hello this is chef john from food wishes
comm with clean aman that's right
or should i say yes queen no actually I
shouldn't
no one should but anyway I'm very
excited to be showing you my technique
for what many people consider the
hardest but also most delicious pastry
in the world okay for something to be
worth this much effort it has to be way
past mind-blowing and this is so with
that we'll go ahead and get started by
making a very simple bread dough which
will begin with some warm water some
white sugar and some dry active yeast
that we will let sit in a bowl for about
10 minutes to make sure it's alive and
then once we have proof of life we will
add a little bit of melted butter most
but not all of our flour and a pinch of
salt and then what we'll do is grab our
most experienced wooden spoon and we'll
go ahead and give this a stir until it
comes together into a very very very wet
sticky dough and by the way I'm using
bread flour which I think works the best
but all-purpose should work as well but
anyway we'll go ahead and stir that
together until it looks like this at
which point we'll dump the last half cup
of our flour on the table and transfer
our sticky dough on to that and then
what we'll do is sort of roll that
around until it's coated in flour
at which point we'll start pushing in
and pressing and eventually kneading and
in a perfect world by the time we've
achieved a nice soft pretty sticky
elastic dough all that flour will have
been worked in and the reason we just
didn't add it all at once is because I'm
not sure we need that much so by using
this method is we need it once it feels
like it's right and all the flowers not
absorbed yet we stop because it's right
but if you just dump everything in
according to a recipe and start kneading
it may or may not be perfect so long
story short this is how you really make
bread okay it really is a feel thing and
as luck would have it that was the right
amount of flour and I did in fact end up
with a beautifully soft slightly sticky
fairly elastic dough which will go ahead
and transfer into a lightly buttered
bowl and then we'll cover that and let
it sit for about an hour and a half or
until it doubles in size yes of course
in a warm spot and
will do while we're waiting for that is
make our season two sugar oh he how you
heard me we're actually gonna take white
sugar and add some sea salt or kosher
salt to it and that is just one of the
many secrets to this incredible pastry
all right done correctly this is both
sweet and savory so we'll go ahead and
give that a mix and set it aside while
we move on to prep our muffin pan which
means brushing generously with melted
butter and once that set we'll go ahead
and spoon in our sugar and toss it
around until the insides are coated and
yes I missed you could just put the
sugar in the cups and after we've
spooned in a generous amount what we'll
do is pick up the pan and give it the
whole shake of sheikha as well as a nice
assortment of tips and turns and once
we're pretty sure everything's coated we
can flip that over to knock out all the
excess and sure if you want to clean the
top off a little bit go ahead that's not
a bad idea
and I did I was speaking of clean up we
want to make sure we scrape up any
excess and add it back to our bowl since
we're gonna need that stuff as you will
see so we'll set that aside along with
our prep pan and we'll go back and check
our dough and this is what mine look
like after about 90 minutes and then
what we'll do once that's deflated as
usual is transfer that onto a floured
surface and we will kind of press that
down into a vaguely rectangular shape
and then using a rolling pin plus just
enough flour so it doesn't stick we will
roll that out into a rectangle somewhere
between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick oh and if
you were hoping for the exact
measurements for the width and length
you are definitely on the wrong channel
but really the exact size doesn't matter
just get it close to what you're seeing
here and it's actually pretty hard to
roll into a rectangle so once we get it
like this we can just sort of stretch
and pull it into the right shape and
then once that set what we'll do is take
an entire stick a very very cold butter
right mine was actually frozen and very
hard and we're gonna use this cheese
grater to grate the entire stick onto
our dough and if possible try to leave
an inch unbuttered around the edges and
by the way don't be a hero when you get
down to a little piece just stop okay
don't lose a knuckle and then what we'll
do once that set is flour our hands and
gently but firmly press that butter in
and then what we'll do once our butter
has been successfully flattened out just
go ahead and fold this into thirds just
like a letter if that helped
and then once folded we'll go ahead and
square that up the best we can
by pressing stretching and or pulling
and that's it our first phase is done
we'll go ahead and transfer that onto a
sheet pan wrap it in plastic and pop in
their fridge for about 30 minutes and by
the way if you thought an entire stick
of butter was a ridiculously large
amount for that little bit of dough wait
until you see what happens next
because what we're gonna do after we
chill that for 30 minutes just pull it
back out and we are gonna roll it back
out into a rectangle roughly the same
size as our first one although for some
reason I went the other direction and
just like the first rectangle it's hard
to do it just with the rolling pin so
don't be afraid to pull and stretch
those corners and it's also not a bad
idea to make sure it's not sticking to
the table and then once that set believe
it or not we're gonna grade over another
entire stick a very cold butter so yes
by the time we're done with this it's
gonna contain a half a pound of butter
although if it makes you feel any better
the authentic version has more but
anyway we're gonna butter that and press
it down again using some nicely floured
fingers and then we will fold that into
thirds again and just like the first
time once I was folded we'll go ahead
and square that up the best we can but
I'm like the first time we're not gonna
refrigerate this all right what we're
gonna do is dust it with flour and roll
it back out into a rectangle and once
that's been accomplished we'll go ahead
