How to Make a Potato “Croissant”

All that crunch. Super soft and creamy inside. All those layers. And it has a very cool look. This is ridiculous. It's so good. Here is a potato pavé. You probably ate this in a fancy restaurant or it appeared on your social networks. It has tons and tons of crispy layers. It's creamy inside. It's very delicious. But we decided to take it to a higher level and created a potato croissant. Compared to pavé, it gives the same amount of work, but the result is more crispy, softer and more spectacular. So, the process. We peel them, cut them into slices and leave them in the sauce. We roll them with clarified butter, bake them, cool them, unmold and fry them. It is a cooking process in two stages that results in something incredible. Now, let's peel, cut into slices and leave our potatoes in the sauce. But, first of all, we need to select them for this recipe. About 400 grams is the right specification for this potato. And after peeling, slicing and all the cuts and waste, you will get about 280 grams. We started peeling. We are using rusted potatoes here. They are potatoes with low moisture content and high starch content. And this starch is really essential for this recipe because, when exposed to water and heat, it gelatinizes. And the gelatinization is very important, because it creates a crystalline structure after cooling, which is very crispy. So that's what we're looking for. To slice, let's look for something about 8 to 1 mm thick, a little thinner than a credit card. Compared to pavé, we're actually going to try to keep them in organized piles. As you go, you can put maybe 5 at a time, 4 at a time, and stack them like this. Let's see how much it weighs. Phase 280. Ready. Therefore, 280 grams is a very specific specification for the muffin shape we are using. And we are using muffin shapes because they have a circular shape and can contain all the potatoes and preserve this shape during cooking. This goes to the water. Leave the sauce like the pavé. Leaving the sauce in the water prevents oxidation. So it's like discoloration over time when the potatoes are exposed to oxygen. Anyone who has ever cooked potatoes has probably gone through this before. But it's actually because of an enzyme in the potatoes called polyphenol oxidase. And this enzyme, when exposed to air, to oxygen, reacts with polyphenol compounds in the potato and produces brown pigments. And this manifests as reddish brown potatoes over time. And for this reason, it is a very common practice to leave the potatoes in the sauce. Immersion also removes a lot of starch in excess. So, you want enough starch so that everything is cohesive and glued. At the same time, if you put a lot of starch, it becomes just a texture. For this particular dish, we wanted to distinguish all the layers. So, leaving the sauce is a great way to do this. I will pass only these last two. And you will notice that I keep them in piles like this. And this is mainly a matter of convenience for later, when we are assembling everything. The disadvantage of this is that not all slices are exposed to water. So, a way to get around this is to take each pile and just shake them with your fingers. So, we have three piles measuring about 280. We have a muffin shape of six cups. So, let's take each pile and that will make two croissants. So, the basic process is to put them in layers, roll them up, cut them in half, remodel them and put them in shape. At this point, you can go straight to modeling. Or you can leave them in the water for up to an hour and everything will be fine. One thing I have in mind is that the longer they stay in the sauce, the more stuck they get. So, it can be a little harder to separate. We are using a muffin shape of six cups. A little melted clarified butter. Gently brush on the sides and bottom. All brushed, ready to use. So, we take our piles. I'm just draining a little of the excess moisture. I like to start with the smallest slice first. As you will see later, let's roll it up. And this small slice will be in the middle. Very simple. Start with a slice down, brush with butter, shake and continue. So, when we are building these piles, I'm separating them slightly. Not much. I'm looking for between 30 and 35 centimeters long that way. After building some of these, get the hang of it, get the rhythm. It's not such a bad job at this point. I need to roll it up. I start here from the bottom and let's roll it up. Using the towel as a guide helps to control things a little more. I pull the towel down just to have more space. It doesn't have to be too tight because we're going to tighten it later, but it needs to be coherent. I slide it down. It's not going anywhere. I take a sharp, sharp knife. I just want to keep it well centralized and balanced. You just need to look in