If you want to spend a day (or two!) messing around with a dough – here you go!
I’m not exactly a lover of making pastries, just wanted to test a new mixer with a dough hook:) Last time I’ve tried to make pain au raisins it was a disaster – they were rock hard! This time I made a mistake with the yeast – put it in a very hot water (stupid) and killed it. So the pastries didn’t rise well and were not as soft as my favourite ones from M&S. But way better then last time! And Ben really enjoyed mixing, rolling, adding raisins. He ate one third of raisins in the process:)
Ingredients
For pastry:
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup water
4 teaspoons instant dried yeast
1/2 lukewarm water
4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
For frangipane:
2/3 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons butter, softened
half a pod vanilla seeds
1 tablespoon plain flour
Soak raisins in water
Dissolve yeast in warm water, NOT HOT! Leave for 5 min.
Mix yest mix, bread flour, milk, sugar, melted butter, salt on a medium speed for 2 min. If the dough is too sticky keep adding more flour until it forms a shape.
Cover the dough loosely and leave at a room temperature for 30 min. Then roll it into 10″x15″ rectangle, cover loosely and allow to rise for 40 min.
Make frangipane in the meantime – mix everything together until creamy paste is formed.
First time ever Ben broke an egg by himself:)
Cover the dough with a layer of softened butter
Then fold 3 times like a letter
Turn it at 90 degrees and roll it out again to the same shape.
Fold it again, cover with cling film and put in a fridge for 1 hour. Then repeat the process one more time.
Roll the dough into thin 10″x30″ shape (in our case two “10x”15″) and spread the frangipane.
Scatter the drained raisins
Roll the dough into a log and cut it crosswise into slices
Arrange each slice on a lightly greased baking sheet with 2″ distance in between, cover and leave to rise for 90 min.
Preheat the oven to 180C, whisk an egg with 2 tablespoons of milk to make an egg wash and brush each pastry with it. Bake for 15 min.
Enjoy!
