Medialunas or croissants

Ingredients

For the dough

• 500 g bread flour
• 70 g sugar
• 10 g salt
• 20 g fresh yeast (or 7 g instant yeast)
• 2 eggs
• 200 ml lukewarm milk
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 50 g softened butter

For laminating and finishing

• 200 g cold butter
• 1 beaten egg, for brushing
• 100 g sugar and 100 ml water, for the syrup

Step-by-step preparation

1. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest.
2. Add the milk with the yeast, the eggs and the softened butter. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Flatten it into a rectangle, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Pound the cold butter between two sheets of parchment paper into a flat, pliable square.
5. Roll the dough into a rectangle, place the butter in the center and fold the dough over it like an envelope.
6. Roll the dough into a long rectangle and fold it in three, like a letter. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Repeat this fold twice more.
7. Roll the dough out to about 4 mm thick and cut it into long triangles.
8. Roll up each triangle from the base to the tip and curve the ends into a crescent shape.
9. Place them on lined baking sheets and let them rise for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled in size.
10. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 200 °C for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden.
11. Meanwhile, boil the water with the sugar for 3 minutes to make the syrup, and brush it over the medialunas as soon as they come out of the oven.