the middle. And then I'll close it, being careful. No problem unrolling. Let's make a half like this. And then we sew it back and let it fall to the flat side. And we have two halves like this. Bring our muffin shape here. You will notice that they kind of spiral in different directions. A cool way to think about it is that the middle of each spiral is pointing in a certain direction. And to tighten this. I'm going to twist and join in the direction of this central point. So, for example, this one goes to this side. To tighten it, I'm going to move it clockwise. Just turning and tightening. You don't have to be a perfectionist. If you want, you can also turn counterclockwise, counterclockwise. And that will take care of the outside. All right. So, it's all right. And we have the right amount in grams. And it fits very well in our muffin shape. So, the second, let's roll it up. Go slowly. Lower this towel. Feel free. Apply uniform pressure in the middle so that it is not squeezed from one side to the other. Sharp knife. And then let's just take a look in the middle. Very uniform movements. You get two halves. This one is down. So, I'm going to turn and just squeeze. And it will squeeze. It will form a ball. You can do this as much as you want. Just don't knead everything. Otherwise it can fly. So, use moderate pressure. Don't be in a hurry to make this movement. It's more or less like this. And let's go straight to the shape. Press lightly. I advise you to work with the cut side down on the flat surface to have something to rotate. The flat side goes inside the muffin shape. The result is something more like Queen Aman, where it is well shaped. The last step is to brush more clarified butter. The butter will help to deform. But it will also help to conduct the heat and add a little flavor. And that's it. Our croissants are ready to go. We just need to roast them before frying them. We only need a piece of aluminum foil. And the important thing here is to cover them completely. But also seal the edges. Make sure it's very firm. What is really important, however, is to have a double shape. With a baking pan, invariably I was getting a little golden brown on the bottom. What I really wasn't looking for. Let's go straight to the oven. From 90 minutes to 2 hours until a skewer fits perfectly and there is no resistance. So, it's been about an hour and a half. Let's check. I'm going to insert a skewer in the center. Without resistance. They need to cool down. And cooling is important because of a process called retrograde. Cook starches when exposed to heat and moisture. They gel, right? And when they cool, let's say, in the fridge, they retrograde. If you've ever liked to fry french fries twice, like heating them first at low temperature, then cooling them in the fridge and then frying them, the effect is very similar. Let's cool them down for at least 8 hours. Until they are very firm. Now, we need to deform. I'm going upside down. We need to apply a little heat to release them. Because there's a lot of clarified butter that froze. So, we just need to melt this butter. Use a pan. Use an oven. Very simple. All right. I hear a squeak. So, that tells me that at least the bottom of the butter is well melted. They are ready to be fried. Let's fry them. For this, we heat the oil to 325 degrees. They will fry for 8 to 10 minutes. And we're going to fry in batches of three. So, just go down the sides and drop them. I'll keep the rest in the fridge to cool. I don't want the butter to be too soft or anything like that. The frying temperature is 325, which is lower than some people may be used to. This is a much larger object, so a lower frying temperature is better here because when everything is crispy on the outside, the inside is already hot. If we fry at a higher temperature, the center can be cold when everything is golden. So, we're almost there. These bubbles are getting thinner as the temperature rises. We're almost back to 325. I could leave it a little darker if I wanted to, but I'm very happy with the color here. I'm pretty confident that the center is well heated. All right. Season on both sides immediately. Turn them over. They look really good on the bottom. A little more seasoning, a little more salt. And they're ready to be served. Let's try them. There are several options we can choose here. Fresh milk cream, caviar, salmon in a row and a little chives. This would be a classic and sophisticated portion. On the other hand, you can simply water with sauce. And this is the peru sauce we made. It looks amazing. Try it. This is ridiculous. It's so good. You get all those layers, all that crunch. It's amazing with the sauce. Very well seasoned. Super soft and creamy inside. This would be great on a Sunday barbecue. 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