Croissants, anyone?

Okay,  It finally happened.   After working on the dough for two days in between all the other baking, today we did it.  We made croissants!  I thought that I had died and gone to heaven.  My teacher is somewhat of an expert on croissant technique and I told her the first day that it was like consulting the Oracle at Delphi.  I was thrilled with the results.  I have never made croissants this good, and they are definitely reproducible.  You just need to have an  industrial sheeter and a freezer, preferably a blast freezer.  Marda works with the dough between 36 and 38 degrees F.  If it warms up, it goes back in the freezer to await further cooling before working the dough further.  The croissants baked up with no puddles of butter and incredible layers.  I also made four batches of Danish dough today, to bake up tomorrow.  This is pastry week, and we will be baking sweets and pastries the rest of the week.  Here is a sampling of what the ovens produced today.

 

Croissants in the proof cupboard with egg wash ready for the oven

Plain Croissants after baking

 

David Stoliar poses with the finished pastries

 

 

Almond croissants before rolling and baking

 

Almond Croissant close-up (filled with almond paste, sugar, butter)

A sea of Almond Croissants

 

Chocolate croissants before rolling up

 

 

Chocolate Croissants (Callebaut bittersweet chocolate)

 

Yes, I was in French pastry Nirvana.  I was not really able to say much except repeated "Wows!"  I had croissant detention and stayed late to roll more dough so that it was ready for tomorrow.  I am happy that I am getting more skilled with the sheeter, and able to make the dough pieces have squarer corners.  This leads to more croissants per sheet and less wasted dough.  Peace, love, and baking.