Pain au Jambon for #FoodieExtravaganza

  
It's Foodie Extravaganza Day and this month's theme is Croissants, although some will be using the Crescent Roll. This month's host is Kathleen from Fearlessly Creative Mammas.

What is Food Extravaganza? It's when a group of bloggers get together and make a recipe using one main ingredient. Where do we get the ingredient? We look at The Nibble and pick something off of their list. Croissants are actually celebrated on January 30th, but it's in January, so it's fair game. You can check out our group Pinterest board for past recipes. If you're a blogger, you can join along with us by requesting to join on our Facebook page. Now, on to the goodness. 

Just look at all the wonderful croissant recipes being shared today!

• Beefy Green Chile Braid by Fearlessly Creative Mammas 
• Pain Au Jambon by Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Pain Au Chocolat by Making Miracles 
• Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissant with Maple Dijon Sauce by Tara's Multicultural Table 
• Cinnamon and Apple Croissant Bread Pudding by The Freshman Cook 
• Chocolate Croissants by A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Croque Monsieur Croissants by Caroline's Cooking 
• Almond Croissant French Toast by Sew You Think You Can Cook 
• Bacon Fig Dippers for Melty Cheese by Cooking with Carlee 
• Triple Meat Croissants Breakfast Casserole by Cookin' and Craftin' 
• Coronation Chicken Horns by Food Lust People Love 
• Breakfast Croissant Ring by Our Good Life 
• Baked Cinnamon Raisin Croissant French Toast from From Gate to Plate

Pain au Jambon

I decided that I wanted to make a version of Pain au Jambon. Being a savory loving gal, I adore these bronzed, flaky morsels of deliciousness wrapped around some salty prosciutto and creamy Gruyère. One of these days I'll tackle a traditional croissant dough. For this round, I decided to use my Kouign Amann dough. Click to see photos of that process: here.

Also, had I been paying attention to croissant recipes, I would have sliced my dough into triangles. I didn't; I cut them into rectangles. Whoops. They still turned out okay...and they tasted amazing.

Ingredients

• 1 C water, room temperature
• 1 T active dry yeast
• 1 T organic granulated sugar
• 2 3/4 C flour, divided
• 1 t sea salt
• 1 C cold salted butter
• prosciutto (I used La Quercia's Prosciutto Americano) 
• Gruyère, sliced into matchsticks

Procedure

Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes for the yeast to bloom. Add 2 1/2 C of the flour, keeping 1/4 C for later, and the salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms.

Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough rise until doubled in size, approximately one hour. While the dough chills, pound 1/2 C butter between two pieces of parchment paper into a rectangle. Repeat so that you have two pieces of flattened butter. Place them in the fridge while the dough rises.

Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with flour and place dough on top. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 12"x 20". Remove one chilled slab of butter from the fridge and lay it in the middle of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough in to form an envelope.

Using the rolling pin, roll it out to 12"20" again. Place the second slab of butter on the dough and fold the corners of the dough in, again. Roll it out one more time. This time, fold one third of the dough over the other third, like folding a letter. This creates very thin layers of butter and dough. 

Rotate the package of dough and butter so that the narrower, open end is facing you, like the pages of a book. Roll the dough out to a rectangle and fold the top third down and the bottom third up, again like a letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees so that the open end is again facing you. Repeat. Roll the dough out to a rectangle and fold the top third down and the bottom third up. That's 2 turns.

Transfer the dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes. Remove the dough from the fridge and transfer it to a well-floured parchment. With the open end facing you, roll the dough out to a rectangle, again. Fold the top third down and the bottom third up. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat. That's 4 turns.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Remove the dough from the fridge and transfer it to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roll the dough out to approximately 1/4" thick square or rectangle. Slice dough into 10 pieces and arrange them so that they look like a diamond shape. Lay a piece of prosciutto in the middle, leaving the pointed tips uncovered. Scatter the matchsticks of Gruyère over top. Starting with one point, carefully roll up each croissant, encasing the prosciutto and Gruyère as you go.

Place the rolled croissants on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Place in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Join us next month when Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm hosts us. We're making pies! Still trying to decide what kind of pies I am going to make.