Croissant Manquement

I don't know how bakers do it. Making croissants takes forever (about 11 hours with all the rolling and rising and butter-kneading and such). In my case, I didn't even have any delightfully buttery, flaky pastries at the end as a reward.

I made a huge mistake right from the beginning, when I clearly did not follow (read?) the directions for proofing the yeast properly and I used tepid water instead of the tepid milk the recipe called for. I figured it might still work out okay, and I didn't have another yeast packet so I forged ahead anyway.

I mixed the dough as directed and put it in the fridge to rest. Kneaded the butter with some flour. Folded the dough around the butter like I was wrapping a letter. Went through the 4-part (2 hour) rolling and folding process to incorporate the butter. Everything looked pretty good and the dough was exactly as it should have been based on the recipe.

I finally, after dinner time, take the dough out to roll into the croissant triangles. That was the most fun part of the process. Then I put the uncooked croissants aside for one final rise. Close to ten pm, when they were supposed to be risen, I pulled the covering off and realized that they looked pretty much exactly the same as they had when I'd set them aside two hours before. They had most definitely not doubled in size.

However, figuring that cooking is an adventure, I put them in the oven following the cooking directions. Well, apparently cooking French pastry is like watching a 2-year old--you turn your back for a minute and anything can happen. One minute the kitchen was filled with the warm and yeasty smell of fresh bread. I walked to the other end of my small house to put something in my office, and my husband starts yelling from the kitchen, "It's burning!" Yep. It was that fast.

My husband also pointed out, rather accurately, that the burnt croissants looked like little crabs laid out on the pans with their fat bodies and the way the sides curved in. There was one with a top still golden so I pinched of a piece and it did taste pretty flaky and buttery. Almost too buttery, actually. But they definitely would have been edible if I hadn't scorched them to my pans.

At least I went through the whole process and learned what really goes into croissants. Gives me a new appreciation for bakers and pastry chefs everywhere. I used the recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible.

Resolutions I am still working on this week: popovers, tarte tatin, roast chicken, and those turnips I bought on Wednesday.