#124 - Les croissants, les croissants, how I love les croissants!

In which LM and I test out / experiment with some butter (aka play in the kitchen)
LM had a slight issue with croissant dough lately and the only thing we could think of was that the butter didn't have enough fat content.  So we decided to give several brands a whirl.  Personally, I didn't feel the need to experiment with Lurpak (Danish butter, approximately 85% or so fat content) because it's what I use to bake in Australia.  The US doesn't label the fat content of their butter and unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the Italian one (83% fat content).  There's one called Plugra (US - I think it's about 83% fat content) but I accidentally bought the salted one because the red Plugra is the salted one whereas the red Lurpak is the unsalted butter.  So much for being detail oriented yesterday, when I was in a bit of a whirlwind mode at the grocery store (and a bit distracted by being unable to reach that pack of butter at the very back, thank you very much, Mr Tall Man who got me the last pack of unsalted Lurpak butter).

Planning ahead (photo above)
There's always some down time while the dough is resting and since we had arranged to meet up at just after lunch time, I took some lunch / snack supplies:  9 different cheeses, a fig and nut bar and family bread from St Germain bakery - soft, white bread (thin slices) which is full of refined flour and who knows what else but is absolutely delicious.

Interlude

I also took some supplies so that we could make a bechamel sauce.  For some reason, people seem to get a little intimidated by it, maybe because often it doesn't seem to turn out quite right.  The two main culprits I have identified (so far) appear to be that the flour hasn't been cooked out sufficiently in the roux so that it still tastes floury and/or the seasoning isn't quite right.  It seems the traditional cheese to use in the sauce is Gruyere - but since I love cheese and I'm me, I like to add taleggio, if it's available.  It tends to be on the salty side and it melts really well so you get a nice, punchy flavor.  LM wanted to make a Croque Madame (the Croque Monsieur was, as I understood it, a melted ham and cheese sandwich.  This one was ham, a fried egg and topped with the bechamel sauce) - so we split one after our Raclette grilled cheese sandwiches.

[SKIP TO SUNSET DRIVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE TECHNICAL CHEAT AND MISTAKE]

Cheat Stage 1:  Begin play (Dough, inclusion, first turn, rest)
Most of the recipes seem to call for an overnight stage.  LM and I didn't have that kind of time so we took a shortcut - we cheated and did it the school way - mix the dough, rest for an hour, butter inclusion and book turn, rest for 1/2 hour and second book turn.

Cheat Stage 2:  Continue play (Second turn and rest over night)
There were some small errors but I won't know until I cook the croissants whether the errors are tragic or not - my dough ripped and some of the butter leaked.  Normally in puff pastry that can be a big problem but I am hoping the croissants will be more forgiving.

I had to go home so we wrapped my dough up really well - and then I think I did something stupid.  My dough had expanded so much in the refrigerator that I stuck it in the freezer - I read somewhere that the freezer retards the yeast, but I'm afraid that might be wrong, in which case my dough will be flat and the croissants will not rise when I shape them tomorrow and bake them on Saturday morning.  Only time will tell but you may see a sad photo of croissants - in which case I will have to do another batch just to redeem myself sometime in the near-ish future.

Sunset drive

Sunset drive home

In any event, more photos to follow of the croissants shortly.  Making them at home is so different from having equipment you would find in a commercial kitchen.  If I had a dream kitchen, it would have a blast chiller, a commercial grade oven, a separate fridge....oh my, the list is endless.  But the whole point of dreams / fantasies is that they don't have to bear any resemblance to realism.

So until next time, dream away - and may your dreams come true.