(Eeek! I just realized I'd had "beurre" spelled incorrectly for a couple of days. Oops.)
Here's a secret. I like Martha Stewart. I'm slowly getting sucked into her omnimedia omniempire, what with the subscriptions to Blueprint and Everyday Food. I've been flirting with Martha Stewart Living, but thus far have settled for checking it out of the library. I recently had the May 2006 issue, which contained a feature on making croissants.
The step-by-step photos appealed to the organizational nut that lurks just below the surface in my head, and the idea of flaky pain au chocolate appealed to a corner of my stomach that hasn't been touched since my trip to Paris. Thanks to a childhood filled with fresh bread and homemade crusts for apple pies, my baking skills are fairly decent, and I decided to give it a go.
Lest I come into contact with Martha's omnilawyers, I will not reproduce her recipe here. If you truly want to follow down my path of folly, I'm sure you can find a basic recipe. I'm just going to catalogue the various steps.
Mixing the dough. After about three minutes of kneading by hand, it was nice and smooth and bulky - not as wet and shaggy as it is here.
In order for croissants to be delightfully flaky and have a million little layers, a "butter package" is put between two layers of dough. The dough is then rolled out and folded and turned chilled and rolled out and folded...it's not hard, but it is fussy. Not surprisingly, the butter package is where the 4 sticks of butter come in. Martha directs you to mix the butter with a quarter cup of flour, then spread it into an 8x10 inch sheet on parchment paper. Uncharacteristically, I paid very close attention to the specified measurements for rolled-out dough (and butter) in this recipe - you can see my 8x10 inch template.
Here's the dough after its final turn. Having a bit of extra counter space when needed is about the only benefit of having an 18-inch portable dishwasher because your kitchen is too small for anything else. At this point, the dough rested in the fridge overnight.
Shaped and ready for the final rise. I made half plain and half with chocolate. (Note to the Ramsey County Public Library: Why no, those aren't your magazines you see carelessly left under the baking sheets. Not at all. Look over there, at the, um, er, the salt and pepper shakers!)
The finished product. I was surprised at how well they turned out. They tasted good, sure, but they also looked pretty. That's a real accomplishment for me. I may not be making any more croissants in the foreseeable future, but it's nice to know that I can. Perhaps that should go on my resume. At the very least, it speaks to perseverence.