The Croissant

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

I was actually really excited for this month's challenge recipe, as breads are one of my favorite things to make. There's something quite magnificent about the yeasty smell of bread dough that is proofing. This was also my first challenge back on campus, so I was also a little nervous about how the community kitchen in my building would work out.

While I was slightly daunted by the 12 hour minimum time needed for the recipe, I set aside my weekend to work on my dough. At 8pm on a Friday night (I was on RA duty, also), I mixed up the dough and let it sit for its first rise. I rolled it out that night (luckily before any incidents would occur) and popped it in the fridge for an overnight rise. 

Waiting for the dough to rise...STALEMATE!

Rectangle before 2nd rise

Then it was time to take out some anger on an unsuspecting stick of butter.

Butter!

The butter then was spread out on the dough, and then the first two turns were made. This consisted of folding the dough over the butter and then rolling it out again. 

First turn.

Finished dough packages.

Two turns, and then a rest for the next few hours, and the above packages of dough were the finished problems. It's probably worth noting that I made a double batch knowing that friends and others who know I bake would be wanting to try the finished products. I was really excited at this point, because a mere two more hours and I'd finally get to roll out the croissants! I actually found this part of the process really easy and quite fun. However, since I had to work fast, I couldn't take pictures, really. 

Finished dough, ready to be cut and rolled into croissants.

Rolled and ready to proof!

So, now the croissants were ready to proof. And I sat around for yet another hour waiting for the baking process to finally start.

The proof is in the poof!

Finally! The moment of excitement! I put them in the oven a mere 22 hours after the whole process began. And finally, the luscious scent of buttery bread baking filled the kitchen lounge, taunting the residents that were also in the kitchen cooking dinner. A short 20 minutes later, this is what was pulled out of the oven: 

Beautiful. Golden Brown. Buttery. Nom. I took more pictures (some with the help of my friend Erik) of the crumb inside.

Nom!

Not a perfect crumb for croissants, but still yummy.

A croissant crumb is supposed to be extremely light and fluffy, full of air holes. I think if I'd have let mine proof longer, I could have achieved an airier crumb. However, they still tasted great and were plenty flaky, so I'd call it a job well done.

Overall, I really can't wait for the next challenge! While I keep hoping it will be a bread challenge again, I don't think it will be. My next blog post should be documenting making cinnamon rolls, as I hope to make some soon!