Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Love in a Roll... Croissant Class.



Who doesn't love croissants? I love them in an unhealthy way. As in the last few times I have gone to Paris for work, I end up consuming about 2-3 per day while I am there. I would probably eat more but it's limited purely by the amount of time I have outside of meetings to search down and eat croissants.

Paris croissants are all seemingly incredibly flakey..so that when you bite into one, you immediately have a shower of buttery goodness down your front. No time for embarassment. Must eat more croissants.



So when my baking pal, Betty ala Miss EatMyCupcake, said let's take a class at Sur La Table, we both said Croissants. Having visited Paris just a week before the class, I had the memory of those flaketastic buttery morsels fresh on my tongue.

I love taking classes at Sur La Table. They have a huge kitchen, a fabulous setup, lots of great volunteers surrounding a usually pretty knowledgeable teacher. Cheese n' crackers, fresh water, bathroom breaks. LOVE IT. It makes the $80 you pay for the class for 2.5 hours seem more than worth it.



This class was no different than past classes in how much fun I had and how much I learned. We were taught how to make, butter, roll, turn, chill, cut, fill, and bake the croissants. The one thing that I did not love about this class was the croissant recipe. The instructor noted that there were hundreds out there and that they are all different. What she chose WAS a good beginner recipe. And it tasted fine, esp when filled.



BUT what we made and ate were not the crazy flakey croissants of my most recent memory. A bit more bready, and thick...thesee did not inspire a shower of buttery crumbs but rather the idea that you could easily slather some jam on them, and eat an extremely filling carb-laden breakfast with just one. However, the class itself was great...and I left there thinking about all the ways that I could make a better croissant. I couldn't let it lie...read on!! Next post.

3 comments:

Mermaid Sews said...

I have mixed feelings about the sur la table baking classes, but glad you had a great time. Wish I could have been there with ya, sounds like you two had a blast. We should do a bay area blogger event sometime.

Cristine said...

What a fun class! I love homemade croissants. Hope you find a recipe that reminds you of Paris!

Amanda Scott said...

whoa, amazing! they look great :). funnily enough, i JUST wrote a post about croissants too - and then stumbled upon yours...must be something in the air these days. :) anyway, i have a recipe for yeasted french croissants if you want - i'd be happy to share. xox