and fold that into thirds and I know
someone out there just said hey you
forgot the butter well first of all I'll
do the jokes and second of all we don't
need any more butter two sticks is
plenty but anyway we'll fold that as
shown and using only as much flour as we
need we'll roll that out one more time
at which point we'll give that the last
and final fold and how many layers of
butter did we build up I'm not sure I
didn't count I don't much care but I do
know we have enough
and once we've completed that final fold
we'll go ahead and transfer that to our
sheet pan wrap it in plastic and
transfer it into the fridge for at least
an hour
before we move to final assembly and
then once that dough has been thoroughly
chilled we'll roll it out but not on
flour we're actually gonna sprinkle a
generous amount of our seasoned sugar
onto the table onto which we will place
our laminated dough and before we start
rolling we'll apply a whole bunch of
sugar to the top and then what we're
gonna do is roll this out applying sugar
often and generously to both sides as we
roll and once it feels like the sugar
you've sprinkled on has been rolled in
put some more on
and one small heads up here because that
sugar and salt is gonna start pulling
moisture from the dough we don't want to
take a tremendous amount of time to do
this all right so be quick but don't
hurry and like I said we'll keep rolling
and sprinkling sugar and you're gonna be
surprised how much we can actually roll
in okay I'm not sure you're gonna use
everything you mixed up but you're gonna
use a lot and by the way some people add
the sugar as they're doing their turns
and folds but I prefer this method and
it seemed to work out very well but
anyway we'll keep doing that turning it
occasionally until we have a rectangle
between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick
at which point we'll stop and take a
pizza cutter and we will trim the edges
and keep in mind we're eventually going
to cut 12 squares which means cutting it
3 by 4 which means we don't want a
perfect square although we do want the
edges pretty straight so you can see I'm
doing a little fine-tuning here and do
not under any circumstances throw away
those scraps you could just bake those
off to make the world's best and most
confusing cookies but anyway once I had
that trimmed I made two cuts this way to
make three pieces and then three cuts
this direction so that we hopefully end
up with twelve close two square pieces
and those are definitely not perfect but
as I like to say close enough for
YouTube and that's it once those are
Cobble go ahead and transfer those into
our pan after he asks you guessed it
sprinkling on some more sugar and then
there are so many different ways you can
shape these but my favorite is to do it
so all four corners meet in the middle
which is what I thought I was doing here
they said my fingers had their own idea
and as soon as I
place that in I realized it didn't look
quite right so I did another one it
figured it out and here's how I really
wanted to do it okay all four corners
coming together in the center are you
see that that I think's going to give us
the best-looking Queen Oh mom so that's
how I did the rest
and actually when tree folded the first
one which by the way would have worked
and many people like to do them that way
so suit yourself
I mean you are after all the leprechaun
of your Queen Amon and I know
leprechauns aren't French but neither is
this name it actually has Celtic origins
believe it or not oh by the way don't be
scared
this snows gonna continue to rise so if
it looks thicker when we shape it that's
why and then what we'll do once those
are all panned up just top them with a
little more sugar because why the heck
not and while some people do like to
take their finger and kind of push it
down the center to seal everything I
don't and don't think you should okay I
think that's gonna prevent them from pop
it out and make it sort of the crown
shape I'm going for alright people love
pointy food and then what I like to do
is let these sit for 10 minutes to give
them a little tiny bit of a proof at
which point those are ready to transfer
into the center of a 375 degree oven for
about 25 to 30 minutes or until
beautifully browned and puffed and
basically looking like one of the most
beautiful things you've ever seen and
then very very important if you don't
pull these out of the pan while they're
hot you are not pulling them out of the
pan okay once that salted caramel cools
they're gonna stick in the pan and
you're never gonna get them out so while
they're how carefully and quickly
transfer those to Iraq where you should
probably let him cool for at least 15
minutes before attempting needs and
while I was waiting I gave him the old
fork test so you could hear exactly how
crispy these get
oh yeah Fork don't lie and then after
waiting in excruciating lis long 15
minutes I would infer taste and bit into
the smallest ugliest one and that my
friends has to be tasted to be believed
okay we're talking sweet salty buttery
crunchy sticky tender it just has
everything and even though there was
like a half pound of butter in these
they are not greasy they're not heavy
how is that possible I don't know and I
don't actually even need to know so I
went ahead and plated one up so I could
take some pictures and of course he did
another one and while you certainly
don't want to overdo it the salt really
is the key here okay if you like salty
caramel you're gonna go nuts for these
it's like a salted caramel sauce meets a
croissant meets a potato chip and right
here you're gonna get a great look at
those beautiful layers we created with
all that buttering and folding and of
course that's always the big question at
the end of one of these videos was it
worth it and there's really no answer
for that I mean is running a marathon
worth it is climbing Everest worth it
swimming across an ocean or trying to
make pizza crust out of cauliflower I
mean there really is no answer is it
worth it although you know what after
that last bite I'm gonna say I dunno and
it is worth it which is why I'm gonna
finish by saying I really do hope you
give these a try soon so head over to
food whooshes calm for all the
ingredient amounts of more info as usual
and as always enjoy
you
you
