…then create it at home. The culinary symbol of Paris, I think, is a fresh, flaky croissant. It about the 3 C’s: crackle, crunch, and crumbs (all over yourself) after you bite into it.
We tackled this at Sur la Table last month. The whole class was devoted to just the croissant and the technique of making it from scratch (yes that means doing the folds with layers of butter in between). It was definitely very tedious but fascinating at the same time to see how it is done by hand. Unfortunately I ran out of batteries so I saved the pics for the finished product. It was probably for the best, to avoid seeing how much butter really goes into the dough.
Adding fillings into the croissants. Shown above is a ham and Swiss cheese. I personally think Gruyere cheese would be fantastic in place of the Swiss.
on the cooling racks
front: Croissants with Almond Cream
middle: Croissants with Bittersweet Chocolate
back: Savory Croissants with Ham and Cheese
Close up on the ham and cheese and almond croissants
We “accidently” overfilled them so the ham and cheese spilled out a bit.
Plate of chocolate croissants
after 2-3 hours, our spread of croissants
I know it seems like an absurd amount of time for just one thing, but once you’ve had the true, flaky croissant there really is nothing like it. Of course I have done the shortcut and used a refrigerated croissant dough when I’m in a hurry, but I’d make this once to satisfy my craving for the real thing. Plus after shaping them you could place them in the freezer and have Paris whenever you crave it. 