Artisan Breads Every Day - Croissants

Almost done! Another recipe review from Peter Reinhart's newest book.

This recipe scared me. I've wanted to make croissants for years but laminated doughs just freaked me out! I really wanted to try this recipe knowing that with Peter's hand holding, I probably could do it. But if I wouldn't have told you all that I was going to make every recipe in this book, I would have probably chickened out!

I'm glad I didn't! These were incredible!

The recipe wasn't difficult, just time consuming. Mixing the dough was easy, but laminating the butter between layers of dough took nearly all afternoon. Every 20 minutes I was rolling, folding, flouring, and working with this dough. The dough kept springing back on me and I struggled to get it rolled wide enough but finally I had all 81 layers.

The cutting and forming of rolls was simple enough and I impatiently waited for the dough to rise so we could get these in the oven. But baking these rolls wasn't without difficulties. All that butter started to melt out of the rolls. I had mistakenly placed these rolls on a flat baking sheet. Butter dripping on the oven coils caused flame ups and soon my kitchen was filled with smoke! Good time to check the smoke detector!

But the result was lovely despite the extra flames. I love how the layers separated inside. And one bite of these...Mmmmm!

The next pan I made sure had sides which avoided any problems. My husband enjoyed these for egg sandwiches for several mornings. I'm not sure this recipe will become a regular with all the extra effort involved but at least now I don't have to be intimidated by croissants!