Homemade Croissants

Croissants are one of life's great simple pleasures. The child of a basic bread recipe and puff pastry, they satisfy pretty much any craving you can have in one delicious package.

Growing up, we had croissants a good deal, but never homemade. They were, as far as I could tell, the one food my mother said was too much trouble to make at home. For the longest time, I took my mother's word for it. She made puff pastry several times a year for heaven sake.

But I recently have been watching episodes of Julia Child's cooking show (the old black and white one). And when I saw an episode on croissants, I figured I should at least try making them. If Julia Child could make them with the kind of pots and pans and electric stove/oven she has on the show, I could surely make them with my 21st century electric stove and high tech kitchen gear.

So, how hard is it to make croissant? If your threshold is it tastes good, is roughly croissant shaped and decently flakey, then not horribly difficult. It takes about 6 hours of inactive making (while the dough rises and/or rests and chills) and about and hour of active making/watching spread out into chunks. There is definitely technique involved, and one that takes a little bit of practice, but when practice is still delicious, is that really a problem?

I started out using a fellow-blogger's take on Julia Child's recipe, and it turned out alright, but if you want to do this, I really recommend spending the $2 to purchase the croissant episode from Amazon or you streaming retailer of choice. For less than the cost of one croissant from a decent bakery, you can learn to make as many croissants as you can eat! Teach a man to fish, and all that.

The other benefit to watching the episode is that it gives you confidence. Julia Child was not afraid of the imperfect croissant ("You can just put that on the bottom of the [bunch]") or of making mistakes.

Things I discovered over the course of two batches (yay house guest helpers/eaters):

1. The dough does not need a lot of kneading, and the throw-it-onto-a-board method is far superior, though slightly messy if you over-flour the board
2. Its better to have a soft dough to start with, and work in more flour in the process of rolling and folding. It is a  lot easier to work with, and yields nicer layers. 
3. Get good quality, SALTED butter, or double the salt in her recipe
4. They will be delicious, even if they are not quite the right shape.

My first batch, I didn't quite get the hang of the rolling part.

My second batch, I watched Julia and it all became clear, even if I still rolled a little thin.

But they all bake up nicely.

 Wonderful as breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack or treat. Is there a *wrong* time for a croissant?

~AMPH