Recipe for gluten-free and vegan croissants, with quinoa flour

Dose per 10 Croissants

Solid ingredients:

• 220g Corn starch
• 60g Very fine brown rice flour (cream)
• 20g Potato starch
• 10g Tapioca starch
• 5g Quinoa flour
• 30g Granulated sugar
• 4g Fine salt
• 55g Angel Mix
• 20g Fresh yeast

Liquid ingredients:

• 230g Cold water taken from the fridge
• 15g Sunflower seed oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)

To browse:

• 140g Margarine for leavened puff pastry (see notes)

To work the dough:

• Rice starch or tapioca starch, avoid rice or other flour.

PROCEDURE

Gather all the "Solids" in the mixer bowl and start it at low speed with the "hook" or with the "leaf".

Pour in the "Liquids" and continue to work for about ten minutes, switching to medium-high speed and cleaning, from time to time and with the machine stopped, the sides of the bowl, using a spatula and bringing the mixture back to the centre.

In the meantime, form a rectangle with the margarine, bringing it to a thickness of about 1cm. It doesn't need to be an extremely precise rectangle, the thickness just needs to be uniform. If you use NON-professional margarine or the room temperature is particularly high, it may help to leave the margarine in the freezer for 3/4 minutes.

Pour the mixture onto the table, and using the rice starch as a dusting, create a long, narrow rectangle, enough to insert the "block" of margarine and cover it. It is the classic system for incorporating the fat part into a dough for puff pastry or croissants.

Give two turns of three at a thickness of 7/8mm, without taking breaks between one turn and another and trying not to use too much rice starch as a dusting, and in this case be careful to brush away the excess part. If you have any doubts about how to do this, you can watch our video on the Angel Food YouTube channel, or any other video about laminating flaky dough: there are literally thousands of them on the Internet.

Roll out a rectangle with the long side max 46/48cm, but this time to a thickness of 5/6mm. Cut out 5 rectangles with a 9cm short side and cut two croissants from each one, cutting the rectangle lengthwise from one corner to the other. This will give you a total of 10 croissants.

Do not throw away any scraps of dough, but divide them into the center of each croissant before rolling it. Spray the surface of the triangle with water and roll, without tightening too much, to form the classic croissant, leaving the tip underneath when you place it in the baking pan.

Cover with a bag previously brushed with oil or non-stick spray and leave to rise at a temperature of 42°C for approximately 90 minutes, or at least until the volume triples.

Preheat the oven to 180°c, remove the tray from the bag and bake for approximately 23 minutes or until golden brown.

Allow to cool on a wire rack, and once cold, move to the freezer. It is possible to store the croissants at room temperature for about three days.

NOTE

It is important that the margarine and the dough have the same "density": the margarine must not be too cold, or it will tear the dough during processing, making the preparation unusable.

The final product will have a slightly sweet taste, almost neutral, so that it can also be combined with particularly rich fillings without being cloying.

It is possible to decorate the surface of the croissant as desired, for example by adding sesame seeds, poppy seeds, granulated sugar, salt flakes, etc. You can find dozens of examples on our Instagram or Facebook profile.

To make the seeds stick and further accentuate the browning of the product at the end of cooking, it is possible to brush the surface with milk (normal or lactose-free), or with vegetable milk (rice, almond, etc.), or even just with some water. In the latter case the browning will be less accentuated, but the seeds will still adhere thanks to the caramelization of the sugars on the surface.

It is possible to increase or decrease the quantity of margarine necessary for rolling, in the ratio of 10%: by increasing the quantity of fat the final product will be richer, but also heavier. By decreasing the quantity the product will be lighter but also more "bready" and less flaky.

This recipe is not suitable for using butter for flaking. If you want to give a strong butter aroma to the product, there are three solutions: A) Use a margarine with anhydrous butter (max 15%). B) Brush the surface of the product with melted butter as soon as it comes out of the oven. C) Replace the oil in the recipe with the same weight of liquid clarified butter.