Raisin breads (pains aux raisins)

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 12 pieces, you will need:

• 1 300 g Yeast-based flaky dough (for croissants)
• 2 200 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
• 3 100 g raisins
• 4 3 tablespoons water
• Total weight: 645 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
25 min.	1 hour 50 min.	30 min.	2 hours 45 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Roll out the cold 300 g Yeast-based flaky dough (for croissants) in front of you (take it out of the fridge at the last minute), to a thickness of 3 mm, into a large rectangle of about 30 x 40 cm (12 x 16 inches).
2	Roll out very thinly, 1 mm or less, the last 5 cm (2 inches) of the dough indicated by the blue arrow. You are literally going to crush this part, to make it very very thin, don't worry about the puffiness there, it's a crush intended for later.
3	Spread with the metal spatula 200 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) on the paste, stop you at the level of the last 5cm which you will have crushed in the preceding stage, and which must them be without cream.
4	Spread 100 g raisins over the custard only.
5	This is the delicate moment, roll the dough "tightly" on itself...
6	... and stop when you don't see any more cream.
7	With a brush dipped in water, wet the crushed area all over.
8	Finish rolling the dough, check that the seam with the wet dough is well done and leave it still, seam (or key) underneath. You should obtain a nice, regular cylinder, put it on a baking sheet, wrap it, and put it in the freezer for 20 minutes (or 1 hour in the fridge) to cool it down.
9	After this time, cut the cylinder into slices of about 2 cm (0.8 inches).
10	Place the slices on several baking sheets with a sheet of baking paper. Don't squeeze the slices too tightly, they will swell up.
11	Check that the welds (green arrow) are well closed, if it is not the case put a brush and water to stick well.
12	Put to rise in a tepid place during 1 h30 approximately, the slices double in volume.
13	Once well puffed, bake at 180°C (360°F) for about 30 minutes. Let cool on a rack.
14	Note: If you want to make a "mini" version, it's exactly the same recipe, only the size of the dough cylinder changes, make a longer one with a smaller diameter (by at least half).

Remarks

As always with pastries, cold is your friend, if you feel that the dough is getting too soft and unmanageable, put everything on a plate for 15 minutes in the freezer, and pick up where you left off.
You will notice that we do not glaze the raisin breads, this is the exception in viennoiserie which is explained by the presence of pastry cream.
The quantities of custard and raisins are indicative, feel free to adapt to your taste.
Staying on the same principle, a roll of croissant dough and a cream, you can decline this recipe according to your desires by replacing the pastry cream by a pistachio or chocolate version, and/or the grapes by cranberries, goji berries, etc. Let your imagination run wild.

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