Bill Cosby’s Dessert

The 72-year-old great comedian is planning to launch a rap album, “Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency.” Great comedian, great in music, great cook, is there something that Bill Cosby isn’t good at?

Cosby will work with William “Spaceman” Patterson and Ultramagnetic MC’s Ced-Gee at the rap album that will discuss important things like education, parenthood, and self-respect. It will be released on November 24th.

Cosby really knows his way around the people. Back in the nineties when he was invited on Martha Stewart Living, he showed how to prepare croissants. Here’s their recipe for about 16 croissants.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup of warm water

• 1 1/3 cups of warm milk

• 3 1/2 cups (1 pound) of flour, maybe a little more for work surface

• 1 package of dry-active yeast

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 1 tablespoon of table salt

• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

• 2 tablespoons of heavy cream

• 14 ounces (3 1/2 sticks) of chilled unsalted butter

Instructions

Making the dough: combine water, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and yeast in a liquid measuring cup, stirring. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Take another measuring cup in which you’ll dissolve the salt and the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar in the milk.

Whisk the flour in a large bowl. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and milk mixture. Blend everything together by pressing and cutting with a rubber spatula; make sure all the flour is incorporated. It’s ok if the dough is very wet. Turn it out onto a well floured work surface and let it stand for 3 minutes, so you’ll allow it to absorb some of the liquid.

Next, knead by lifting near edges with a bench scraper and flip it over onto the other side. Repeat the movement fast, from one side to the other, end over end, until you’ll feel the dough smooth and it begins to draw back into shape when you pushed it out, 8-10 times. Don’t over-knead.

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it stand in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in bulk. Punch it down, and turn out onto a work surface that is lightly floured. Using lightly floured hands, hit lightly and push it out into a rectangle (about 12-by-10-inches). Fold the dough in three; place on a lightly floured plate or baking sheet; cover with plastic wrap and let it stand for about 45 minutes (until doubled in bulk) in a warm place.

Punch down dough, cover it again with plastic wrap, and transfer the dough to refrigerator for 20 minutes. Next roll in the butter: placing butter on a lightly floured work surface beat with a rolling pin to soften; smear it out using the heel of your hand until it’s of spreading consistency, still cold though. Refrigerate if necessary, but don’t let it become soft and oily.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a 18-by-10-inch rectangle. The butter should be spread evenly over the upper two-thirds of the dough, but leave a 1/4-inch border. Fold the unbuttered bottom third of the dough up to the middle; also fold the top third down to cover it.

Lightly flour the work surface and top of the dough. Turn it, so the edge of the top flap will be to your right. Roll it into a rectangle about 18-by-8-inches. Do it rapidly and start an inch from the near end, going to within an inch of the far end. Again, fold in three, as above. Then wrap in plastic and transfer to refrigerator for 1 hour.

When it’s removed from the fridge, sprinkle lightly with flour and deflate it by tapping lightly with a rolling pin. Next, cover with plastic wrap, let it rest 8 minutes to relax gluten. Repeat the process twice more. In case the butter has formed into flakes, beat the dough with light firm taps, from one side to the other to soften the butter. Put it to fridge for 2 hours.

When you shape the croissant, keep the dough so you won’t work with refrigerated, and place the chilled dough on the lightly floured work surface. Deflate it and roll out to a 25-by-12-inch rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise, then into triangles with a 5-inch base; work with one piece of dough at a time and use a pastry wheel or a croissant cutter.

Roll the triangles out to enlarge slightly; do it towards the tip, creating tension with your other hand to stretch away from you the top of the triangle. With the tip sticking out from underneath, overlap the dough 3 times.

Place the croissants on a parchment lined baking sheet, with 2 inches between. Form a crescent shape from the croissant inward, by curving the ends. Repeat the process with the second piece of dough. After covering lightly with plastic wrap, let it stand in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until becomes very spongy and doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 475^o. Whisk together the heavy cream and egg yolk in a small bowl, and lightly brush over the tops of croissants. Using a spray bottle, open the oven door, spritz the oven heavily with water, and quickly close the door. Place the croissants in oven and spritz its bottom again. Bake for about 15 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Rotate the pan to ensure even baking after 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400^o; continue to bake until gets cooked through.

Bill Cosby and Martha Stewart made great croissants and had lots of fun. Have a good time cooking and enjoy your croissants.