Vegan Croissants

Submitted by Lorrie from IL

"A vegan version of a classic pastry."

Ingredients:
pastry flour
gluten flour
1/4 stick margarine
yeast
flax seed

Directions:
In a large cup, combine pastry flour with a few heaping spoonfulls of gluten flour and mix well. Add a heaping spoonful of yeast and several tablespoons of water and incorporate into a dough. Kneed for 5 minutes.

Take 1/4 stick of margarine and loosely fold inside saran wrap. With the palm of your hand, flatten the margarine into a disk a few millimeters thick. Freeze for 5 minutes.

Roll the dough into a 9" circle and place the frozen margarine disk inside. Bring the sides of the dough over to encase the margarine like an envelope. Quickly roll the dough with the margarine inside into a long, flat ribbon about twenty inches long. Place inside saran wrap and freeze for 5 minutes.

Take the dough out of the freezer and fold it in thirds, bringing both sides together. Turn it a quarter turn and roll again to about twenty inches. Refreeze for five minutes. Repeat this process twice, so you will have rolled and folded three times in all. Always freeze the dough flat, not folded.

The third time you roll out the dough, cut the twenty inch rectangle into two long triangles. Holding the base of the triangle, pick up the point and roll while stretching the dough. Make the triangle as long as possible. At this point, you can roll vegan meats, vegetables, tofu cheese or anything you want into the croissant by widening the base of the triangle and tucking it into a fold. Carefully roll the triangle from the wide side to the point. Place on a tin foiled toaster tray (ungreased) with the point on the bottom. Repeat with the other dough triangle. (You should stretch the dough until it is nearly two feet long.

After the croissants have doubled, glaze them with water that has been boiled with several tablespoons of flax seed. Use a pastry brush. Flax seed water acts exactly like egg glaze. Bake in a toaster oven for 15-18 minutes at 360 degrees.

These are great frozen. Wrap in saran wrap then tuck into tin foil and fold up the edges like a piece of gum. Reheat in toaster oven only 8 minutes for a plain croissant, 40 minutes on defrost for croissants that have vegan meats and cheeses hidden in the center.

A proper croissant should have distinct layers of pastry when examined cross wise. Try to keep in mind when you are making the dough that you are essentially forming layers of margarine and dough. When the croissant is baked, the margarine gives off steam that seperates the layers and creates a flaky pastry.

Groups:
Pastry, Vegan

Preparation Time:
20 mins

Cooking Time:
15-18 mins

Servings:
2