Croissants

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Agreed, and maybe the mass and handling of bigger batches also changes the texture. Like if you do 5kg batch of filling, then the lower 1/5th get's 4kg of compression. Turn it over a few time, I think it can help to normalize the mixture. And the machines used, like the double rotating ones. That the kitchen aid ones tries to copy. Where it goes around the pot while it also turns. And the other industrial types. Better over night storage in cooling house, better temp and humidity control.

Try stuffing a 1m high layered cake into the fridge

a reply to: TDDAgain

Many decades ago… I would get up early.
There was a bakery. You could tell all the bakers were related, they all looked like clones.
They were originally from holland. Adorable ladies with long blonde hair all baking their little hearts out.

I will never forget that smell when opening those clear glass doors. It would hit you in the face, swooooosh.
Fresh bread, cakes, croissants. It wasn’t necessarily a sweet smell, but one that would make any mouth water.
Everything was freshly baked early that morning. Some things they had on display, you would buy it and they would go and make you a fresh one. In my mind no other bakery can compare.

Great now I have a craving for something I can’t have 😭

a reply to: JAGStorm

This is the best bakery in the NYC area. It's not even close.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Ohh I’ll have to try it, my kids want a trip to the city. We’ve been waiting because we don’t want to deal with any covid restrictions. Chicago is still not what I consider fully open.

I see they have ham and butter sandwiches.. I absolutely love those!! I used to have it in Paris and it’s hard to explain to people how good it is!

Their salads look great too.. Now I’m seriously craving some French food.

We have a place here this is OK, not the best, but good enough most times.

a reply to: JAGStorm

We used to sit together at around 5am and have breakfast, I mean "quality test" .

Fresh warm bretzel with salted butter ... or hand warm lye bun with nutella...

Good Croissants are the cats purr. But rarely around here can we get really good croissants. If you can find good ones they are expensive. I was going to try to make them, but there is a lot of work to make really good ones and they take a lot of butter to make. I suppose that the cost of the ingredients and the extensive labor costs to make good ones is what makes them expensive. I chose to just buy an occasional pkg. of good ones when I crave croisandwiches. One big sandwich satisfies us for months. The ones at the restaurants they make sandwiches out of suck...so do the ones in the store you buy, they seem to have some sort of chemical taste and smell lately. A package of four decent...not great ones....around here costs over three bucks in one of the smaller stores with a bakery we go to, but that is way cheaper than real ones made with real butter and good ingredients.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It sucks when you got a good bakery and it shuts down. I remember some great bakeries around here years ago but now they disappeared. Strange thing is the kids talk about how great new bakeries products are...they were not born when those great bakeries were still alive....they have no clue what great bakery used to be like forty to fifty years ago.

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: JAGStorm

It sucks when you got a good bakery and it shuts down. I remember some great bakeries around here years ago but now they disappeared. Strange thing is the kids talk about how great new bakeries products are...they were not born when those great bakeries were still alive....they have no clue what great bakery used to be like forty to fifty years ago.

The new bakeries are terrible, so terrible. It’s all about gigantic proportions and sugar sugar sugar, soo soo much sugar.
How much sugar can people possibly eat. Some of these things are not edible to me. I can’t stand American frosting. You know the kind that goes on cupcakes. I have to scrape it off and people look at me like I’m nuts. It would make me vomit to eat that. I can tolerate a light whipped cream frosting but that is about it. Now people are taking cookies and putting a half inch of frosting on those also. Uggg!!

a reply to: JAGStorm

I make some good mock whip cream frosting and everyone loves it when I make it. The recipe comes from one of our older cookbooks, back in the fifties. It isn't real sweet, but it tastes real good. I also will add some cocoa to it occasionally or other natural flavorings like tequila rose. With the tequilla rose you use just a tad and it flavors it well...too much and the frosting seems to not stay fluffy as long for some reason.

Homemade donuts with a dab of tequila rose turn out great too. Just don't use too much or it gets overpowering....ten drops in a small batch is great. I wonder how it would flavor the berry mix for strawberry shortcakes? I make Bisquick biscuits for strawberry shortcake...they have a little cane sugar in the biscuits. We only use cane sugar, it doesn't have that tart flavor that is in beet sugar...probably the thiosulphate they put in it that gives it a sharper taste.

We buy the tequila rose in those little one ounce bottles at the checkout. It is enough to make a lot of different things, but once opened, it can get bad over time and needs to be refrigerated after opening....so we buy those tiny bottles.

a reply to: theatreboy

I'll take cheese on toast in 3 minutes for 500, alex.

Croissants when made well are a delight!

We have a little coffee shop close to where I work. A farm to market place. They're hooked up with a bakery next door that makes these awesome things like croissants. I've been enjoying their chicken salad croissant.

They use chicken thigh, not too much mayo, just enough to stick, big chunks of veggie, and the massive, super flaky croissant that just wants to melt into flakes. That with a green salad really works.

a reply to: theatreboy

My wife is 10 yrs younger but I'm the better cook. Crossaints? Great idea there I can whip up.
If only to tick her off..n more for me!

Thnx TB👍

a reply to: theatreboy

Weird thing, I love to cook, but I don't bake much, especially breads. I do love to learn, read and watch all things baking though.

From what I've read it appears that the "real" bakers are also becomming extinct in Europe. It is hard to find bakers that make croissant in the classical manner. Now there is a lot of stuff like the premade pastry doughs. I can imagine that the real stuff is both too time consuming and too expensive for most places to survive. Such a shame.