Comfort Zone Challenge - Day 21

I've had croissants looming large in my mind for the past few weeks.

My husband and oldest daughter recently took a trip to Paris, and returned home with descriptions of quaint patisseries where one can buy a buttery, flakey, croissant for about a dollar.  These croissants are not to be confused with rolled up in a can, crescent roll that we sometimes confuse for the real thing.  I'm talking instead about the pastry so perfect that it has had a long history of popularity in the country that takes cooking and baking more seriously than perhaps any other. 

Also bringing croissants to the forefront was the comment made by a good friend of mine, after reading about my adventure, (or misadventure?), baking a soufflé.  She wrote simply, "Next up, Croissants!"  Attempting to bake the quintessential French pastry is absolutely, way outside of my comfort zone.  I had to take that as a challenge!

After reading over a few croissant recipes, I discovered one that made reference to Julia Child, and her classic cooking show, The French Chef.  Of course!  Why was I messing around with amateurs when I could go to THE source for French cooking, Julia Child!  I found the episode where Julia demonstrates how to make the perfect French Croissant on Youtube.  I quickly learned that the croissant is not a breakfast you can whip out for the kids before school like muffins of waffles.  Croissants are a labor of love, a labor of love that takes all day to pull off. 

I was ready to take on the croissant.  "Mise en place", as Julia would say, "everything in it's place".  Butter, pastry flour, oil, salt, yeast, sugar, all ready to magically combine into a little bundle of flakey goodness. 

I spent a lot of time with Julia in the kitchen that day.  Starting and pausing and rewinding her enchanting video over and over.  Make the bread dough, knead, let rise.  Simple enough so far.  Then came the part that makes a croissant, a croissant.  The genius idea to roll the dough with large amounts of butter.  Then, the not so complicated, but very time consuming portion of the recipe, where you endure a four hour series of rolling, turning, rolling, turning, chilling, waiting, then even more rolling and turning and chilling the dough until finally, it's time to make the croissants.  Once the perfect croissant shape is formed, you wait some more.  The end is in sight however, because as soon as the croissants have risen, it's just a quick 10-12 minutes in the oven, (finally something quick about this recipe), and I voila', beautiful, golden brown croissants that would make Julia proud!

As time consuming and slightly intimidating as making croissants turned out to be, it was absolutely worth the effort just to see the looks on my family's faces when they took a bite.

Another step outside my comfort zone confidently taken, thanks to Julia Child.

Today's a new day, let's  make it purposeful!
Kara