What I am leaving behind - Black and White Wednesdays

This is the last week for us in Lagos. Just saw the last of my packages loaded on to the movers' truck for stuffing and shipping last weekend. It is a back breaking task I do once every few years, that now my friends think I am a pro at it.
The home that was, is back to a shell of a house, but my small pots are blooming with their plants. Some sprouts are also showing promises of lush, only I will leave them with hopes of someone would care.
There will be a new home to set up and newer plants will bloom in the garden, yet it is not easy letting go and allow them to die.

 

Aparna is hosting this 78th week's Black and White Wednesdays, a culinary and food related photo event.
The event is the brainchild of Susan of The Well seasoned Cook and is currently being put together by Cinzia of Cindystar
My entry to the week is titled "The street vendor". There is this man who brings on his push cart his wares ranging from plastic trash bins to aluminium cooking utensils and some small stainless steel stuff in my home town.

 

We Knead to Bake - March Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzhong

Last month's classic croissants were a hit among the bakers in this group. All of whom who tried the given recipe seemed very happy with the outcome. As for me, having baked them twice, I am more confident to handle a rather complicated recipe now. This month's bread is not any less in creativity and taste while the recipe is not difficult to make. We have tried the Hokkaido milk bread using tangzhong.
I am reproducing here the interesting facts about this bread and the secret ingredient that gives it the rise and texture as given by Aparna.

Hokkaido Milk Bread is known for its soft cottony/ pillow like texture. Apparently it’s very popular bread in South Asian bakeries across the world. It is also known as Asian Sweet Bread and Hong Kong Pai Bo. 

Some people say this is a Japanese bread while others say it’s because the milk used in this bread is from Japan while some others have suggested its pure white colour and the texture resemble the pristineness of Hokkaido!

The Hokkaido Mild Bread owes its texture and height to the use of an interesting ingredient called Tangzhong. Basically, the Tangzhong method involves cooking 1 part of bread flour with 5 parts of water (by weight) at 65°C (149 °F) to form a roux. 

At 65°C, the gluten in the bread flour and water mixture would absorb the moisture and create a “leavening” action.  When the Tangzhong is added into other ingredients of a bread dough, it produces light, tender and fluffier bread.

This method of using Tangzhong is often seen in South Asian breads and was created by a Chinese woman, Yvonne Chen, who describes this method in her book which translates to “65 degrees Bread Doctor".

Thus, we were baking this very versatile bread with the basic recipe shared by Aparna. She had tried the recipe a few times and added a picture collage of the process to help us.

I made them twice, the first time following the recipe to the letter and the next time, altering to make it savoury filled dinner rolls. With half of those saved for another night's pav bhaji, we enjoyed the rest with soup. Also I substituted the milk with soya milk that a friend next door made and shared. Though I did not make it fully vegan, the butter was replaced with oil too. I still used the milk powder and the cream though.

As the month progresses, we get to see the pictures other members put up having tried the recipe. With each of those, one would only be motivated to bake again, along with them.

Now to the recipe,

adapted from http;//kirbiecravings.com/2011/05/hokkaido-milk-toast.html 

Ingredients:

For the Tangzhong (Flour - Water Roux)

1/3 cup of  all purpose flour (it weighed 40 grams when checked)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

For the dough:

2 and 1/2 cups (310 grams) all purpose flour

3 table spoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons powdered milk

2 teaspoons instant dried yeast

1/2 cup milk (and a little more only if absolutely required)

1/8 cup of cream (I have used low fat content cream)

1/3 cup of tangzhong ( that would be half the quantity of the yield that you got from the above listed ingredients)

25 grams unsalted butter

For the chocolate rolls: 1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate chips

For the gem tree: Candied cherries of different colours

For the savoury filling: Pestos or chutneys of choice.

 

Method:

Preparing the Tangzhong:

Whisk lightly the flour, milk and water to a smooth and free of lumps batter in a heavy bottomed pan.

