OOO LA LA!!

as of late i have been feeling very adventurous, i don't know why exactly...maybe it's the talk of travel, or knowing that new things are right around the corner. but, out of the blue one day i decided that i wanted to make croissants (after taking 3 years of french, in high school and college i figure this is as close as i will get...for now!). so i pulled out my handy dandy martha stewart baking book (my christmas gift from miss cindy duque), one of the BEST baking books ever! i usually look to this book when i bake a lot of my tasty treats! anyhoo, i found her recipe for making these delectable pastries, a few moments later after reading it my jaw dropped! "chill dough over night", "place 5 sticks of butter side by side in cellophane and gently beat", "turn and repeat 3 times"...man this was going to take a few days and a lot of work!! who knew one pastry could take soooooooo long to make!! no wonder the french take so much pride in their food - they spend FOREVER preparing it! after picking up my jaw, i decided that i was going to do it even though it would take me a looong while. my dad kindly offered to pick up the ingredients we didn't have, like pastry flour(low-protein flour) and bread flour (12-13% protein). so a few days ago i set to work...

and after figuring out how to open the pastry flour bag, which took me A LOT longer than i had anticipated i got the dough started...

i kneaded and worked it till it was ready to chill...

 and my oh my did it rise!

in the mean time i beat the butter to a pulp^_^

VOILA!

after rolling it and folding it three times and letting it chill it was FINALLY time to measure and cut...

form and rise then...

bake!! YUM YUM YUM!!!

and for all of you who have never tried a freshly baked croissant, i must say that it is something i suggest everyone do if they can!! i grabbed one hot out of the oven and dove right in! the outside was crispy and inside was warm, buttery, and flaky...mmmmmmm. delicious!! also, while watching the youtube videos about how to make them i also learned that you can use the same dough to make pan au chocolat...so i did! 

place some chocolate chips at the end of a rectangle of dough and simply fold over....

 

let rise and bake and enjoy!! my french experience is complete...or is it?!