Croissants

Never let it be said that making croissants is easy unless you have a special machine doing it for you!  They are a total bitch to make, but unequaled by any other kind of roll.  I was determined to master them before we began serving people in the dining room.

As usual I turned to my bible, “The Joy of Cooking”, probably my most treasured and valuable wedding gift.  I rarely followed its recipes, getting the correct ingredients was difficult on Bequia, but it gave me the ideas and guidelines I needed when trying something new.

Croissants became the bane of my existence.  I had to start preparing them the night before as the dough needed to be completely chilled before its final rolling in the morning. The dough itself was easy to make, it was the buttering and layering that proved difficult.  All ingredients had to be cold, especially the dough and the butter. I would chill the risen dough while I kneaded the butter, which in the tropics was a challenge. The butter could not be softened by melting, I had to knead it in a bowl of ice water until it softened.  I would then roll the chilled dough into an oblong and start the layering process, not an easy task. This involved spreading butter on the dough, then folding, rolling and buttering again several times to make the layers necessary for a good croissant. This was very labor intensive, not to mention time consuming, and it was always a relief when I could finally wrap the dough and put it away in the cooler

The next morning I would take the cold dough out of the cooler once I had the muffins and cinnamon buns in the ovens and the bread rising on the counter. My timing for the baking was crucial, and oven space was never wasted.  It was important to keep the croissant dough chilled so I had to work fast. Again I had to roll and layer the dough three times, now stiff and hard with cold butter, and that took a lot of elbow grease!  The thinly rolled dough would then be cut into squares and shaped into crescents on baking pans.  The raw croissants had to be chilled again at once, if they rose again they would not have the proper flakiness.  They would sit in the cooler until the bread came out of the ovens, then be baked for about half an hour until they were a golden brown.

I had a captive audience on those trial mornings, everyone seemed eager to taste and critique my efforts when the croissants emerged from the oven. Finally they were declared perfect and I started making preparations to open the dining room for the first time.