Cocoa Snails (Kakaos Csiga)

Preparing Cocoa Snails involves making a laminate dough, which is similar to the kind of dough made for croissants. If you've done this before, the first part of the instruction will be familiar. If you haven't, it's not that difficult, but one naturally improves with practice. (This vidoe shows the process of making a laminate dough, with cocoa snails in mind. Don't worry if you can't understand her, I couldn't either).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZE2UY-GvlI )

This process generally goes a few hours because of the rest periods involved. You don't want to start this much after 7 pm. Expect to be baking these around 10-11 pm.

A note if you find yourself making this in a warm kitchen: because there's butter involved, definitely chill your rolling pin, and you can cool your worksurface by placing a baking pan with ice on it while your dough is resting. This isn't typically necessary, but having done this in warm environments I know that this can help, particularly if you are new to making laminate dough. As one gets better the whole process goes more quickly and precautions like this aren't needed.

THE BUTTER

2 tablespoons flour

2 sticks butter, 250 grams

THE YEAST

265 ml milk

2 1/2 tsp dry yeast, 25g fresh

1 pinch sugar

THE DOUGH

500 g ap flour

1 egg

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

THE FILLING

50 grams butter

105 grams sugar

25 grams cocoa powder, special dark

45 grams regular

EGG WASH

1 egg

1 tablespoon water

PROOF YEAST: Dissolve yeast with a pinch of sugar in tepid milk.

PREPARE BUTTER PAD: Dice the cold butter and combine with flour.

Hint: you can use a food processor, dough cutter or even a fork. Do it quickly and don't allow the butter to soften. Shape it into an 8 x 8 square (approximately) on plastic wrap or parchment paper. Don't be too fussy. Wrap and put in the fridge to harden.

PREPARE FLOUR MIXTURE: Combine the egg, salt, sugar and activated yeast in a mixing bowl and mix. Add the flour and. Knead until smooth and elastic.

Hint: The dough should be soft and pillowy. When pulled gently it should stretch and not tear. If it tears or is resistant to gentle stretching or kneading, it may need a little more hydration. Knead until it can pass a 'windowpane' test, or close to it.

Rest the dough while the butter chills, approx 30m unrefrigerated. Put the rolling pin into the freezer.

BUTTER INLAY:

Dust a worksurface with flour. and roll the dough into a square larger than the butter pad. Place the butter pad on the dough, like a diamond in a square. Bring the corners of the dough to onto the butter so that all corners of the dough meet the other corners, in the middle of the butter diamond.

TIP: Only roll your dough so that it's large enough that when the corners are folded over the butter that it reaches and covers the center. Don't make the dough too big because you'll have big floopy pieces that are too big.

TIP add flour to the worksurface as needed. You don't want your flour to stick, because that can cause the butter to 'bust out'. This goes for the whole process.

Close up the seams of the dough and pound gently with a rolling pin, sealing and flattening it.

Roll the dough into a rectangle approx 12 high and 18 wide, flipping once or twice.

Fold one edge of the dough to the center and the other edge over that, as you would if you were folding a letter to put in an envelope. See the photo on the post if you are unsure.

TIP: Remove excess flour from the surface of the dough and also as you fold the dough over with a brush or your hand.

Wrap and rest refrigerated for 30m. Put your rolling pin into the freezer.

Again dust the worksurface to avoid sticking and roll the dough out flat to the same 12x18 (approx dimientions), gently but firmly as you did before. Again, fold as you did previously, like a letter, removing excess flour.

Wrap and rest refrigerated for 30m.

PREPARE AND BAKE: Roll out the chilled dough into rectangle 12" wide x 18". The shorter length should be facing you.

TIP : Try to keep the 12 inch width to 12 inches, becasue you'll be cutting the dough in 12, 1" pieces.

Soften the butter and spread it on the top of the dough. Dust the cocoa onto the butter. A sugar duster works well for this. Do the same thing with the sugar. Leave a 1/2 inch strip nearest you clean and dampen it with some water. Roll the dough towards yourself, and let it rest on the dampened edge.

TIP: I haven't done this, but I think I will try it next time - optionall,y spray the sugar and cocoa with a little water before rolling. The reason is that when you cut the roll with dry ingredients some of the sugar and cocoa come out (because they're dry). I'm going to try it next time to prevent this. It's your choice if you want to try it or not.

Give the roll around 10 minutes rest time to 'fill out' before cutting 12, 1 inch slices. Flatten the slices with a rolling pin to around 1/2 their height. Cover and proof on baking tray(s) for around 1h.

Before baking, wash the snails with cream to keep the tops from drying out. An egg wash is an alternative if no cream on hand. (1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp water).

Bake the snails at 390F for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve warm.

Freezing and reheating: To reheat for serving, I like to put them into a cold oven and set it to 325 (from room temperature). When the oven reaches 325, remove them and serve. These freeze well. To serve them for breakfast, thaw in the fridge overnight, and put them into a cold 350 degree oven, removing when the oven hits temp.