Place the pan on the stove and on a low heat stirring the mix allow it to thicken. The roux is supposed to be done until it reaches the optimum temperature of 65 Degrees C/149 Degrees F. But I do not have a kitchen thermometer to check the temperature. I opted to do what Aparna had suggested. The roux id done when it has thickened enough and lines form in the tangzhong as you stir. This would have thickened sufficiently, but still have a kind of jiggling consistency. 
Take the pan off the heat and allow the tangzhong to cool for two to three hours. By now the consistency would be like that of a soft and creamy patisserie.
This can be made ahead and refrigerated covered well for just about a day, not longer.

Making the bread dough:
The kneading is a bit long drawn if you choose to do with your hands. The dough should be kneaded well and long enough to form a perfectly circular tear if stretched beyond its elasticity.
You may use the food processor or a hand mixer fitted with dough hooks. Whichever process you choose, the dough has to kneaded well.
First whisk the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and the milk powder together.
In a separate bowl, add the cream and milk to the measured quantity (half of the resultant quantity that you made with 1/3 cups of flour and other ingredients) of tangzhong. Whisk them well to blend in a batter like consistency. Ensure to make it smooth without lumps.
Add this to the whisked flour mix. Knead/ run your mixer at a slow speed until the dough comes together. Then add the butter and knead.
The dough will start out quite sticky and as you continue, the stickiness will give way to softness and elasticity. This takes a while, but the exercise is necessary.
Once the dough has been achieved, roll it in a ball and place it in a well oiled bowl. Roll the dough around to coat it with the oil. Cover and place it in a warm place to allow it to almost double in its initial volume. This may take from 45 minutes to an hour.
Place the dough on your working surface, deflate slightly and then shape.
You will not need flour to work this dough. Just about a little might be required.
Divide the dough into three if you are baking one 9"X5" loaf. Or six equal portions if you choose to bake them in 2 tins of 6"X4" .
I used my mini loaf pan that gives 4 mini loaves and the rest of the dough was shaped in smaller rolls to fit a muffin tray. I had desired to shape one portion of the dough and reserved it to shape a small tortoise.
Whichever size you want to bake, follow the steps with the dough.
Roll out one portion in an oval shape. Bring the top side of the shaped dough away from you to the centre. Overlap this at the centre with the lower portion of the oval.
Rotate the somewhat rectangular shape and roll it along the length a bit.
starting from the end towards you, roll the rectangle like a mat, pinching the edges together to seal well.
Repeat the process and place all of the rolled dough in the respective pans.
If using the loaf tins, place the rolls next to each other. Place one roll in each of the muffin holders.
To shape the tortoise, I removed small portions for the four legs and the head. I reserved another slightly larger portion for the shell/carapace.
Roll the body in an elongated circle with the hind slightly pointed. Flatten the dough for the head piece and attach. Likewise do the limbs. Roll the reserved dough for the shell in a circular disc and make deep cuts with a knife to bring out the shape.
For the eyes and the mouth, I placed one pepper corn  for each.
Cover the finished rolls and allow a second rise for another 45 minutes.
Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade.
Carefully brush the tops of the rolls with milk and cream mix. bake them for 20 to 30 minutes until the tops of the rolls are browned beautifully.
The bread will rise vertically while baking and will have a very soft texture.
If you tap the tops they will sound hollow.
Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and remove.
Cool them completely and store them in your bread bin.
To make a savoury bread or a bland tasting dinner roll, cut down the sugar.
Layer the savoury filling before rolling the rectangular dough in rolls and placing in the loaf tins.
This bread stays fresh even on the next day and maintains the texture.
It is ideal for having with soup or  as pav with a bhaji to go with it.

Do check this link in My Diverse Kitchen where all of us have shared our breads.

Sprouts and mixed vegetables salad

In general, I do not recall that they made salad regularly at home. One occasional kosumalli with grated carrots, cucumbers or just soaked, drained and garnished moong dhal were made on festival days. Apart from that we always had cooked vegetables in curries, stir- fries and kootus. Even in my hostel during college and working years it was not on a regular menu. Only when ladies at work used to bring and share home cooked food that we had salads often and with variety.
My husband is not very fond of raw vegetables, while I am very used to eating a cucumber raw and whole. My daughter is somewhere in between on the scale. She would choose to have a salad with select vegetables, and not very often. I have to find days to make a salad because, with just the two of us, I find it difficult to limit portions. If that is the case, how do i ever make such small portions only for myself? However, I try to indulge and make my salads on days that my husband decides to pack extra portions of his breakfast for lunch. I do not cook a meal for myself and make do with a bowl of  anything I fancy.

