the next day.

Homemade lemon curd is the only way to go on these, if you don't like lemon curd you could do fill these with Nutella or just leave them plain.

Plus you look like a domestic goddess when you casually whip up a batch of soft, fragrant croissants on a Sunday morning!

The recipe makes about 16 croissants.

Ingredients

250ml (1 cup) whole milk
50g (1/4 cup) sugar
4 eggs
875g (3 1/2 cups) bread flour
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
330g (1 1/2 cups) soft butter
16 tsp lemon curd

Egg wash - 1 egg and 1 tbsp water


Pour milk into a saucepan and heat till lukewarm.

In a large bowl add sugar and warm milk. Add 250g (1 cup) of flour, mix till smooth.

Add lightly beaten eggs and mix completely.

Add in instant yeast and another 250g (1 cup) of flour. Continue to mix. Add in salt and another 250g (1 cup) of flour. Mix till the dough comes together.

If it is still looking really wet (like pancake batter) then add the last 125g (1/2 cup) of flour at this point.

Knead dough for using dough hook on mixer. I kneaded mine with the dough hook for 5 mins until it started to look more like a bread dough. If you don't have a mixer then you can knead this by hand, but be prepared that it is a very wet dough and you don't want to add too much flour or you will ruin the texture. I would add an extra 1/4 cup of flour while kneading *at most*

Place dough back into bowl if kneading by hand.

Add a quarter of the soft butter to the and mix together. Once the butter is completely incorporated add another quarter of butter, continue until all the butter is mixed in.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place into fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

The next morning, sprinkle your work surface with flour and divide the dough into two. Roll one half of the dough out into a 15 inch circle and cut into 8 triangular pieces.

Add a tsp of lemon curd to the wide part of each triangle and roll the dough up into a crescent/croissant shape. Start at the wide end and roll towards the tip. Pinch the sides tightly to prevent all the lemon curd escaping.

Repeat with other half of dough and place rolls onto floured baking sheets. Cover and let rise for 40 mins.

At this point you could brush with egg wash if you wanted shiny, golden croissants. I didn't have the extra egg when I did them but I will make sure to do it next time.

Place rolls in pre-heated 350F/170C oven for 15-17 mins until light golden brown.

Allow to cool and then serve with lots of tea!