Most bakeries have a few ways of up-cycling their croissant dough scraps: working it into the next batch, or making cruffins or pain au raisin to name but a few. I'd come across croissant (butter) bread once or twice during past visits to the UK, but being something that rarely (if at all) features on menus here I'd kind of let the idea fall by the wayside. That was until one of my most favourite jam makers in the whole wide world—London Borough of Jam—recently posted images of their new coffee/vino cart featuring toasted croissant bread & jam with filter coffee for a fiver. It's a deal. It's a steal. You know how the rest of it goes...
But bargain aside it was also my idea of breakfast heaven, making it high time I set about baking my own. The recipe is, of course, infuriating for any home baker: "Using the scraps from the croissant dough..."—like we've all got a kilo of that lying around—but since I'd a botched block of Danish dough doing just that I smugly set about filling my tin.
Perfectly suited to the task at hand croissant bread essentially marries the best bits of croissant and brioche: the dense, buttery centre holds jam expertly and with sturdy, fortifying poise; while the flaky edges are satisfyingly crispy and do a good job of covering you in crumbs. Frankly, it's almost worth whipping up a batch of dough exclusively for it. Now all that's left is to save a slice and make bostock...
CROISSANT BREAD (Adapted from this recipe by Not Without Salt)
- 900 g croissant dough
- 2 Tbsp caster sugar
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp milk or water
Using scraps/strips of dough, start by laying a few in the base of a buttered loaf pan. Sprinkle over a little sugar and cinnamon, then repeat the layering and sprinkling until the pan is two-thirds full. Cover the pan with cling film or cloth and leave to prove for 1 hr, or until the dough springs back a little when pushed (it will look puffed but still a bit tight).
Whisk together the yolk and milk/water and use to brush the top of the loaf. Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C for around 60 min, until golden and baked through. Check the loaf after 30 minutes and reduce the temperature if beginning to brown too quickly. Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Best eaten still-warm on the day it is made (or toasted).