Likewise, salad dressing was quite new to me for we have always had them with one squeeze of lime juice and salt. Tempering will have mustard seeds and slit green chillis. I was introduced to dressings only from restaurants. In Bahrain, there was a small exclusive to salads and juices outlet in a mall. The assistant there soon got to know that I refuse mayonnaise and would give me other dressing options like cider vinegar or infused olive oil. On one such day I spotted that he had labaneh and asked if he could use it for me. He obliged and I found that creamy texture interesting. Now I play around with the flavours and make curd cheese by hanging the home set curd.
The other day, I found that my vegetable shop had stocked small size raw papayas and bought one to make kootu. But when I cut it, they tasted semi sweet and so I had to give the idea of kootu for another time. I used them in my salad and thus this post.
It also happens that Lisa's  popular No Croutons Required event is being hosted at Lisa's Kicthen and she is asking us to bring raw salads and soups. So this will be my share to go there.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup green gram sprouts
1 small raw papaya peeled and julienned
1 medium carrot peeled and julienned
1 chinese cucumber peeled and julienned
1 large tomato sliced
A fistful of fresh herbs (I have used basil and mint leaves)
Salt to taste
Powdered black pepper corns to taste

For the dressing:
1 cup home set yogurt
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed dry herbs crushed
1/2 teaspoon powdered black pepper corns

Method:
Make the hung curd or curd cheese by bundling the yogurt in a cheese cloth and hanging it to drain the whey.
Once the curd has been removed of the liquid, transfer it to a dish and add the rest of the ingredients listed for the dressing and cream together with a spatula.
To make the green gram sprouts, wash and soak the gram for about eight hours. Drain and transfer them to a casserole. Cover the lid and leave it to sprout overnight.

In a larger bowl, first take a portion of the curd cheese and top it with the vegetables. Toss them to be coated with the cheese. Add the salt and pepper as required.
Keep alternating with curd cheese and vegetables. Finally add the sprouts and gently mix them in.
Top with fresh herbs.

Serve with portions of lime and the curd cheese.
Consume fairly quickly or refrigerate soon after making the salad until required.
This makes a meal for me by itself, but if you are not inspired eating raw vegetables, have this as starter and have a main course with these Quinoa peppers and some Hariyali paneer tikkas.
I would be glad to add this to Priya's event Healthy Me and Heathy Us.

Fifty 2 weeks of 2013 Week 9 Colour of the Week

Given that we, my husband and me, have few friends and limited social activities, my days go by without much to mention. The usual mundane tasks carried out day in and day out, mine- cooking cleaning, pressing clothes, keeping house and such. His – Work, work and more work. To say the least, we lead a very boring life. I find ways to kill ennui and try to plan a few tasks that interest me.

Writing this blog gives me reason to try recipes for putting up here or trying from other blogs to pep my menu with variety. Then there is a new found love for photography keeps me more than engaged. Not that I am a good one at that, but I love to try a few ideas with the camera.
I avidly read many photography pages and blogs, many times wishing that I may be somewhat good bordering in those remotely at the least.

Thus when this week’s theme – photography only, was announced  in our Fifty 2 Weeks of 2013project, the first thought that I thought was I will post a picture of water and caption it "I envision my week to be as colourless but clear as water".
 

Talking of water, it is one of my favourite subjects for photography. Be it the sea and rolling waves, that spray when they hit the rocks, or calmly sitting inside the glass to be consumed or falling as rain and droplets glittering on leaves. These pictures speak for my awe for water.

Then around last week I came across a new concept of capturing oil drops in water and that got me hooked on. So I looked up more videos and write ups on this concept.

Many dealt with simple, inexpensive equipment and some knowledge in handling your camera, though there were many advanced techniques that are beyond my comprehension.

 This is all you need to set up and importantly, your faithful camera. a clear scratch-free glass bowl, something to hold the bowl about a feet high above the surface, few colourful material, paper/ cloth anything, water and few spoons of oil.

That did not deter me from trying and what you see are results of my experiment.

