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It has been a week! I started the week with a baking project of Garlic and Chive Croissants and then we had to last-minute fly to LA for a funeral (not so fun). We were there for a short 32 hours but on top of the funeral, we got sushi twice and had dinner with some friends at Jon and Vinny’s. We are back in KC now playing catch-up on everything and next week I am heading out of town again. Summer is here and she is busy!
Let’s Talk Croissants
Back when I did the Butter Project, Lewis Road Creamery sent me an awesome package of butter and I was able to try their whole line. I have had the garlic and chive compound butter in my freezer ever since and was having a hard time figuring out how to use it. The thought popped into my head one day that if you used garlic and chive butter to make croissants, then you would have garlic and chive croissants!? This week I tested it out.
In the past, I have made Nacy Silverton’s croissant recipe and even with some epic mistakes, it produced great results. This time I decided to try Claire Saffitz’s recipe from NYT Cooking. It’s the trendy croissant recipe of the moment with in-depth descriptions and slightly different ways of doing the traditional steps.
You can find a Youtube video of Claire explaining the process and showing each step too. Marco and I watched it together and we noticed one thing, they are HUGE croissants. The recipe makes eight, only eight! Nancy Silverton’s recipe makes 24 petite croissants. I have learned that I like a smaller snack size croissant. The other thing I noticed was the interior texture. Look at the photo above. While Claire says she is happy with this result, where she can see the spiral and they don’t have huge air gaps, I along with some other NYT Cooking commenters don’t agree and find this texture to be a little bready for croissants.
To each their own with the “perfect” croissant. My preference is larger air gaps with a flakier texture. Le Marais Bakery is an example of what I strive to create. I followed Claire’s recipe step by step except with the turns. “Turns” are what a series of folds are called and these folds are what create the layers in a croissant. I added a third fold even though the recipe only called for two. This was a 12 AM decision that I later regretted. My results were fine. The color wasn’t as dark as I wanted, which could be a result of my shitty home oven or my egg wash. The exterior was super flakey but my interior was still wet after the recommended baking time plus a few extra minutes. I am not an expert in croissants but using visual clues from the way things went with the turns I think my butter got too soft and started to mix with the dough. They also didn’t need the extra fold and that created too many layers. They could have been under proofed or I might have needed a higher baking temp. I don’t know, I’ll try to figure it out next time, but they were still totally edible.
As for the garlic and chive butter, it was delicious. My house smelled magical while they were baking. The flavor was subtle, not too in your face, and just slightly savory. This is the perfect croissant to make a sandwich with. Now that I know that compound butter works successfully in croissants, imagine all the different croissants I could make! I’ll be making more croissants to practice my lamination but I am going back to Nacy Silverton’s recipe. It is the ultimate project for a baking escape.
Stuff to Read
Recipe Inspo
Butter Croissants (Nancy Silverton)
Croissants (Claire Saffitz)
Places I ate
My favorite sushi restaurant in LA without a doubt is Hide. From my old apartment, it was a quick 10-minute walk down Sawtelle. They closed temporarily during covid but they are back! The fish is always fresh and you can’t beat the prices. We ate there twice in 32 hours and I would have gone a third time.
Thing Everybody Needs
This is for all my mustard lovers. My current obsession is this Edmond Fallot Original Dijon. It’s hot, just the way I like it!
Animal Cuteness
Thanks for reading today! Now I am moving on to typing up and doing a final test of The Kitchen Club’s first tart recipe. This Wednesday we will be making Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts + Pistachio Crust.
See you next week, M.