I had always thought that croissants would be extremely difficult to make without years of practice. But they weren't, and I'm very pleased about it, because they ended up extremely delicious! The ones from the supermarket are always flat, soggy, and greasy, and they're also about $1 each. Not worth it at all when you consider how many can be made with this recipe from The Holst's Bread Book.
The most difficult part of the whole process was cutting the triangles of rolled out dough before rolling them up into the little crab claw shapes. I have made these once again since Mum's birthday, and found it just as difficult this time too. I have decided that I will draw up a rectangle of greaseproof paper the size that the rolled out dough needs to be, and draw the triangles on it. That way I can simply lay on top of the dough, and make marks on the dough through the paper with a blunt knife before cutting the dough with a sharp knife. Believe me, with how dumb I seem to be in this department, it's worth the time. I had to roll the dough out three times on the weekend, just great when you're keeping guests waiting by the time they're ready for the oven.
This is how they turned out without the egg glaze (from Mum's birthday):
And with the egg glaze (from this weekend, credit to Rachel for the photo!):
The egg glaze is really patchy because Mum threw the pastry brush away (she says I did it, but I know I didn't). It was one of those ones that leaves bristles everywhere anyway, so I'm glad to see it go. Just need to get a new one - silicone ftw!
In summary, do try this recipe, it's fabulous, and although it does have a lot of butter in it, they're not greasy pastry like the bought ones.
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