 I added some red food colour to the water :)

 

What has this to do with the theme, you may ask. Like I mentioned in my note for the last week’s theme, life is what you make of it. It can be boring and dull without such small challenges that make it as colourful as these. I fill my week with activities that interest me, sewing, cooking, baking and photography. They make my weeks and life colourful and worth enjoying all of them.
This is how my week has been until now and I hope it will be through the next. So long then.

I hope and wish you all have a week/  many weeks in fact, that are colourful and cheerful.

More pictures can be found in an album I am sharing on my facebook page.

Dhal kalbeliya and cooking that in my Indian pressure cooker that did not blow on my face

I cannot think of any Indian household that does not use a pressure cooker. In my home presure cooker has been around since the introduction of the appliance and it may well be even before I was born. There was this aluminium pressure cooker nice and stout that my gradmother and mother would cook the dhal for sambhar and rasam in. Many times they would use it to steam vegetables. When the idli plates were introduced, they will fit the pressure cooker and had a stand to hold four such plates, the ever versatile pressure cooker was the steamer for idlis too.
In a tambrahm household dhals are cooked on an everyday basis. So this was a regular morning scene that I remember well. Once a cousin remarked that if you lived in apartments, you may wake up to the milk cooker's whistle one after another from your neighbours and yours. Then  you will get to listen to the number of whistles of the pressure cooker.
In my parents' home they still steam cook rice,but dhals are always pressure cooked. I cook my rice in a pressure cooker, placing the rice in a bowl, not directly cooking in the cooker. I have seen it being used so much that i might think not having one is a handicap.
So much so I bought one 12 litres cooker as that was the only size available in the city i lived, before moving to Malaysia. I have hardly used it after the two plus years there that too cooking with it occasionally when we had a party. I kept using my older aluminium pressure cooker that had served well. I did not, but the packers forgot to pack it on my next move. So to Egypt I carried with the 20 kilograms luggage allowance a pressure cooker.
Living in countries where you may not get accessories, I buy extra safety valves and gaskets as I buy couplers and washers for my mixer. I am quite comfortable playing handyman with these appliances.
Jaya the Desi Soccer Mom read somewhere about a random incident of a cooker blowing up. The writer had generalised that all Indian pressure cookers explode. That rubs the cooker faithfuls on the wrong side, doesn't it? So she wants us to share our lifelong attachment to the pressure cooker. Thus this post.
I am also aware of stray incidences where the cooker had exploded. I know of a lady who was unfortunate to be around and the bits hurt her eye badly that she is partially impaired.
My mother follows her pressure cooker ritual faithfully. Before placing anything inside, she will do her checks, the safety valve, the steam vent, the gasket and the handles too. This may sound a futile exercise but necessary as the manual will recommend.
I might also say that more times than once it is the fault of the user that causes accidents. People do not use sufficient water to cooking time ratio. To avoid darkening of metal as reaction to water, they tend to place substances like a rind of a lime or a small ball of tamarind and such things. This may cause malfunction of the cooker. Pieces of these and/ or the cooking food might overflow with excess pressure and block vents. In most cases the safety valve will open, release the pressure and avert mishap. All you need is to replace the safety valve and you are good to go.
I too have, in my kitchen more than one Indian pressure cooker. It doubles and trebles in function. I have them in different sizes and use according to requirement. I try to buy a good and 'been around for years' brands and they serve me well.
I am sharing the recipe to cook the dhal as side dish for my rice. Though dhals cook without the appliance too, it is much faster and easier to use a pressure cooker.

Dhal Kalbeliya: A Rajasthani preparation adapted from TAJ VEGETARIAN FARE.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

3/4 cup mung dhal
3/4 cup grams thoor dhal
3/4 cup masoor dhal
4 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
10 - 12 cloves garlic chopped
2 medium onions chopped
4-5 small tomatoes chopped
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves chopped
2 teaspoons butter
Method:
Wash the dhals separately in few changes of water.
Pour 250 ml water in the base pan of your pressure cooker.
Take the washed dhals in a bowl and add sufficient water and the turmeric powder.
Place this in the pressure cooker. Place the lid of the cooker firmly.
Switch the stove on and allow the steam to flow through the vent. Then place the weight/ whistle.

