I have always loved croissant even when I didn’t know what it was called or how it was pronounced.
Yes. Bread aing nd butter is one of my weaknesses.
The person who invented this buttery, flaky piece of bread should be sainted. Or maybe he (she) already is.
So I’ve seen one of these heavenly creations behind the counter of my favorite bakery AND I have also watched a number of Lifestyle Network and TLC shows where they make croissants.
I fall inlove everytime.
It’s one of those unexplained yet explainable (is that a word?) love stories.
Wouldn’t you want to see, smell, taste and bite the one you love ALL the time? I even breath deeply and soundly with every bite. Okay, that sounded a bit sexually arousing I don’t mind I tell it’s just that if you’ve met me I’m sure this isn’t something I say outloud or do. Although in theory I might. Or will. In retrospect when I first sank my teeth on a croissant I stopped and made time to lick the buttery crumbs off my lips. And I was in the middle of an office hallway.
I digress. So I’ll tread back on track.
I finally decided to make a croissant. I read and re-read recipes I found online and in some of my cookbooks and decied upon this one from CDKitchen.
It turned out NOt as I expected.
It wasn’t bad HOWEVER it wasn’t good either BUT it was edible.
I cannot put all the blame on the recipe (it was like shortcut recipe it only took me roughly 9 hours to make it) I know I made a mistake when I used margarine drowned in vegetable oil instead of butter. I should gloriously be punished for giving this bread an injustice. Oh punish me please.
Here’s the recipe:
1 cup Warm milk
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Yeast
1 cup Flour
3/4 cup Milk, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Butter melted and cooled
4 cups Flour
1 cup Cold butter
1 Egg, beaten with cold water
Directions:
Stir warm milk and sugar together. Add yeast. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir well. Add flour; beat well. Add milk, sugar and egg. Beat until smooth. Add butter; beat and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, place the 4 cups of flour and the chilled butter. Cut butter into flour until pieces are the size of beans (not too small). Pour the liquid batter into the flour mixture; stir until moistened.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator. Press into a compact ball on a floured board and divide into 4 parts. Roll each into a circle 12″ or 16″.Cut each circle into 6 or 8 pie-shaped wedges. For each croissant roll a wedge towards the point.Shape into a crescent and place on ungreased baking sheet.
Let rise at room temperature until doubled.(May take 2 hours or more). Brush each with egg beaten with cold water. Preheat oven to 400 F. Place croissants in oven. Lower temperature to 350 F and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden.
This recipe from CDKitchen for Easy Croissants serves/makes 24
Here’s what I changed:
1/2 cup Butter melted and cooled
1 cup Cold butter
to:
1/4 c margarine + 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup margarine + 1/2 cup vegetable oil
If it was someone else who made this I would throw a brouhaha. Since it was me I just, you know, shielded myself from solicited comments.
Today, I learned a lesson.
Never again will I, for the sake of convenience, revise a recipe unless it will save a life.
Okay, Okay, I’ll admit it. I cried in horror and shame…Surely I could’ve done better right? I mean…