St Martin's croissants: laminated yeast dough and a white poppy seed filling
The Poznań croissants baked for the eleventh of November: a yeast dough laminated with butter in three folds, filled with white poppy seed, honey, dried fruit and biscuit crumbs. White poppy is milder and paler than blue, which is why the filling is the colour of cream rather than tar. The pastry needs three chills and a cool kitchen, but it is made once a year.
Your own work in that: 1 h 25 min.
- Dough 20 min
- Folds and chilling 120 min
- Poppy filling 40 min
- Shaping 25 min
- Proofing 45 min
- Baking 25 min
Step by step
0 / 10 doneKnead the yeast dough
Cream the yeast with a spoon of sugar and 4 spoons of lukewarm milk and leave 10 minutes. Add it to the flour with the rest of the sugar and the salt, along with the milk and egg; knead 8 minutes, add the soft butter and knead 3 minutes more into a smooth dough. Shape into a rectangle, wrap in film and chill 30 minutes.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 200 ml milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 60 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1½ tsp salt · 60 g butter for the dough · 200 g butter for the block
Smooth dough, a rectangle, into the fridgePrepare the butter block
Put the cold butter between two sheets of paper and beat it flat with a rolling pin into an even 18 × 18 cm square. Chill. The butter should be pliable like modelling clay but cold: bent, it doesn't crack, and it doesn't melt under a finger.
An 18 cm square, cool and pliableThree folds with chilling
Roll the dough into a 36 × 20 cm rectangle, set the butter in the middle and fold the dough edges over it. Roll out to 60 × 20 cm and fold in three, like a letter. Chill 30 minutes. Repeat twice more, turning the dough 90° before each rolling and chilling after every fold (1½ hours in the fridge in total). Three folds give 27 layers of butter.
TipThe whole craft is the temperature: <b>13–15 °C</b>. Butter that is too cold shatters into shards and tears through the dough; too warm and it soaks in and the layers disappear. If the kitchen is warm, chill longer and roll fast.
A letter fold, a 90° turn, back to the fridge, three timesScald the white poppy seed
Rinse the poppy seed in a fine sieve. Bring the milk to the boil, add the seed, cook 10 minutes, cover and leave 60 minutes. Drain and squeeze firmly.
Ingredients: 250 g white poppy seed · 400 ml milk · 100 g sugar · 60 g honey · 80 g raisins · 60 g candied orange peel · 80 g walnuts · 50 g flaked almonds · 60 ml cream, 30 % · 50 g plain biscuits, crushed
TipWhite poppy has a thinner husk and less bitterness than blue, but also less oil: unscalded it stays dry and sandy. Don't substitute blue poppy, or the filling turns black and you have a poppy seed roll, not a St Martin's croissant.
Ten minutes' boil, an hour coveredGrind and mix the filling
Grind the poppy seed on the finest plate twice. Mix with the sugar, honey, cream, scalded raisins, chopped walnuts, almonds and candied peel. Finally stir in the crushed biscuits: the filling should be thick and firm, able to hold the shape of a log.
TipThe biscuits are not a cheat but structure: they bind moisture so the filling doesn't run out of the sides during baking. Without them the croissant spreads across the tray.
Ground twice, biscuits lastShape the croissants
Roll the dough into a 50 × 36 cm rectangle about 5 mm thick, cut it lengthways into two 50 × 18 cm strips and cut 6 triangles from each, with a base of about 14 cm, alternating base down and base up. Divide the filling into 12 equal portions (about 75 g each). Lay a log of filling along the wide end of each triangle, roll towards the tip, pressing as you go, and bend into a horseshoe. Set on lined trays, seam down, 6 cm apart.
Ingredients: 250 g white poppy seed · 400 ml milk · 100 g sugar · 60 g honey · 80 g raisins · 60 g candied orange peel · 80 g walnuts · 50 g flaked almonds · 60 ml cream, 30 % · 50 g plain biscuits, crushed
A triangle, a log of filling, roll and bendProof somewhere cool
Cover with film and leave 45 minutes at no more than 26 °C. The croissants should visibly puff and wobble when you shake the tray. Brush with beaten egg.
TipAbove 28 °C the butter in the layers renders before the oven: a pool forms under the tray and the croissant loses every layer it had. Don't put them over a radiator or in a warmed oven.
Forty-five minutes somewhere cool, then the egg washBake
Bake 25 minutes at 180 °C on the middle shelf, until deep golden and the layers separate at the cut ends. If the tops darken after 15 minutes, cover with foil.
Twenty-five minutes, deep goldenIce while warm
Stir the icing sugar with the lemon juice and 1–2 spoons of water into a thick icing. Move the croissants to a rack and after 10 minutes, while still warm, brush with icing and scatter with chopped walnuts.
Ingredients: 150 g icing sugar · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 50 g walnuts for sprinkling
TipIcing on a hot croissant runs off and soaks in; on a cold one it sets into a shell that flakes off when cut. Warm, not hot, is the moment it grips and dries matt.
Ten minutes on the rack, then icing and nutsServe and store
Best the same day, still barely warm. The next day refresh 5 minutes at 160 °C. Un-iced they freeze for a month; bake thawed ones 8 minutes at 170 °C and ice them only then.
Warm, with coffee, the same day
Before you start
The short cut
Instead of laminating at home: 500 g ready puff pastry and 250 g yeast dough, layered together and rolled once. It is not a certified rogal, but the difference is smaller than you would expect.
White poppy still needs grinding
Tinned poppy seed filling is made from blue poppy and is too loose. For these croissants buy white poppy seed loose and grind it yourself; a mincer is hard to replace with anything else here.
The filling ran out
The filling was too loose, or the croissant was not rolled tightly enough. The filling must hold the shape of a log — if it slumps, add more biscuit crumbs; keep to about 75 g per croissant and always set them seam down.