Once the pressure has reached optimum, the whistle will let the steam escape with a sharp hiss.
Reduce the heat and allow a few more whistles of the pressure cooker. Switch the heat off and wait for the pressure built inside to subside. Once the hissing has died, gently open the lid of the cooker and remove the bowl .
The dhals would have been cooked soft. Lightly mash them and set aside.
Now did the pressure cooker blow on ones face? It did not on mine!
Place a heavy bottom pan on the stove. Add the oil and heat it.
Add the cumin seeds and when they splutter drop the chopped onions in.
Cook the onions to a translucent pink and then add the chopped garlic. Toss them around for a few more minutes.

Add the tomatoes, red chilli powder and the coriander powder. Cook on a low fire until the tomatoes are pulped.
Add the mashed dhals and adjust the water. Bring to a boil, add the salt and simmer for about 10 minutes until they blend well.
Remove from the fire and transfer to a serving bowl.
Garnish with coriander leaves and the butter.
Serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

I also cook a variety of other legumes and rice in my pressure cooker. To me it happens to be one of the essential gadgets in my kitchen. It does not blow up on my face!

We Knead to Bake - February - Classic Croissants

To say that the first month's bread was a whooping success, would be an understatement. It attracted so many people that now the group has grown to 90 members. That's not all, there have been others who have read our posts and baked the pull aparts. I have bookmarked the many fillings and want to use them sometime.
Meanwhile, come February and we were ready to try another bread. We were all hoping for something easy enough and Aparna bowled us a googly :) she set us the task of baking classic croissants!

On the good side of it, she sends us a picture tutorial with the recipe and she is quite meticulous with the small details and tips. I read, reread, again and reread. Then decided unless I have a handbook that would guide, I will not be able to manage. So I printed out her mail - eight pages in all! Then when my husband handed me the print out, he offered to help. He has more patience than I, is meticulous and can work his way around. As you will see  he did a wonderful job with the butter (and that is all he did). We set a week end for the baking expedition. But I need not have feared so much. The recipe was very detailed and it was easy walking the tight rope.

 Aparna had adapted the recipe from Jeffrey Hamelman at Fine Cooking. I have added the links to the original and a audio slide show too, below.
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/classic-croissants.aspx

http://www.finecooking.com/articles/how-to-make-croissants.aspx

These will help you through the baking if you choose to.
Croissants are not at all difficult, but requires time, patience and attention. We baked them over three days, setting aside an hour to ninety minutes on each day. And once you do the first two days through, you can freeze the dough and use at another time too. The third day requires you to set aside more hours though no constant attention is needed.
That said, I will reproduce the recipe that Aparna mailed us. I have tried to take pictures of the procedure, but they are randomly done.

Recipe: Source Aparna (adapted from Fine Cooking)
Ingredients:
Makes 15 croissants


For the dough:
4 cups/520 grams all purpose flour and little more for dusting/ rolling the dough
1/2 a cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 grams/ 150 millilitres cold water
1/2 a cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 gram/ 150 millilitres cold milk (I used low fat milk)
1/4 cup/ 60 grams granulated sugar
3 tablespoons/ 40 grams soft unsalted butter
1 tablespoon plus a scant 1 teaspoon/ 30 grams instant yeast
2 teaspoons / 10 grams salt

For the Butter layer:
250 grams cold unsalted butter.

For brushing:
1/8 cup cold milk + 1/8 cup cream



Method:
Day 1 - Making the dough (and refrigerate overnight)

Combine all the ingredients listed for the dough in a bowl and mix. You may choose to knead by hand to a soft pliable dough. Or you may use a hand mixer with dough hooks. Mix initially at low speed for three minutes and increase the speed to medium for another three minutes. Do not over do this. You only need a soft and pliable dough, not one that will develop.
I did this procedure with the plastic kneading blade in my food processor and run it at lowest speed for three minutes and then at medium speed for another three minutes.
Lightly dust a pie pan or a  dinner plate of 10" diameter with flour. Place the dough on the plate.

Gently shape the dough into a flat ball by pressing it down. Dust some more flour on top of the dough.
Wrap the dough and the plate well and place it in the refrigerator.
Pressing the dough thus makes the rolling out the next day easier.
A tightly rolled ball of dough will strengthen the gluten, which we do not want in this recipe.
The wrapping shall have to cover well that the dough does not dry out.
Refrigerate overnight.

