Last night we had our first in what I hope to be a series of pot luck Sunday suppers with themes to help us learn how to cook better. For this first one we tried our hand at Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Mastering, which is now, almost 50 years after it was published, a number 1 best seller. I love this for a few reasons, first, Julia rocked. Second, because French food celebrates the seasons and the places that grow the finest ingredients possible. And third, because it signals to me that people are willing to start looking at food anew by going back to the beginning. The french paradox isn’t a paradox, we are meant to eat cream and butter. When we do eat cream and butter, we naturally eat less and stay full longer. If butter and cream really made people fat we would have been fat all along – not just in the past 20 years since we’ve become fat-phobic.

So why not embrace Julia’s love of cream and butter as well her masterpiece? Particularly since we have such awesome dairy products in Minnesota. In my book one of the best frenchy uses for butter is making croissants. They’re also really easy to make. Two things you need to look out for are heat (if your butter melts there’s no point in going further) and time. (It doesn’t take much active time but it does take all day.) I promise that the recipe that follows works.

I served these croissants with the foods that follow the recipes. Hopefully, folks will add in their recipes. As always, the food, company and conversation were excellent. I hope you can join us next time.

Croissant

1 1/2 c whole milk*
1 T + 1/4 t active dry yeast
1 T salt
1/4 c light brown sugar, lightly packed
4 c unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
3 sticks unsalted butter, chilled*

Croissant Mix & Roll
Use the dough hook of a heavy duty electric mixer combine milk, yeast, salt, brown sugar, and flour. Mix on low until the dough is fully combined and smooth, 6 minutes. Dough should be soft, but not too sticky.

 

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, kneed a couple times then shape dough into a rectangle, 1 1/2″ thick, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.

 

Add Butter
Place butter between two pieces of parchment paper, and smash with a rolling pin, flattening it into 5 x 8″ rectangle. lightly flour your work surface, roll the dough into a 10 x 16″ rectangle, 1/2″ thick. You can pull on the dough to help it maintain a rectangle shape, but you don’t need to worry that much about it, with the amount of folding you do, it really just works out rectangular. With the long side parallel to the edge of the work surface, place the butter in the middle of the dough. Fold the bottom edge up, just past the middle, and the top edge down to the bottom edge, creating a letter fold.


You’re going to want to pound down the butter better than this. I was doing too many things at once.

First Fold
On a floured surface, roll the dough to 10 x 15″ rectangle, about 1/2″ thick. With the longer side parallel to the edge of the work surface fold the left side over two thirds across, and then fold the right side over to meet the left edge, stretching the corners and squaring off the sides so the edges line up. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.


This isn’t how your envelope fold should look but I wanted to show just how lovely this dough is. Isn’t it lovely?

Second Fold
On a floured work surface, place the open seam parallel to the edge of work surface and follow the instructions for the first fold.

Third Fold
On a floured work surface, place the open seam to the left of the edge of work surface and follow the instructions for the first fold.

Fourth (last) Fold**
On a floured work surface, place the open seam to the top furthest away from the edge of work surface and follow the instructions for the first fold. Then wrap dough tightly in plastic, and chill for at least 3 hours, but no longer than overnight. You can freeze the dough at this point if you want to store it for longer.

Filling
If you are putting a filling into the croissants, now would be the time to get that together.

Shaping
Divide dough in half, and return one half to the refrigerator or freeze. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 13 x 16 rectangle, 1/4″ thick, flouring the dough as necessary. Trim the edges straight.

With the long side parallel to the edge of the work surface, cut the dough down the center vertically and set one half aside. Place the longer side parallel to the edge of the work surface, and cut dough vertically into 1/3rds if you want smaller croissants or 1/2 if you want larger croissants. Cut each 1/3 or 1/2 diagonally in half to make two triangles. You will have 6 or 4 triangles.

Roll dough out to each side and then out towards the top until it’s 1/3 larger and 1/6″ thick. Return the enlarged triangle to the work surface with the widest end toward you.

Take a teaspoon of filling, if using, and place about 1/3″ up on the croissant. Tuck the bottom in on itself and roll up over the filling. Keep rolling loosely up the rest of the croissant. The dough should overlap 3 – 4 times with the tip sticking out the back from underneath. Place croissant on the parchment paper lined baking sheets turning the corners into a crescent shape (if you want to.)

Repeat with refrigerated portion of dough, (if you are making them at the same time.)

Place the croissants 2″ apart on parchment-lined baking sheets and curve the ends of the croissant inward, forming a crescent shape. Set aside in a warm place to rise for 2 1/2 hours.

Bake!
Adjust oven racks to the lower and upper positions, and preheat oven to 425°f.

Open the oven door, spritz the oven heavily with water from a spray bottle. Repeat, then slide the baking sheets onto the racks. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°f. Do not open oven door for the first 10 minutes.

After the first 10 minutes, rotate the baking sheets to ensure even baking. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°f and continue baking 8 minutes more. Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let rest for a couple of minutes. Serve while still warm.

 

* I used Hope butter and milk from Cedar Summit.

** If you want to make puff pastry do a couple more folds.

Pictures from the meal:
I was a bit lax on the photo front this time, preferring to enjoy the company of my dinner companions instead but I did get a few pictures and hopefully they’ll leave the recipes in the comments.


Jean made this beautiful salad.


Linda’s dill potato salad.


Karen’s tomato, mozzarella & basil appetizers.


Amy’s portabella & balsamic reduction appetizers.

There was also 40 clove chicken from Kris, a beet and pasta and turnip and rice dish from Michelle, a very yummy chocolate cake from Ken and truffles from Karen. (Sorry, if I’m missing anyone! There was a lot of food.)