Taro & Salted Egg Yolk Croissants | 香芋鹹蛋黃可頌

February 12, 2021

Today (02/12/2021) is the Lunar New Year. 2021 is the year of Ox, Happy “Niu” Year! “Niu” is the pronunciation of ox in mandarin, in Chinese, croissants are also called Niu Jiao Bao, Ox Horn Bread because the shape of croissants. To celebrate the Lunar New Year, I adopted croissants to a more Asian flavor with my favorite Cantonese steam bun – lava bun with salted egg yolk 流沙包, and taro fillings.

Flowy, running salted egg yolk fillings recipe still needs to improve, but overall flavor is very surprising and delicious!

QUICK TAKEAWAYS

fold each croissant dough on both ends of the fillings, after proofing to dough will perfectly wrap around and seal fillings inside
need to improve the salted egg yolk fillings recipe to make it flowy

RECIPE

Portions: 7-8 croissants

262g All Purpose Flour (should be 250g, was adjusted)
70g water (RT)
70g whole milk (RT)
27.5-28g sugar
20g butter (RT)
5.5g yeast
6g salt
145g lamination butter (31% of dough weight, 465g)

Salted egg yolk fillings (8g/portion):

2 salted egg yolk (~25g)
12g milk powder
15g sugar
18g butter

Taro (12g/portion):

80g taro
15g milk
25g sugar
10g butter
pinch of salt

DAY 1: ~1hr

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

Step 2: mix 5.5g yeast with 70g water, 4g sugar, set for 10-15mins (foam appearing = yeast activating).

Step 3: mix 1g ube extract, 250g AP flour, 70g milk, 20g soft butter, 24g sugar and 6g salt, yeast water. Form dough.

Step 4: rest dough for 20mins, then knead till smooth.

Step 5: 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.

DAY 2: ~1.5-2 hours

Dough weight: 465g

Butter weight (31%) = 465 * 31% = 145g

Step 1: slice 145g European butter (>80% fat), place in a 15cm x 15cm square-shape parchment paper. 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.

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.

decrease to 3-fold for every fold now (3-3-3), instead of 3-4-4; last time using this butter the lamination was not good and butter almost all melted.
no skin broke on the 2nd fold, some skin broke on the 3rd fold, especially on the edge

Fillings:

Step 1: Salted egg yolk fillings — shred 2 egg yolks (~26g), mix well with 18g soft butter (at room temperature), 12g milk powder, 15g sugar, then divide into 8 portions; store in fridge.

67g/8 = 8g per portion

Step 2: Taro fillings — steam 80g taro slices till soften (around 20mins), then mix with 10g butter, 25g sugar, 15g milk.

Step 3: stir taro fillings on pan over medium heat till moist evaporates, and not sticking on spatula or spoon

Step 4: let it cool down, divide into 8 portions than put in fridge

100g/8 = 12g per portion
not wrap around salted egg yolk fillings right away because taro fillings are warm and might melt butter in salted egg yolk

Step 5: wrap taro around salted egg yolk fillings, shape as longer cuboid (as shown below), store in fridge overnight

too flat or round as a ball with make croissant shaping very weird
both taro and salted egg yolk are pretty malleable; if too hard, first shape them as balls, wait for a few minutes and further reshape into cuboids

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.

put back in fridge when roll for too long

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 at the base and roll up tightly. Stretch out the base, roll and press down slightly to make sure no opening between the filling and the dough like the right figure.