Xuixo de crema

Cook it at home: Xuixo de crema, Girona's fried cream croissants

A xuixo is croissant dough fried, not baked, with a thick cold cream piped in after. The cream carries cinnamon and lemon. The proportions follow what Tornés describes: soft flour that is not too strong, egg, butter, a little sugar, milk and fresh yeast. Keep the cream cold and fry gently, so the layers cook through before the outside darkens.

Pans and tools

• Heavy saucepan for the cream
• Rolling pin
• Deep, heavy pot for frying
• Thermometer
• Piping bag with a small plain tip
• Wire rack

You’ll need

• For the dough: 500 g (3 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour, not strong bread flour
• 230 ml (1 cup) cold whole milk
• 1 egg
• 40 g (3 tbsp) sugar
• 9 g (1 1/2 tsp) fine salt
• 25 g fresh yeast (or 8 g instant yeast)
• 40 g (3 tbsp) soft butter
• For laminating: 250 g (1 cup plus 1 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, firm but bendable
• For the cream: 500 ml (2 cups) whole milk
• Peel of 1 lemon, in wide strips, and 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 egg yolks
• 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 40 g (1/3 cup) cornstarch
• To fry and finish: about 2 litres (2 quarts) sunflower oil and 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar for rolling

Steps

1. Make the cream a day ahead. Warm the milk with the lemon peel and cinnamon to a bare simmer, take it off the heat, cover and steep 20 minutes. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a bowl until pale.
2. Strain the milk back into the pan and bring it to a simmer. Pour half over the yolks while whisking, tip it all back into the pan and cook over medium heat, whisking nonstop, 2 to 3 minutes, until it bubbles and is very thick. Cook 1 minute more.
3. Spread the cream on a tray, press cling film onto the surface and chill at least 4 hours, until stiff. Whisk it smooth before piping.
4. Make the dough. Stir the yeast into the cold milk, add the egg, sugar and salt, then the flour and soft butter. Knead 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and rest 45 minutes at room temperature until slightly puffy.
5. Flatten the dough to a 20 cm (8 in) square, wrap and chill 1 hour. Pound the cold butter between parchment into an 18 cm (7 in) square. It should bend without cracking.
6. Lock the butter inside the dough like an envelope, pinching the seams. Roll to a 20 x 50 cm (8 x 20 in) rectangle. Fold in thirds like a letter, wrap and chill 30 minutes. This is turn one.
7. Give two more turns, turning the dough a quarter each time and chilling 30 minutes between. If butter leaks or the dough turns soft and shiny, chill it 20 minutes before going on.
8. Roll the dough to 5 mm (1/4 in) thick, about 30 x 45 cm (12 x 18 in). Trim the edges and cut ten rectangles about 9 x 20 cm (3 1/2 x 8 in).
9. Roll each rectangle up from the short end into a tight log, ends tucked underneath, seam down. Curve each slightly. Set on a tray with space around them.
10. Prove 60 to 90 minutes at 24 to 26C (75 to 79F), until puffy and wobbly when you shake the tray. Do not go above 28C (82F) or the butter melts out.
11. Heat the oil to 160C (320F) in a deep, heavy pot. Fry 2 or 3 xuixos at a time, 4 to 5 minutes a side, turning gently, until deep golden. The inside must reach about 92C (198F). Keep the oil between 155 and 165C.
12. Lift out, drain 30 seconds on a rack and roll them in sugar while still warm. Cool 15 minutes so they are warm, not hot.
13. Push a chopstick through one end almost to the other to make a channel. Pipe in about 50 g (2 oz) of cold cream, pulling back slowly so it fills the whole length. Serve the same day.

Contains: ['gluten', 'egg', 'dairy'].

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