Easy Homemade Pretzel Croissants

This year for Thanksgiving my mom had me make a couple appetizers. One was the pepperoni pinwheels (it's become my specialty. Plus Nonni loves them so I don't mind making them). The other was up to me but Mom suggested something cheesy. So I started looking for a baked brie recipe since I love brie cheese and figured I'd be able to finish the rest at home (which wasn't much - it ended up being a bigger hit than I had expected). A baked brie recipe tends to include a sheet of puff pastry, which only come in pairs at the grocery store. However, I already had an idea for how to use the other one: when I finished my dinner rolls, I could make the pretzel croissants recipe I'd found on Pinterest. It consists of both a yeast dough (which I've become really good at making and am possibly an expert at) and a sheet of puff pastry and comes from the blog Plated Cravings.

Easy Homemade Pretzel Croissants (source)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup lukewarm water (most yeast needs the water to be about 100-110℉ to work)
  
• 2 tsp instant yeast (I used a packet of instant yeast, which is a tad more)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil (didn't want to buy a whole bottle for this one small amount so I just used the canola/vegetable oil hybrid I have)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 sheet puff pastry thawed according to package instructions
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 6 cups water

Directions

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment, combine the warm water and yeast. Give it a gentle stir and let it sit for 5 minutes until the mixture is foamy. Add the flour, olive oil, sugar, and sea salt. Mix on low speed for 1 minute until all the ingredients are mixed then slowly knead for 4 minutes on low-medium speed. The dough should be smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large lightly greased mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 15 minutes in a warm environment.
2. Lightly flour your work surface and unfold the thawed pastry sheet. Roll the pastry sheet into a 15 x 10 inches rectangle. Roll out your yeast dough to the same size as the puff pastry. Put the puff pastry on top of the yeast dough and press them together. Now you fold the top half down and then the right half on top of the left half.
3. Roll the dough out until it has the same dimensions (15x10) as before. Repeat the folding process and roll out the dough a second time. Fold the dough a third time. Cover the dough package with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 10 minutes.
4. Roll out the dough into a circle with a 20-inch diameter. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll up each croissant from the wider side. Shape the croissants a little bit, cover them with a kitchen towel and let them rise for 30 minutes.
5. In the meantime preheat your oven to 410°F (210°C) and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly flour the parchment paper.
6. To give the pretzel croissants their special taste and color, bring 6 cups water to a boil. Add 4 tsp baking soda and turn off the heat. Transfer each croissant with a slotted spoon into the soda-water mixture and let it sit in there for 1 minute. Let all the excess water drip off and transfer each croissant to the baking sheet. Sprinkle the croissants with coarse sea salt or sesame seeds (didn't do this since I'm freezing these and also I'm not a fan of salt on pretzels). Bake them for 25 minutes. The croissants will change their color in the second half of the baking time.

When they first came out of the oven, they felt hard or even over baked. But letting them defrost for the day while I'm at work and then zapping them in the microwave for 15 seconds softens them right up. While they're not as flaky as the Starbucks croissants I adore, they still taste delicious.