Martin’s croissants
St Martin’s Croissants are traditional croissants made on 11 November, which is Saint Martin’s Day in Poznań, Poland.
Martin’s croissants are prepared from a semi-puff pastry dough filled with white poppy seeds, nuts, almonds and biscuit crumbs. The filling may also include raisins and candied orange peel.
Although it takes a long time to prepare these croissants, they are not difficult to make. You should be patient and take up the challenge 😉
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Ingredients for Martin’s croissants.
Semi-puff pastry:
- 500 g all-purpose flour
- a pinch of salt
- 25 g fresh yeast
- 50 g crystal sugar
- 1 big egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 210 ml lukewarm milk
- 50 g melted butter
- 150 g frozen butter
Poppy filling:
- 300 g white poppy seeds
- 100 g walnuts
- 100 g almonds
- 5 tablespoons crumbled biscuit
- 1 egg (50 g)
- 100 g marcepan
- 2 tablespoons candied orange zest
- 120 g icing sugar
Additionally:
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of milk
- 100 g walnuts
Icing:
- 200 g icing sugar
- 3 full tablespoons of lemon juice
How to make Martin’s croissants.
Semi-puff pastry: rub the yeast with one tablespoon of sugar. When liquid, add a tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of lukewarm milk. Stir and set aside in a warm place to rise.
Put sugar into a bowl, add an egg and egg yolk, then rub it into a creamy consistency. Then add the sifted flour, salt, lukewarm milk and risen yeast. Knead it very quickly, then add the liquid but still lukewarm butter. Knead for a few more seconds. Shape the dough into a rectangle, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for an hour.
After an hour, remove the dough from the refrigerator, roll it into a rectangle measuring 35 by 20 centimetres. If necessary, dust the dough with a little flour. Cover the rolled-out dough with butter grated on a large-mesh grater, leaving a margin of about 1 cm on each side. Fold the dough into three parts. Starting with the right, shorter part of the rectangle, fold 1/3 of the dough towards the center so that 1/3 of the dough is not covered. Then put the folded dough on the remaining 1/3 part. Wrap the dough in foil and put it in the fridge for an hour.
After taking it out of the refrigerator, sprinkle the dough lightly with flour, roll it out into a rectangle with the same dimensions as before and fold it again into three. Put it in the fridge for another hour. After that, repeat the same steps. The dough should be rolled out three times in total. After the last rolling out, it is worth leaving the dough in the refrigerator for a longer time. I left the pastry in the fridge overnight.
Poppy seed filling: put the walnuts in a bowl, pour boiling water over them, then set them aside for 15 minutes.
Place the almonds in a bowl, pour boiling water over them, and set them aside for 30 minutes and peel the skin off.
Put the poppy seeds in a pot, pour water over them, then simmer for 20 minutes. When cooked, remove them from the water, cool them down and grind them twice in a food processor. Grind the walnuts and almonds together with the poppy seeds.
Put icing sugar in a bowl, add marzipan to it and rub it. Next, add an egg and rub for a while. Add the ground poppy seeds with the nuts and almonds to the grated ingredients, though, not all at once, but in smaller batches. Finally, add the crumbled biscuits and the candied orange zest.
Additionally: mix the egg and milk in a bowl. You will use the mixture for brushing the croissants.
Roast the walnuts on a non-sticky frying pan over a low heat. Once roasted, chop them.
Icing: sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add lemon juice and rub it for about 10 minutes. It should form a liquid, uniform icing. If the ingredients are still “stiff” add a little more lemon juice,
Folding and baking the croissants: remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide into two parts. Roll out the first part into a square and cut out eight triangles from it. In the meantime, keep the second part of the dough in the refrigerator.
Put the poppy seed filling on the longer side of each triangle, wrap them once, then make a small incision in the middle of each one (in the part where there is already poppy seed filling), bend the sides slightly towards the centre and continue rolling. Put the finished croissants on a baking tray lined with baking paper, brush them with the egg mixture and set them aside in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and once hot, put the croissants in. Bake the croissants until golden brown for 25 to 30 minutes. When baked, cool them down and brush them with the icing and sprinkle with the chopped nuts.
Good to know when making Martin’s croissants.
Depending on how big you want your croissants to be, you can adjust the size of the triangles you cut out according to your preferences.
Knead the dough quickly and efficiently. This should take up to a minute.
If the dough sticks to pastry board, lightly sprinkle it with flour.
The croissants can be brushed with the icing or their top can be dipped in it.
Do you like poppy seeds? If so, try our recipe for Poppy roll.
