Sesame Croissants with Sesame & Mochi fillings (2021/01/21-1/23)

January 23, 2021

After trying out rainbow croissants and chocolate strip croissants, I want to innovate a bit and try baking sesame croissants, with sesame powder in dough and also sesame fillings with mochi wrapped inside. Sesame croissants turned out very crispy, the flowy sesame and soft mochi contrasted the crispy dough, giving very unique texture!

There is no sesame croissants recipe available online so I did not use too much sesame powder in croissant dough, as for the weight and size of sesame mochi fillings, I referred to chocolate bar’s size for pain au chocolate/chocolate croissants.

QUICK TAKEAWAYS

same weight of sesame powder + flour as that of flour for plain croissant, maintaining the other ingredients at the same weight, might lead to more moist dough as sesame powder and flour have different liquid absorption powder
- bake for longer time (400F for 10mins, 375F for 12-15mins)
- OR use some more flour
use less fillings next time, maybe half as much as this time (8g mochi + 8g sesame fillings)
make sesame mochi fillings later on Day 2’s night to shorten the time-to-consumption of mochi
after taking sesame fillings out of fridge (day 2, to wrap mochi in), its temperature increases very rapidly and becomes soft; using a plastic wrap to wrap it around mochi might be easier and both are malleable
shape fillings to a cuboid with side surfaces as square, so when rolling croissant, croissant is not flat; OR, remove fillings out of freezer earlier so it is soft and can be reshape when shaping with croissant

RECIPE

ingredients for 7-8 croissant dough following WeekendBakery’s recipe.

10g sesame powder
240g All Purpose Flour (Gold Medal)
- use 245g next time
70g water (RT)
70g whole milk (RT)
30g sugar
25g butter (RT)
6g yeast
6g salt
140g lamination butter

	ideal flour – flour Sfoglia – Lievitati flour	Gold Medal AP	King Arthur
W baking strength	W320-W380	???	???
P/L force & time (elasticity & tenacity)	0.4-0.7	???	???
Protein	13-15%	10.5%	11.7%

sesame fillings (10-15g/croissant):

25g sugar
55g sesame powder
5g ground peanuts
25g butter
5g water

mochi fillings (10-15g/croissant):

36g mochiko/glutinous rice flour
5g corn starch
10g sugar
70g milk
add after steam: 5g butter

DAY 1: 20-30mins

Step 1: bring out yeast, milk and butter from fridge, warming out to room temperature (butter becomes soft and yeast activates)

Step 2: mix 6g yeast with 70g water, 2g sugar, set for 10-15mins (foam appearing = yeast activating).

Step 3: Mix 10g sesame powder, 240g AP flour, 70g milk, 25g soft butter, 28g sugar and 6g salt, yeast water. Form dough and knead for 10-15 mins.

Step 4: wrap dough tightly with plastic wrap try to prevent fermentation before lamination), first chill in freezer for 1 hour (according to this recipe, attached below) then move to fridge and store overnight.

Step 5: mix 55g sesame powder, 5g ground peanuts, 25g sugar (halved from previous sesame filling recipe), 25g melted butter and 5g water; mix well and transfer to a sandwich bag, store in fridge overnight.

keep in normal container/bowl is fine, sandwich bag is just for next day easy cutting sesame filling into blocks after tearing off sandwich bag.

DAY 2: ~1.5-2 hours

Dough weight: 453g

Butter weight (31%) = 453 * 31% = 140g

Step 1: slice 140g European butter (>80% fat), place in a 10cm x 10cm square-shape parchment paper. Roll butter into a butter sheet at least 1.5cm thick. Put back in fridge if too soft.

Step 2: bring out the croissant dough, roll out large enough so that it can completely seal the butter sheet like an envelop. If they are not the same texture, put both back in fridge to harden them.

if butter is too soft, might not be easy for rolling out; butter might blend in with dough before baking, leading to lack of the honeycomb structure inside.

Step 3: wrap butter sheet with croissant dough. Then roll it into a rectangle shape long enough to fold as blanket. If there are air bubbles in croissant dough, poke it with a knife.

Step 4: Fold into blanket shape, rest in fridge for 30mins.

Step 5: repeat step 3 and 4 twice, so there are three rolling and folding in total. Rest in fridge overnight.

Fillings:

Step 1: mix these ingredients for mochi:

36g mochiko/glutinous rice flour (sieve through)
5g corn starch
10g sugar
70g milk

Step 2: sieve mochi mixture twice, then pour into steaming container brushed with oil; wrap container with plastic wrap, poke some holes and steam for 20-30mins over medium-high heat

Step 3: remove from heat, add 5g butter, quick stir with chopstick/fork for 1-2mins; rest till cool down (put in freezer for 5-10mins to speed up) and knead till smooth with gloves

Step 4: divide into 8 portions (113g/8 = 13-14g), they could be sticky so put on non-stick sheet like plastic wrap or butter wrap 😉

Step 5: evenly cut sesame filling sheet into 8 portions (124g/8 = 15.5g)

Step 6: wrap 10-15g mochi inside10-15g sesame block; roll into cuboid, put in a sealed container and store in freezer overnight

both mochi and sesame fillings are very soft and malleable out of fridge, use a plastic wrap might help a full wrap
place in freezer for better shaping

DAY 3: ~3 hours

Step 1: slightly press down croissant dough to get rid of air inside. Slightly rolling out to a small rectangle. Remove fillings from freezer to fridge.

Step 2: roll out carefully for the final croissant sheet for shaping (base of 40cm, height of 25cm, thickness of 4-5mm). Make sure each croissant triangle has base of 10cm, height of 25cm, thickness of 4-5mm.

Step 3: put croissant dough sheet back in fridge for 15-30mins. All the rolling before might warm up croissant dough especially in summer, making croissant dough sticky and “skin” break.

Step 4: slice croissant dough sheet into triangles, cut a 1-2cm opening at triangle base’s midpoint. place filling cuboid at the base and roll up tightly. If cuboid is too flat and change the shape of croissant, gently reshape fillings.