Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Daring Bakers - Croissants - Fresh, Fluffy, French




There is a chain of French cafes in Melbourne called Laurent.  Laurent sells all kinds of delicate cakes and pastries, dressed up very beautifully.  One of their tastiest offerings is not the prettiest at all - it is the almond croissant, a soft, flaky, buttery pastry filled with almond paste.

I have always wanted to make croissants, and this month, the Daring Bakers gave me a reason to do so, as we were set the assignment of making croissants.  In the words of the blog checking lines: 

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!


As you can tell from all the exclamation marks, this was a very exciting assignment.

I got about a 50% strike rate with my croissants.  All of them looked like croissants, but some of them ended up being too small and baked up fairly hard as a result.  Of the remainder, they certainly looked and tasted the part.  At the top of this post, I have deliberately featured the star performers of my croissant batch - the plain croissant and the almond croissant, filled with almond paste left over from some other challenge.

I also made one filled with chopped chocolate:  






This is the interior of the almond croissant, with its almond paste filling:








And for reasons best known to my iPhone and my computer, featured stubbornly upside down, is the interior of the star performing plain croissant:  





Thanks to Sarah for hosting us this month.  I certainly enjoyed this challenge, and can tick off "croissants" from my baking bucket list.  To see what the other Daring Bakers did with this challenge, you can view the slide show over at the Daring Kitchen (from 27 September US time).

22 comments:

Unknown said...

Mmmmm, next on my to do list is "Almond Croissants"! They look devine!

Anonymous said...

Great job on these croissants! Love the different fillings.

Sunshine - www.cancersurvivor26.blogger.com said...

Mmmmmm...I love croissants! Never had them filled. I must try!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Great job on the croissants! I'm so glad that I stashed some in the freezer because I'm seeing croissants everywhere today and I'm craving one! :)

Rajani said...

I didn't try any filling, as I wasn't sure how mine would turn out. Yours look really tempting. Yum yum!

Unknown said...

Way to go daaaahling! Guess you and I are on the same page with the croissant thing :D. I think yours look great (even if some of them didn't turn out exactly right). Almond is a beautiful, classic flavour, you can't go wrong.
So proud of you for stepping up to what is really a challenge!
*kisses* HH

chopinandmysaucepan said...

Definitely my kind of pastries!! Even without the filling, they are a winner!

Renata said...

I would LOVE to try those almond croissants! They sound very tempting! I must remember this next time :)

Johanna GGG said...

wow that is great - I love those almond filled croissants though try to keep them for special occasions because they are so easy to eat

Amanda said...

Clever girl - these look great. I'd love to try some with pistachio paste - I'd just like someone else to make them for me!

Finla said...

They look absloutley super soft and yumm.

Audax said...

I have to say the almond croissant looks totally delicious I'm so glad that they worked out so well. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

Tia said...

omg, the flaky layers look TO DIE FOR!!! great job.

Hindy said...

You made croissants - gorgeous! I'm jealous. I'd be scared to try.

Suz said...

Your almond croissant looks and sounds absolutely wonderful. I'd never heard of or considered an almond croissant before this month, but I need one in my life! I also need one of your perfectly chocolatey chocolate croissants. Great job!

Elaine said...

I really like the chocolate filled one!

Gloria Baker said...

Your croissants look amazing Cake law! gloria

The Betz Family said...

Yum! Great flavors! I too had some interestingly shaped croissants but I guess the taste is what matters in the end. Nice job on the challenge!

Anonymous said...

Those look amazing! I love croissants and almond is my favorite. But I have never been ``daring'' enough to make them myself. Kudos to you.

Jenni said...

Almond croissants?! Oh my! They look and sound marvelous!

4pure by Andrea said...

Loved both croissants, but definitely chocolate is going to win for me(although the almond sounds amazing, but I'm a chocoholic). Though my family loves almonds so I'm going to make a few non-chocolate with almonds for them (maybe if they are very nice to me next week (lol)).
Nice job.

Anonymous said...

The almond one looks especially good! I've been wanting to make croissants for a long time, but still haven't gotten to it. Fantastic job!