Day 2 Making the butter layer and Lamination process:

Cut two 10"squares of parchment / wax paper. Cut the cold butter in smaller slabs and arrange them on top of one parchment paper. The butter thus arranged must form a roughly 5&1/2 to 6 inches sided square.
Cover the butter slab with the other parchment. Gently with light strokes tap the butter with a rolling pin. The butter will start to stick together.
Now use a bit more force and pound the butter until it flattens to a 7&1/2 inch sided square.
Trim the edges now and then so the sides are sharp edged. Top the trimmings and pound to incorporate them into the slab.
Ensure that the butter is cold during the process. if it melts and becomes soft, put it in the fridge and take out after a few minutes before continuing.
Once you have a neat square slab, place the butter covered with the wax paper, in the fridge. Let it rest in the fridge as you work on the dough.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Unwrap ans lay it out on a lightly flour dusted surface.
Roll the dough out to a roughly 10 &1/2 inch square.
Take the butter out, remove the wax paper and place it on the rolled dough. Place it so that it forms a diamond shape in the centre of the dough.
Envelope the butter with the dough by bringing each side on top of the butter slab. First fold the side of the dough that is at the far end from you. Next fold the side nearer to you, overlapping the corner already on top of the butter. Then do the same with the left and right side flaps.
Seal the edges well. Now the butter is well wrapped in the dough like a square envelope.
Take care that at any point the butter does not escape from the sides while rolling.
Lightly flour the top and bottom of the dough. Firmly press along the dough with a rolling pin. Press firmly applying uniform pressure and lengthen the dough. Then start rolling, focusing on lengthening the dough rather than widening. Ensure the edges are maintained straight.
Roll the dough in a 24" X 8" rectangle. If the corners are not sharp, shape them with your fingers lightly.
At any point, if you feel that the butter within is becoming too soft to handle, quickly transfer the dough on to a wax paper and cover and leave in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.
Once you have rolled to the rectangular shape, make a mental division of thirds of the length of the rectangle. Fold the upper 1/3rd over the middle of the thirds. Then fold the lower third part over the already folded flap, forming the shape of a three fold paper.
Place the folded dough on a baking sheet dusted with flour, cover with wrap and freeze for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take the dough out and roll again. This time roll the dough along the length of the folded rectangle. Roll to a length of 24", retaining the 8" width of the earlier fold.
Fold again as done earlier in a three fold.
Brush off excess flour and place on the wax paper, cover and leave in the freezer for the next twenty minutes.
Take the dough out for the third lamination (and last of the second day's) process.
Repeat the rolling along the length, covering the two folded sides, to achieve a 24" X8" rectangle.
If the dough sticks to the surface during the rolling, smear some flour very lightly before continuing.
Fold the dough as done twice already.
Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap with cling film/ plastic and tuck the plastic sheet in on all sides.
Refrigerate and leave it in overnight.

Day 3 Shaping and Baking the croissants:
Keep the counter top clean and prepared.
Mix the milk and cream and leave it in the refrigerator until required.
Have a small bowl of flour handy on the counter next to you.
Keep baking trays ready, lined with parchment or wax paper.
You may need an inch tape and a ruler, if you are not sure with eye-ball measurements.

 

Remove the dough from the fridge.
Unwrap and place it on the counter. Cut the dough in two halves and refrigerate one half while you work on the other.
If you are not planning to work with the other half of the dough, wrap well with plastic wraps and place the dough in a container in the freezer. That can be taken out and worked on when you choose to.
"Wake the dough up" by pressing firmly along its length (the rectangle is now 12"X 8") with the rolling pin.
Do not widen the dough, but with the first strokes lengthen it. Slowly, roll the dough into a narrow long strip 22" in length and 8" in width. Sprinkle flour now and then when the dough gets sticky.
Once the dough has been rolled half to two thirds of the final length, it may resist to rolling, and even shrink back. If this happens, fold it in thirds and place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
After ten minutes in refrigeration, bring it out and roll to the full length.
Holding the dough at the mid point of the rectangular strip, lift it about an inch above the surface and allow the sides to shrink from both the sides.
Check the length to see if you have enough of excess dough that when you trim the edges to a neat line, you have a strip that is 20" long.
Trim excess dough and uneven edges off.
Using a tape measure, mark every 5" from one edge.
On the opposite side of the rectangle along it's length, make the first mark at 2&1/2" from one edge.
Then proceed to mark at 5" intervals.
Using a pizza cutter cut out triangular strips with the markings done on both sides.
You will have seven triangular pieces in all with a dough rolled 20" long.
Leave out the tiny scrap of dough from the edges.

