Ingredients
- 10g baker’s yeast
- 130g whole milk
- 6g fine sea salt
- 370g T45 flour
- 30g organic brown sugar
- 10g muscovado sugar (or unrefined cane sugar)
- 70g eggs
- 1 vanilla pod
- 30g unsalted butter
- 200g butter
Method
- Mix half the milk with the yeast. Pour the other half of the milk into a bowl, and add the brown sugar, vanilla and muscovado sugar. Mix well until the sugar grains have dissolved.
- Pour the milk-yeast and the milk-sugar mixtures into a large container. Add the flour, salt, eggs and 30g of unsalted butter. Knead for 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticks to your fingers. Leave to rest for 1 hour at room temperature. Knead again for one minute then leave the dough to rest for two hours in the fridge.
- Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it out on a plate into a rectangle measuring 25×10 cm. On another plate, spread the cold butter (200g) into a 12×10 cm rectangle. Place the butter on half of the dough (the butter should not be in the centre of the rectangle but on one end) then fold the other half of the dough over the butter. Roll out the dough again into a rectangle then fold each side to form a square. Repeat twice, leaving the dough to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge at the end of each stage.
- Roll out the dough to 1 cm thickness, then cut 1.5 cm-wide strips. Arrange the strips of dough in a buttered pan to make a cross pattern, making sure the strips are not too close. Leave to rest for 1 hour and 30 minutes, then bake for at least 35 minutes at 160°C.
- Remove from the mould and season with fleur de sel.
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Recipe courtesy of Michael Bartocetti, pastry chef of Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris. Find this recipe, along with others, in the @FSGeorgeVParis Instagram highlights.