and I’m going to talk about something else. It’s nice and sunny. I just got back from up north and it was good run. No traffic problems to speak of. No car wrecks, nothing. My only complaint is that the Donut Dip is on the other side of the freeway and I can’t get there easily from there. My bread baking is going spendidly. Now I’m thinking of trying make croissants. I think it’s fairly hard from the last time I looked, but I used to think baking bread was difficult. Anyone can do it. You put together flour, water, salt and yeast, mix it up, and let it rise over a few hours.
It’s erection day when Kitten’s around.
Then you beat it down again and let it rise in the bread pan for a little less time. When it’s risen sufficiently you throw it in a 375 deg oven for about 45 minutes and it’s done. Fresh bread. The last loaf I baked, I screwed up the water ratio, so I added a little bit more after the dough had risen the first time and it came out better than anything I’d made previously. It’s brilliant!
Baking yer own bread. Brilliant!
I could talk about baking bread all day, but how difficult is it to make croissants? “The secret to making delicious croissants lies in using top-quality ingredients”, says Cédric Grolet in Parisian life style magazine Leonce Chenal. Croissants are made from dough that’s layered with butter. This dough is rolled, folded, and rolled again in a process called laminating. See, there’s a problem, too many steps, but maybe it’s not that bad. It goes on..”Beurre de tourage, also known as dry butter or beurre pâtissier, is a special kind of unsalted butter with 84% butterfat, slightly more than the 82% you’ll find in regular unsalted butter. This butter is a pastry chef’s secret weapon for creating those perfect, flaky layers in croissant dough.
Where the fuck do I get Beurre de tourage? Well the recipe tells me, “If you can’t find beurre de tourage, don’t worry—you can make it at home! ” Okay!
Look at that list of ingredients. I ain’t doing all that. If you want to, you can try it yourself. Here’s a link to the recipe, have fun. I have a box of croissants that I bought from BJ’s. Yes, I know. They’re not as good as Sam’s Clubs, but they’ll do. Sam’s Club is not customer friendly in my opinion, and I wouldn’t go back there again.
So I’m going to have a croissant that someone else made now. I’ll spread some home made marmalade on it too. That’s easy. You don’t even have to add pectin, the stuff that firms up most jams. Just throw a few cut up oranges in a saucepan, add some water and sugar, boil it for about half a day, and you’ve got marmalade. Brilliant!