After getting over my fear of macarons and gougères, I decided to make croissants this weekend. And it really took me a weekend to make them, from making a starter on Friday, to cool the dough between folding and rolling it out on Saturday and then finally baking them today, and inviting a friend over to help me eat some/most of the freshly baked croissants. The croissants did turn out okay, I guess. After I did my best not to freak out over the little tears in the dough, or over the fact that I was too lazy to properly wrap my dough and having a little crust form on top (Going through the troubles of making the dough but not wrapping it? This seems just so typical for me), I am not quite sure that making croissants myself is worth the effort. The croissants were pretty good, mind you. Like a good croissant should be. But I still remember this croissant I had in France, almost two years ago. The croissant that was so unbelievably flaky and buttery all other croissants pale in comparison.
I am spoiled, and I don't think putting that kind of effort into making croissants is worth it if I don't get croissants out of it that resemble that perfect croissant of my memory.
Mind you, I still ate two croissants and a pain au chocolat, still warm, with a cup of coffee. But I am ready to move on and make something else from the list of things that kind of scare me.
Speaking of that list, I actually wrote the items that float through my head down and plan on tackling those things kind of soonish in the future. I think I'll share those things with you, but probably wont actually post recipes for those kind of things because I really don't know what I am doing with those things and just follow recipes I decide are trustworthy and hope for the best.
The list of things I want to make currently:
Doughnuts
Bagels
Crumpets
Plum Knödel (an Austrian recipe, I had them once or twice at a childhood friends' home and I always loved them)
Mayonnaise/Aioli
sourdough starter/bread
Ginger Ale
Tonic Water
Meringues
Brioche
Ketchup and Mustard
my Grandmother's cake
And now I need go out to buy small bottles to bottle the vin d'orange I recently made so that I can share the recipe with you, before orange season is completely over.
I love how you're tackling that list of things you want to make -- I have been so lazy lately in conquering big cooking or baking projects. Excited to see doughnuts, bagels, the plum knoedel and your grandmother's cake!
ReplyDeleteHaha, and I laughed when you said how you went through the trouble of making the dough without wrapping it is very typical of you. Sometimes I will really want to make something but have to make an iffy substitution... then it turns out not too good and I wonder why I went through the trouble of making it in the first place if I knew using substitutions might mess it up!
Right? I feel kind of stupid when I start to mess things up just because I am lazy. I really like tackling these recipes, but I guess at heart I am more of an improvising kind of girl.
DeleteYeah, I feel as though croissants are the sort of thing that require a lot of practice and experience to get right, which means eating a lot of only-okay croissants on the way there, something that I'm not really sure I'm willing to do! That said, I think I might tackle another croissant recipe soon...
ReplyDeleteI want to hear more about your grandmother's cake!
On bagels, the Peter Reinhart recipe from the Bread Baker's Apprentice seems to be one that everyone loves. I've never quite gotten it right (a combination of faulty equipment and not following instructions...) but I've been meaning to try tackling it again for a while now.
I am not sure I am willing to spend weekend after weekend trying to perfect the art of making croissants, either. I mean I do like to eat a croissant once in a while, but usually not half a dozen at a time.
DeleteMy grandmother's cake is nothing that fancy, really. It is just a plain vanilla cake, with a vanilla custary filling, covered in chocolate and slivered almonds. Or that's what I think it is, I'll have to get her recipe.
I just ordered Reinhard's Crust and Crumb from our university library (that is the only book of him they have) and just checked on Amazon to see that he has a Bagel recipe in there. I'll have to give it a try. Where did you run into problems with his recipe?