croissants from scratch?

[grasswire]

Has anyone attempted or mastered this? The technique is intimidating, although I'm not a novice and could probably make it work.

I love croissants so.

[housewolf]

1. I made croissants once

They turned out pretty good. I knew it was going to take some practive for me to master and at the time I was basically a sourdough baker so didn't follow through. Your question might inspire me to try again, though... I don't mind the time, it's the beating down the butter that's folded into the dough with a rolling pin and all that rolling, folding, chilling ...

I love croissants, too. There's just nothing like them. With some great peach or black raspberry jam... mmmmmmmmm!

Good luck, I hope you'll share your results with us.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. My absolutely foolproof recipe for croissants

I love croissants with Nutella on 'em. Here's my recipe:

Bad weather version ..... drive to the Safeway after 4.00 PM and get 'em fresh out of the oven from their afternoon batch.

Nce weather recipe .... walk to the Safeway after 4.00 PM and get 'em fresh out of the oven from their afternoon batch.

:)

Actually, they're not all that hard to make ... just time consuming if you happen not to have a $10K dough sheeter/folder.




If I may suggest a rolling pin that I find a whole lot easier than one of those two-handle jobbies. I prefer a solid pin with taper to it. Like this one:



These are **much** easier to control and therefor allow you put what muscle you have into the dough and not into controlling an unwieldy pin. The taper, once you master it, allows you to rotate the dough as you roll it. And when used straight on, you can put your whole weight into your work if ya wanna.

They also make these without the taper. I have one of those, too, but use it very little. I find my tapered pin does it all.

This guy will get termites in him before he sees any more use:



Let us know how your croissants turn out.

[Willy Lee]

3. I have been practicing them every weekend for the past 2 months.

They are still not what I learned to do in school in Feb. I'd be happy to send you some recipes if you'd like. There is an awesome book called the Village Bakers Wife that has excellent tips.

I need a sheeter!!!

[Stinky The Clown]

4. No ya don't!

You don't **need** a sheeter. You may **want** a sheeter. But ya don't need one. I'm tellin' ya .... the tapered rolling pin's what ya need. ;-)

[Willy Lee]

5. But its so hard, rolling by hand!!

I'm having difficulty finding that perfect balance of dough strength. At first it seems too extensible so I throw in a double fold... next time around it is so elastic that there is no way I can approach 3 mm thickness (I was spoiled using a sheeter).

I'll take your advice, however, and try a tapered rolling pin.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

6. Willy Lee,

are they really that difficult to make or are you searching for a 10?

I found the "village baker's wife" cookbook at the library & am going to check it out. Is it more helpful than Julia's?

I've never attempted to make croissants though I've read Julia's recipe a hundred times & wanted to try. You & grasswire have probably given me the incentive to try.

best