Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Daring Bakers' challenge: Croissants


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!


Man, just look at those layers. I am going to go ahead and say this is a once-in-thirty-years sort of recipe, similar to the puff pastry Aunt Betty and I made more than a year ago. It's for remarkably similar reasons, too: You have to roll out, then fold, then roll out, then fold, then chill dough over and over again. That's how you get those pretty layers. But everything's worth trying once, and they were pretty good with some nice melty butter and stew that Aunt Betty made. So I'm glad they were the challenge this month.


Another thing I'd do if I ever made these again (in 30 years) is make more than one batch. With the entire process of multiple rests of the dough and multiple risings, it's 12 hours. And it makes 12 croissants. One croissant per hour. Sheesh! But I'm definitely glad I've officially made these, especially because they're officially the second Julia Child recipe I've cooked, after her chocolate almond cake (which I've made twice!). I'm hoping to up that number this winter, probably starting with her classic boeuf bourguignon, or maybe an orange almond version of that cake. Yummmm.

7 comments:

  1. WOW once in a 30 year recipe LOL LOL I do love the many lovely layers you achieved in your croissant and the colour is great well done. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those layers look heavenly - like you could wrap yourself up in them! I hope it doesn't take you 30 years to make these again, because they look fantastic!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. These look so flaky and perfectly delcious - fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your layers are fantastic, fabulous job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It will be a while before I make these again as well. Not a bad recipe, just a lot of time for a fairly small yield. That being said, nice job on the challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great job on your croissants! And don't wait 30 years to make them again, they are way too good to wait that long! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. 30 years sounds about right to me! Although the more I see everyone else's amazing flavour combinations and fillings, the more I think I might be tempted back to croissants sooner...

    ReplyDelete