Fast Puff Pastry made into Snails

I’ve never made croissants from scratch, except in a class, and though I want to, I thought I would start with this supposedly easy version of puff pastry. I decided to use cultured butter, to see if I could taste the difference. I also used our homemade creme fraiche in place of the sour cream.

The recipe relies on not overworking the dough, which is a good recipe for me, since I consider myself a lazy baker. I used my standing mixer and just mixed butter in until it was incorporated, leaving it in big chunks visible through the flour.

You then roll out the dough and fold it.

I left this in fridge overnight. Then you roll it out again and, if making snails, you cover in cinnamon and sugar. It was tough rolling out the cold dough! Took much more muscle than I would have thought.

Then you roll into log and slice.

The uncooked dough wasn’t too tight.

I thought they would rise more in the oven, but they didn’t.

But they were phenomenal! I think the cultured butter made a difference. These were addictive!

Rather than cook all the dough the first day, I made the remainder of the dough over three more days. They were best that first day, though. I think the flavor of the cultured butter was lost after that first day, also.

This made me feel more confident about tackling croissant dough!

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