The croissant!Oh yes, the croissant. Take an average mound of dough and fold in a pound of butter...and keep folding. See the transformation of the average dough into pure bliss on the tongue. I've made them once before with my friends, Rose and Alex, and french accents and fake mustaches were an integral part of the process. However, going at it alone seemed a bit frightening. Silly girl, what can be frightening about butter?
Yes, this past week, I attempted to bake croissants. The process was long, because it requires letting the dough chill for an hour after each session of building the flaky layers by rolling it out and folding it up. Then, the completed dough needs to rest for 8-18 hours before being transformed--i know the feeling.
I found the unrushed necessity of the process almost meditative: rolling, measuring, folding, chilling, rolling, measuring, folding, chilling....each step with intention.
I used Nash's soft white wheat for these croissants and although they weren't quite as light and fluffy as their traditional namesake, there were no complaints on flavor. We ended up with three types: plain butter croissant, pain au chocolat, and a savory caramelized onion, shiitake, asparagus and goat cheese. The savory was my clear favorite, but Justin is and always will be a devoted fan to pain au chocolat.
The process wasn't scary because I remembered the words of ms. julia, "A good cook can't be afraid to make mistakes."
No comments:
Post a Comment