Croissants! (Link to images) >>

M

mariadnoca

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Note: I intentionally let them brown a lot because it's the Tartine way. (They look darker in photos.) These are moments out of the oven.

Oh and Mar, cutting them horizontally on the 24" side into 12" squares...well, we had a 50/50 chance of getting that right. They ended up very long, but not wide. So that tray looks like rolls that were stood on end, but fell over on their side. However, the thing about bread, even if it looks fugly, it still tastes good!

Also, lesson learned -- don't freeze the dough even though it says you can. Overnight in the fridge and it still didn't thaw. It took hours sitting out and as a result I think they are over-proofed a bit. Thank goodness I didn't wait to bake in the morning or they'd still be frozen!

Making lemon curd now to go with.

http://s788.photobucket.com/user/4ebay_bucket/slideshow/Food/Croissants

 
A thing of beauty. Here's what CIA *Baking and Pastry* has for their croissant dimensions

Their dough is 2 lb 4 oz.

Roll to 9" x 24"

Cut 11 isosceles triangles, 9" by 4" at base.

Make a 3/4" slit at the bottom of the 4" base. Working with one triangle at a time, gently stretch to elongate (12"-14"). Place on board with point facing away from you (the point goes to almost nothing in this photo). Roll from base.

 
I finally realized why CIA only ends up with 11 croissants.

Starting with a 9" x 24" rectangle, mark the base every four inches, but mark the top in at 2" and then every 4".

Slice from bottom left corner to 2" notch at the top. That sets the first side of the isosceles triangle. Then slice from 2" down to bottom edge of the 4" mark.

You end up losing the 2 outside edges of dough to get 11 perfect triangles.

Meanwhile, the version you worked with had a right angle at the base. That made it more difficult to roll an even croissant.

 
Well, I wish they were as good as they sorta look, but they actually are a fail...

Things I did wrong:

Even though the recipe said you could freeze the dough after x step, it was wrong. It said you could thaw overnight in the fridge and mine didn't thaw. That was the main thing that went wrong as when it sat out to thaw the center was still frozen as the outer parts were over proofing. It took forever before it was thawed enough to roll and by then I expect the damage was done. (I got ok bread, but nothing flake-y like it should be at all.)

Egg wash - it was too much and tasted egg-y.

I cut it out wrong. At one point the recipe I had (internet, not the actual cookbook) says cut dough horizontally, well which way is horizontal depends on how you are looking at it.

I later learned from Marilyn that making a small cut vertically at the center of the wide edge of the triangle allows you to spread the dough when you roll it so it comes out looking like a croissant vs. a cinnamon roll you tried to bake on it's side.

The above wrongs gave me a nice roll for sandwiches, but no layers/flakes like it should have. (I updated the photos with a crumb shot.)

Oh and the last thing I did wrong was somehow end up at the bridge toll vs. the fwy I wanted, so it cost me $5 to go home the wrong way from my bread meet-up, through San Francisco and it's *traffic*, lol!

However, I've been snacking on them all day with the 2 jams and lemon curd I made to go with them - delish even if they aren't croissants! However, I vow to try again with my new knowledge because someone else made the same recipe (with the sourdough leaven) and it tasted amazing.

 
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