Chocolate Croissants

It's been a while, and so much has happened! I got a new day job, moved to a new state, and adopted new extracurriculars :-)

While I've done baking here and there, I haven't tried anything new until a couple weeks ago when I got the urge to try making croissants after watching "It's Complicated"--a cute movie, if you haven't seen it.

I found that the key ingredient to making croissants by hand and from scratch is patience. And the key to preserving patience is to make the time pass by faster. So I started the croissant dough at the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, when I was also planning to have friends visit and go for a hike. We went to Lewis Rocks in central Pennsylvania, and hiked along a creek that led to waterfalls and scrambled up rocks to a summit that afforded gorgeous views of the Cumberland Valley.

Each day went by fast, and at night I would roll out the croissant dough for an additional turn.

The recipe I used is from Cook's Illustrated (subscription required--but so worth it). Cook's Illustrated is my go-to for recipes because when they finalize a recipe, it's been tested about a million times and they tell you what works, what doesn't, and why. Heart them!

The idea of making croissants daunted me because they make such a big deal about how the butter in the dough makes it really delicate and fussy. But if you have the patience to let the dough chill sufficiently between the turns (i.e., each time you roll it out and fold it back in on itself to create the layers of dough and butter which eventually form the telltale flakiness of croissants) then it is really manageable.

As I unabashedly described to an admirer (of the croissants) who saw pictures of them right out of the oven: "The texture right out of the oven was *amazing.* They (yes I had more than one) were flaky on the outer layers, and soft but still a little chewy in the middle layers. When you bite through all the layers together, it is a perfect combination of crinkly/soft/warm/chewy and then*mmmm* the warm chocolate percolates through."

1. Make the dough. Let rise for 2 hours.
2. Prepare the butter square. Then chill for 2 hours.
3. Roll out the dough.
4. Fold in the butter square. Chill 2 hours.
5. Repeat.
6. Roll out the butter-layered dough.
7. Cut out and shape croissants.
8. Prepare for the oven.

9. Eat!