Monday, September 22, 2008

Croissants - My First Attempt


I've been wanting to try croissants for a long time now but have always been afraid to try. I searched and found a recipe on La Cerise. I was even more excited try these when I noticed that it was a recipe by Pierre Herme. I decided to give it a try and they didn't quite turn out the way I expected I was happy with the outcome.


Mixing the dough was easier than I expected. My dough was a tad bit sticky. I wasn't sure whether to add more flour or not but decided to leave it.


The first problem I encountered was with the butter which was too cold to work with. The recipe called for cold butter so I was afraid that if I worked it too much it would become too warm and soft. The butter was difficult to spread and it was pulling the dough as I tried to get it to cover all two thirds of the dough. I wished then that I had worked the butter some more to make spreading it easy.


Because the butter was a bit chunky I had problems with it when rolling the dough. It kept falling out. I wanted to give up at this point but considered the costs of the butter that would be wasted.

I enjoyed rolling these up cause they made me feel like I'd accomplished something huge even though the dough didn't turn out as great as I expected. You can see how the chunks of butter were falling out of the dough.

My idea of a perfect croissant is light, flaky, crisp on the outside. Mines didn't turn out that way. They were crisp but not flaky and a bit dense on the inside.

I will not give up though. I wasn't too disappointed since I didn't think that they they turned out all that bad for a first try. I will try these again and include more details and pictures. I will have to wait a while though otherwise my hips won't forgive me.

8 comments:

Chell said...

Hey there :)

I have a blog and was looking for some fellow KZN blogs to read, and so, found yours and loved reading it! By the way, I think your croissants looked great by the way ;)
Keep well!!
Chell

Diane said...

Thanks Chell. I've found you need lots of patience when making these. Will check out your blog.

Astrid said...

I think your croissants look great for a first try! My first croissants were a bit dense in the beginning too, I think because I made the butter layer too small compared to all the dough wrapping it up. I find banging cold butter with a rolling pin between sheets of plastic film a good way to make it supple without melting it. Another way to avoid dense croissants is to make sure you let the croissants proof long enough and in a warm humid environment before baking. I look forward to your next attempt!

Vera said...

Diane, they look yummy enough to me.
For the first attempt - they are perfect!

Diane said...

Thanks Vera

Diane said...

Thanks for the great tips Astrid. I will certainly remember them with my second attempt.

Anonymous said...

They look great, will you share the recipe? Or is it on, and I missed it.. Love your blog!!! Everything looks so YUMMY...

Diane said...

Thanks a lot Missy Mae. I got the recipe off Astrids's blog - La Cerise. If you click on the link in the first paragraph of the post it will take you to the recipe. Have fun.:)