Medialunas

Ingredients

Dough

• 600 gstrong white flour
• 100 gcaster sugar
• 12 gfine salt
• 10 ginstant dried yeast
• 250 mlwhole milk, cold
• 3egg yolks
• 60 gsoft butter
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsphoney

Lamination

• 280 gcold butter, for the block

Almíbar glaze

• 200 gsugar
• 120 mlwater
• 1strip lemon peel
• 1 tbsphoney
• 1 tspvanilla essence

Directions

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk, yolks, soft butter, honey and lemon zest and knead 8 minutes to a firm, smooth dough. Rest 30 minutes, then chill 1 hour.
2. Beat the block butter into a 20 cm square between paper and keep it cold but bendable; if it cracks it is too cold, if it smears it is too warm.
3. Enclose the butter in the dough and give three single turns, chilling 30 minutes between each. Argentine medialunas de manteca use fewer folds than a French croissant, and that is why they are denser and cakier.
4. Roll the block to a rectangle 4 mm thick and about 25 cm deep, then cut long narrow triangles with a 9–10 cm base.
5. Stretch each triangle gently by the tip, then roll from base to tip without stretching sideways, and curve the ends firmly inwards. The Argentine medialuna is a tight, fat crescent, not a wide croissant.
6. Set on lined trays with the tip tucked underneath and prove at 24–26°C (75–80°F) for 2 to 2.5 hours, until nearly doubled and jiggling when the tray is tapped. Any warmer and the butter leaks.
7. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 14–16 minutes until deep golden brown all over, including the underside.
8. While they bake, boil the sugar, water, lemon peel and honey for 3 minutes to a light syrup and stir in the vanilla.
9. Brush the medialunas heavily with hot almíbar the moment they leave the oven, so it soaks in and dries to a shine. Cool 10 minutes and eat the same morning with coffee or a cortado.

Technique

• The medialuna arrived with Austrian and French baking traditions in the nineteenth century and was reshaped in Buenos Aires: smaller, sweeter, glazed and much denser than a croissant.
• There are two types and Argentines are firm about them: de manteca, butter-based, glossy, sweet and soft, and de grasa, made with a firm shortening, drier, saltier and flakier.
• The almíbar glaze must go on hot. Applied to cool pastries it sits on top as a sticky film instead of soaking into the crust.
• Underproving is the usual home failure. The dough must look visibly inflated and feel airy before it goes in the oven.

Substitutions

• No time for lamination: an enriched yeast dough shaped the same way and glazed with almíbar gives an honest, if unlayered, medialuna.
• Vegetable shortening in place of the butter block turns them into the de grasa style, which keeps better and is more forgiving in a warm kitchen.
• Honey can be left out of the glaze; use plain sugar syrup with a strip of lemon.

Variations

• Medialunas de manteca, sweet and glazed, the café standard with coffee.
• Medialunas de grasa, drier and saltier, eaten with mate.
• Medialunas rellenas, split and filled with dulce de leche or pastry cream at café counters.

History

Crescent pastries in a sweet buttered form and a saltier lard form, descended from Austro-Italian baking and eaten with coffee.

Frequently asked questions

What is Medialunas?

Medialunas is a bread & pastry from Argentina: small glazed croissants, sweeter and denser; café breakfast with coffee. Crescent pastries in a sweet buttered form and a saltier lard form, descended from Austro-Italian baking and eaten with coffee.

How long does Medialunas take to make?

Medialunas takes 50 min of preparation and 20 min baking, plus 5 hr proving and chilling of cooking. The recipe makes 20 medialunas. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Medialunas?

Yes, within limits. No time for lamination: an enriched yeast dough shaped the same way and glazed with almíbar gives an honest, if unlayered, medialuna. Vegetable shortening in place of the butter block turns them into the de grasa style, which keeps better and is more forgiving in a warm kitchen. Honey can be left out of the glaze; use plain sugar syrup with a strip of lemon.

What is the most important thing to get right in Medialunas?

The almíbar glaze must go on hot. Applied to cool pastries it sits on top as a sticky film instead of soaking into the crust.