What I Learned Making Croissants:
Patience is required. You can’t rush lamination! I started this third batch on Monday evening and took it out of the oven Wednesday afternoon.
Beating cold butter with a rolling pin to make a butter block is very erotic. Just look at that butter block! *drool*
I do not like to fail at things. I will either quit immediately or go into a mental downward spiral until I get it right. This time it was a mental spiral. 😇
March Cookbook: Tartine: A Classic Revisited by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson
I guess the third time really is the charm! After my two failures last week, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to make croissants (pg. 37). (See above: I don't like to fail.) However, I ended up going with this Claire Saffitz recipe. A comment on her video walk-through stated they prefer her recipe over Tartine's and I didn’t want to waste any more time and ingredients. I could tell from the initial dough, or the détrempe, that this was going to be a better result. My dough slab was not as neat as Claire’s, but I just kept moving forward and I am beyond happy with the result. I am specifically thrilled that I had very minimal butter melting from the croissants during baking, which is a very common problem.
I wanted - no, needed - to make Tartine’s famous morning buns (pg. 49) and since they required a croissant dough base, I split my original dough in two so that I could make a batch of each. They are obviously better from the bakery but, I mean, it’s laminated pastry covered in cinnamon sugar. Once you have the dough down, it’s pretty hard to mess that up!
Thanks for reading, sweeties! 🍎