Today I achieved a baking ambition. For the first time ever I made croissants:
The first batch was a bit rushed (we wanted them for breakfast). The second batch rose a bit more:
:There's quite a pit of technique involved in layering the dough/butter and rolling them up. They were just a little too "bready" so maybe next time I will use different flour mix (this was 100% strong white) and not work the dough quite so much. But make no mistake I am delighted with the results.
Went to the plot to work breakfast off: Not so pretty, but the bean pit in the foreground is coming on nicely!
When I was teaching my class once had a French breakfast and we made croissants - the only time I have made them. You could do things like that in the classroom before we had a prescriptive curriculum and we couldn't study France any more as it was a secondary topic!
ReplyDeleteQuelle courage!! I bet your class remembers that lesson to this day.
DeleteThey look pretty good for a first attempt! I would want to have them with loads of Beurre d'Isigny and some cherry compote... Going to try a Brioche now?
ReplyDeleteBrioche - There was one egg in the recipe I used (from the bread making machine recipe book!) and I reckon it is more than half way to a brioche dough. There's quite a bit of beurre in the recipe already but I wouldn't hold back on the cherry compote!
DeleteWow, your croissants look great. Invite me for breakfast any day!!
ReplyDeleteAre you going to share your recipe and method with us?? And plenty of step by step pictures??
Sounds a bit like hard work! But in fairness floury and doughy hands don't mix very well with cameras, but I will try to make a bit more of an effort.
Delete...and I'll be posting about celeriac soon!
Enough teasing: If you want the details, here's a link to the recipe:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L36OiPWmOL4
Wow, they look seriously impressive. Did they have a good flake to them? Sod it, I'm going to start baking more breads.
ReplyDeleteYes, all except the last batch which proved above the oven (at too high a temperature) and the layers all melded together.
DeleteI had a request for more this weekend, so had another go this weekend. I'm learning to keep everything cool to get that flake.
Immense - they look fantastic and are definitely better than my paltry attempt - although I'm well and truly laying the blame for that on having to make them without real butter to keep them dairy free. Sunflower margarine really doesn't work quite the same - which wasn't really a big surprise. Still tasted great with jam though :-)
ReplyDelete