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!

Farewell Marika!

The highlight of my week for over a year and a half now is teaching a small group of kindergartners at KidsQuest, which is the McLean Bible Church version of Sunday school. About six months ago, I was asked to also help out in the large group production--where a group of about 100 kindergarten and first graders come in assembly style to hear a bible story and sing worship songs. Wow! You wouldn't think it, but they are an intimidating group. Their attention span is about 0.5 seconds and definitely let you know if you aren't interesting enough or are just downright boring.

Thankfully, I had an awesome partner on stage who really bolstered my credibility with these youngsters!Marika and I would feed off each other's energy and it really showed when the kids would get fired up for her stories and the songs we'd lead together. Sadly, she recently had to return to her home country of Moldova. To send her a fond farewell (or rather, "see you soon"), we had a party with board games, and a cake that I made.

How often do you let the frosting dictate the cake? Well, I did. I knew that I would be frosting the cake with mousseline buttercream (what else of course!) And when I do, I'll have egg yolks leftover. Is there a cake recipe that only uses egg yolk? YES! It's called Golden Layer Cake, and I found it in The Joy of Cooking.I filled the cake with peaches and cream.Then I decorated it with peachy flowers that are slightly tinged with red at the edges.

"Pink" Velvet Cupcakes

My friend Khanh was visiting during a stop on her tour of North America, and we made sure it was a special visit for her. First, we ordered up fat snow--in the order of 20-something inches worth over less than 24 hours.Then, she remarked that she had heard so much about red velvet cake, but had never had it. Well, I had never made it. So I thought, why not give it a try? Not having much experience with it before, I picked a recipe from Food Network.Somehow, it didn't quite turn out the way I expected.They turned out rather pink, instead of red. Nonetheless, they were yum.I later spread them with cream cheese icing that I had leftover from some strawberry cake that I had previously made. But first I ate a couple naked. I mean, the cakes were naked...as in, not frosted. Oh whatever, you know what I mean:

Holla challah!

Yesterday I decided on a whim to make some challah bread. Baking Illustrated recommends making the dough in a stand mixer or food processor, but what is the fun in that? I broke out the bowls and wooden spoons to mix the dough by hand and greased up the elbows for some old fashioned kneading. What's fun about making challah is that you really get to play around with the dough. Instead of just plopping it into a loaf pan, you get to cut up the dough, roll out the dough, and braid it--twice! The trick to getting braided shape right is actually to make two braids, a smaller braid that is placed on top of a bigger braid. After one last rise, into the oven it goes!

The secret to excellent pie is...

...VODKA!

The day before Thanksgiving, by special request, I made apple pie. One was a regular apple pie (although far from ordinary if I do say so myself!) The second was apple-cranberry pie.


It had been years since I'd made pie. First of all, I'm not a huge fan of it. I don't really like to eat it because of the texture of the filling. Fruit should be chewable, and oftentimes baking the fruit filling breaks it down to baby food consistency. Not feeling that. Nonetheless, many people love pie and I love making it; therefore I have no objections to granting their requests.

Pie crust is one of those things that people obsess over--how to keep it flaky, how to make it the right thickness, et cetera, ad nauseum. Fear not! The first pie I ever made--and to my chagrin got rave reviews--I made in a gallon ziploc bag by shaking up cubed butter with flour and some ice water.

This time, I got a little bit more detailed. Room temperature butter, vegetable shortening and flour--all blended with a pastry cutter (see picture at Green Tea Cupcakes post). A tiny bit of salt and sugar for taste, then the obligatory water. But then--here is the secret--vodka.

This little bit of fire water is absolutely imperative, and here's why: If we add too little water, the pie crust dough is really hard to work with--too dry to hold together and roll out later. If we add too much, then it sticks like crazy and is also a mess to work with. Enter vodka. It adds the liquidity of water during the dough stage, but being 40% alcohol, it bakes off in the oven... leaving a crispy flaky crust as though you'd only used 60% of the water. Tell me that's not genius.

And here's what it looks like: