Crescent Roll Dough

1. Dry ingredients: First off, I definitely recommend using a kitchen scale for the dough. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl: flour, sugar, salt and cardamom.
2. Yeasty butter+milk: Melt butter and add in your milk. Let this mixture come to about 100F (37-38C). Crumble fresh yeast and mix with the milk mixture. If using dry yeast, you can also mix it here (or simply adding it to the dry ingredients).
3. Knead together: Add one egg and the yeasty milk mixture into your dry ingredients. Knead together with a handheld mixer (or stand mixer) for about 10-15 minutes, or until the dough lets go of the bowl. It should be just slightly sticky to the touch. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
4. Slice like a pizza: On a lightly floured surface, take your dough out of the bowl. Divide the dough into four large balls, setting all but one of them aside. Now roll your ball into a flat pizza, about 11-12 inches (28-30cm) in diameter. Cut the dough into 8, just like you would slice a pizza. A pizza cutter works great.
5. Fill: Add about 1 heaping tsp of vanilla custard (recipe below) on the biggest part of the slices, making sure to keep the edges clean.
6. Roll: To form them into crescent rolls, or horns, take the largest edges and squeeze them together, and then roll your roll towards the center (small part of the ‘pizza slice’). Make sure the little pizza tip is tucked in under the crescent rolls, so they don’t burst open when baking.
7. Proof: Pre-heat oven to 410F (210C). Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with a towel, and proof (second rising) for another 30-45 minutes, or until puffed up and doubled in size.
8. Bake: Whisk one egg, and brush each roll with the egg. Sprinkle with some coarse sugar (I use pearl sugar), if you want extra delicious texture. Bake on the middle rack for about 12 minutes or until golden brown and and makes a hollow sound when you tap the underside. Cool on a wire rack.

Delicious Vanilla Custard

1. Pour the milk, 1/2 of the heavy cream and 1/2 of the sugar into a saucepan. Add in the vanilla seeds and the vanilla beans. Heat up to the point of boiling, while constantly stirring. Set aside to cool slightly (5-ish minutes).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the rest of the heavy cream and sugar with the egg yolks and cornstarch.
3. Pour the heated milk mixture slowly into the egg mixture while constantly whisking. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan – make sure you got those vanilla seeds too – heat back up, until it is thickening. Remember to stir. It will thicken more once it’s cold, but I still stop at pretty thick as we’re using it right away.