NEVER ENOUGH GARLIC

A lazy Sunday MUST include coffee and croissants. But we haven't been able to find any vegan croissants anywhere near us, leaving us only two choices: give up on those crumbly morsels of perfection or make our own. We went with option number two.

This recipe is a super easy shortcut to making croissants because traditional croissant dough is hard, and as we mentioned, not so vegan. This way, you can enjoy flaky, 100% plant-based croissants but with a lot less work. What's not to love?   

Ingredients:

• 250 g (2 cups) flour
• 150 g (5 oz) cold plant butter, salted (we used Spreadable by Naturli' Organic)
• 120 ml (0.5 cup) plant milk (we used almond)
• 2-4 tbsp. plant milk for brushing the croissants
• 45 g (3.5 tbsp.) cane sugar
• 11 g (4 oz) active dry yeast

Instructions:

Part 1

1. Start by warming the plant milk until lukewarm (be careful if using soy milk as it might separate). Don't heat the milk too much or it will kill the yeast when added.  
2. Mix the sugar and active dry yeast in a bowl and stir in the lukewarm plant milk. Leave to cool completely in the fridge. 
3. Using a fork, mix the flour and butter until crumbles form. Add the yeasty plant milk to the flour and butter and gently combine into dough, still leaving the butter in small pieces. 
4. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and knead to form a square. Refrigerate overnight if possible or for a minimum of 2-3 hours. 

Part 2

1. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle that's 3-4 times longer than it's width.
2. Fold the short sides of the rectangle towards the middle. Turn the dough 90^o to the right and roll to lengthen the dough. Then fold the short sides into the middle once more.
3. Turn the dough over facedown and repeat the entire previous step (rolling and folding) three more times or as many times as you can. 
4. Roll out the dough once more into a rectangle that's 30 cm (12 inches) wide and 40 cm (15.5) long. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, slice the dough into 8 triangles that are 10 cm (4 inches) wide and 30 cm (12 inches) long. 
5. Make a small slit in the base of each triangle, then roll up from the base towards the narrow tip. Place the croissant tip-side down on an oven tray covered with baking paper. Don't place them too close to each other, or they won't have space to rise and will end up sticking together while baking. 
6. Let the croissants rest and rise for an hour at room temperature under a sheet of baking paper. Use this time to preheat the oven to 230^oC (450°F). When the croissants have rested enough, brush with plant milk and bake for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, though, to make sure they don't burn.

Now you can enjoy your awesome, vegan croissant with a big cup of coffee!