What are you cooking?

Hello Yesterday evening...

Anyone remember this post ?

Well, this is what I baked on New Years Eve!

My first try of Croissants. I tried to correct all of my mistakes, and you know what?
They turned out perfect. Now I have a problem. I haven't tasted REAL Croissants
before and this makes me look with a smile at those crappy Croissants I ate at the
so called "bakeries"

I also made some real chocolate and Orangettes

Enjoy!

Yes. It's not that easy, you have to be careful and have a good way to chill the
dough. For me it was perfect because I started making the initial dough at
10 PM in the 30th. I finished it and the butter slab at 00:15 on 31st. I got a
nap until 2 AM when I woke up to deflate the dough, shape it and bring the
butter slab at room temperature to not be too hard. From almost 3 AM, I
started laminating the Croissant dough. That means you fold the butter
inside your dough, which also has butter. Then you roll it and fold it twice,
called Tour Duble, chill it, roll it again and make a Tour Sample(3 folds).

This way you get lots of thin layers of butter and dough. There should be 27
layers, very thin. If the dough and butter don't have the perfect consistency
each on it's own, you're going to fail. The key is chilling, rolling carefully
and keeping the same consistency, not too chilled, but not getting at room
temp.

I remember waking up at 2 AM, after 2 hours of sleep by the smell of the
dough that was fermenting in my room. There was a sweet intense smell,
not yeasty like it happened with the previous bake. There should've been the
same as now, but with my corrections, and I didn't make Croissants, I made
Pain Aux Raisins, which is more difficult to handle. Finished Croissant dough
at 5 AM when I send it to chill again until early in the afternoon.

I rolled the croissants at 2:30 - 3:00 PM on 31st. Rested for 3 hours with egg
wash, then started baking at 6 PM with more egg wash. This helps them not
dry. I don't have pics from before the bake, but they puffed up and were so light
at touch.

I know what I still have to improve for the next bake, hopefully soon. It's not
expensive to make these delicious Croissants. As I said, the only Croissants
I tasted were the ones baked in the various bakeries in my town. I thought
they were okay, until I smelled, touched and tasted mine. Inexpensive, but
it requires patience(time), skill and learning from mistakes.

I don't drink Cappuccino or Coffee but I like the aroma