Shaping the croissants:
Work with one triangular strip at a time. Stretch the triangle very lightly, while not making it thin, but slightly long, say about 10". This will give your croissants height and more layers.
Using  a sharp knife, make a 1/2" to 3/4" long notch at the centre of the base of the triangle.
This helps the croissant to curl up in a crescent shape.
Place the triangular dough on the work surface with the notched side close to you. Place one hand on each side, begin to roll the dough away from you, flaring your palms outwards.
Roll tight enough, but not very tight to compress. Roll towards the pointed edge until it is well tucked underneath the shaped croissant. Pull the flared legs and pinch them together. they will release once the proofing is through.
Place this on the baking sheet in the tray. Proceed with shaping the other triangles into crescent shaped croissants.
Place them well apart from each other. Brush with the chilled milk- cream mix. Refrigerate the remaining for use a second time later.
Cover and place them in a cool draft free place. The butter shall not melt. This results in greasy flopped croissants. I placed the trays in large plastic bags that would cover well but not touch the croissants. Left the trays on the counter and kept the air conditioner on.
Proofing takes as long as two to three hours. Allow them the time to proof. They will be distinctly larger, but not as double  their size.
The proofing is through and they are ready if you can see the layers of dough from the side. Also, if you shake the sheet lightly, they will wriggle.
Just before the croissants are fully proofed, pre heat the oven to 200 Degrees Centigrade/ 400 Degrees Fahrenheit if you are using a convection oven (like I do). If you are using a regular oven, then the temperature needs to be higher to 220 deg C/ 425 deg F.
Give the croissants a second milk- cream brushing.
Bake one tray at a time in the convection oven. In the regular oven place the tray in the top and lower thirds of the oven.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top of the croissants are golden brown and the sides are just beginning to brown.
Remove the trays from the oven and allow them to cool.
These are best had warm. However, you can reheat for a few seconds and have them warm when you want to.

And you still have the second half of the dough waiting to be worked upon. You may choose to do it right away or leave it for another day. All you have to do is thaw it a bit and repeat the third day's process.

 My husband wanted to watch me bake them from start to end and offered to help. so last weekend we both baked these together and I am sharing some pictures.

Some important points to bear in mind are
The butter shall always be cold. It shall neither be soft to melt nor hard that it breaks in bits within. It is important that it is pliable along with the dough. Return the dough to the fridge for a few minutes if the butter softens.
They dough needs to be kneaded only to soft and pliable. Do not tend to over do it and allow the dough to develop. we want a soft dough, not an elastic one.
Seal the butter slab with the dough during the initial process for lamination. Improper sealing will allow the butter to ooze out.
During the lamination the twenty minutes of resting the dough is important and the resting has to be inside the freezer. But the overnight process are in the refrigerator on both nights.
Keep the surface lightly floured and brush off excess flour after each process.
You need to patiently and diligently work with the rolling, allowing the butter to spread evenly. If there are pockets where butter has not been incorporated you will not have desired results.
While we all baked croissants on different days of the month, we discussed the process in our group's page. We now understand that adding a little lesser butter works well too, though it may not be as great as these.
Also that you can shorten the duration to two days. That is, make the dough in the morning, rest until later in the evening (12 hours). Laminate late in the evening and refrigerate overnight. Shape, proof and bake the next day.
This post may seem very intimidating, but the procedure is not. If you can set aside time and set your mind on it, it is quite simple. I will not say easy because it needs a lot of attention, care and your patience. But when the buttery, flaky and thin multiple-layered croissants come to your table, the appreciation of the labour will make it worth the try.

Check Aparna's post and you will find links to other bakers' posts.