Cornetti (Italian croissant)

I am not a baker. I'm never going to bake a pie because I'm craving something sweet. I enjoy cooking much more: the sizzle of meat in a pan, honing my chef's knife and chopping vegetables, and adjusting seasoning as I go. You know, savory sh*t. When I do bake, it's really only for people's birthdays. Mostly straightforward, hard to f#*k up things like brownies, cupcakes, and pots de crème. Who doesn't like baked goods for their birthday? Somehow a roasted pork shoulder or duck confit just isn't quite as celebratory.

When Cindy Chang's birthday approached, I thought of making cornetti since she once mentioned how much she liked them. Cornetti are the Italian version of croissant and a common Italian breakfast item. They're a bit denser and sweeter than French croissant. For more reading on this, go here. It was pretty hard to find a recipe online or in any of my cookbooks. I thought I would have to beg the pastry chef at Oliveto for one. Luckily, I eventually found this site that has recipes for many Italian breads. I also found this hilarious video of a guy named JR making cornetti. JR looks more like an expert on NASCAR than Italian baking but apparently has mad cornetti-making skills.

Ingredients (makes 10 cornetti)
2 and 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
1 tsp. fine sea salt
2 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup warm water, plus extra as needed
1 and 1/4 tsp. dry active yeast
12 tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
nutella (optional)

Day 1
Cut the chilled butter into small pieces, ~2 cm cubes, and place back in the fridge. Heat some water until 100-110°F. Combine 3/4 cup of the warm water with the yeast in a bowl. Set aside for a few minutes, or until yeast is dissolved. Mix 2 cups of the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Pour the yeast slurry into the dry ingredients and mix quickly until you have a scraggly looking dough. Add a bit more water if necessary to incorporate all the flour. Be careful not to overmix. Place the dough in a buttered bowl, turn to coat lightly with the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

Pour 1/4 cup flour into a bowl. Take out your chilled butter pieces and incorporate into the flour using a pastry cutter, a couple pieces at a time. Use a butter knife to help scrape pieces off the pastry cutter as you're going along. When the butter is soft but not melted, shape it into a rectangular prism, about 3" x 4", 1.5" high. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2 (the big one)
Remove the risen dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured counter. Use your hands to gently shape it into a cylinder, about 2 in. diameter. Cut this cylinder in half with a pizza cutter. Lightly dust a rolling pin and roll out each of the dough pieces, flattening to about 1/4 in. thick (see JR's video). Place the two pieces on top of each other to form a cross. Take the butter out of the fridge and place in the center of the cross and wrap the two flaps over. Then, flip the other two flaps over to make a square package encasing the butter. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a 1/8 in.-thick rectangle. Work quickly so the butter doesn't melt. Fold in thirds, and then in half across the other direction (again, see video). Roll the dough out again. Fold the dough in the same way and then wrap the rectangle in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hr. Take the dough out of the fridge, roll out, and fold up in the same way, then refrigerate for another hour. Repeat the rolling out, folding, and refrigerating process two more times.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured counter into a rectangle that is ~ 21 in x 7 in, and ~ 1/8 in thick. Using a pizza cutter, trim any uneven edges, bisect the dough lengthwise, and then cut Xs up and down in the dough to form 10 triangles (JR has mad technique). Roll each triangle, starting from the wide end and working towards the point. Optionally, you can place a little dab of nutella in the middle of the wide end before folding. If the point isn't staying put, brush a bit of egg wash on the shorter half of the triangle and then roll. Place the cornetti on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, leaving a few inches in between each one. Brush with beaten egg. Place plastic wrap on top of the baking sheet and refrigerate overnight.

Day 3
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the cornetti from the fridge and brush with more beaten egg. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until golden all over and crisp. Look for the point of the cornetti to just start to brown. Remove and place on a cooling rack to cool to room temperature, about 30 min - 1 hr.

Recipe from: Rustico Cooking, JR