Croissants

After making these, I believe every croissant made in the traditional French fashion should cost $10.    And that would be a bargain.

These took a full day and a half to create (a lot of it is rest time) with serious bouts of rolling and elbow grease.   Those delicate layers seen above belie the work and intensity needed to make them.

The recipe starts fairly basic with a stout, yeasted dough made in a mixer (even my borrowed professional mixer struggled with its thickness).  The butter is prepped with a little flour to absorb any water.  The dough and the butter are then shaped into ovals and rested in the refrigerator overnight.

Then comes the most interesting part.  After enveloping the butter with the dough like a purse, it is beaten (preferably with a french rolling pin without handles) until the butter spreads outward into the entirety of the dough.  It actually works.  Then after a few light rolls, it rests in the fridge for about 2 hours.

And the day continues on like this.  Roll, fold, rest.  Roll fold, rest.  Roll fold rest.  Yes, three cycles of this, or "turns" as they call it.  And the third turn is actually a double turn and the dough is le portefeuille (the wallet).  (Sounds so much better in French.)

roll & fold

roll & fold

my wallet

Finally, it can be rolled one more time, cut and then shaped into crescents.   For this part, I cut too many triangles and wound up making petite croissants.   But luckily, I still had half of my dough left, and I could recoup my mistakes and make bigger chocolate croissants.   All the better.  I did not have any "batons" of chocolate but rough chopped chocolate worked just fine.

my petite croissants

Then, unbelievably, they rise for 3-4 more hours before baking.  (Now I understand why bakers have to get up so early in the morning.)  Then it is a short 15-17 minutes in the oven.

So, we ate them at 9pm.  They were perfect dessert croissants.  And the taste of the chocolate ones fresh from the oven may entice me to make them again.  Maybe.  But I also wouldn't mind paying $10 for one, now that I know how to make one...

This recipe is made with the Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia baking group.  Visit our host's site for the full recipe.

The drink needed to tackle this recipe.

And Rhiannon: