The Tartine Project: Croissants, Part Deux

Doesn't that croissant look like it's popping out of the book??

5.5 hours of sleep. 18.5 hours of giddy anticipation mixed with a good heap of nervousness. I kept thinking that I was bound to fuck up at some point.

For instance, when the recipe instructed me to spread and dot the butter onto 2/3rds of the 12 x 28 rolled out rectangle dough, I did exactly that. So far, so good. Until I realized that I had successfully spread the butter onto 2/3rds of the dough but saw that I had about 1/2 of the butter left! There was no more room to spread and dot the butter...SO I just told myself not to freak out and things will be fine :)

I also made chocolate croissants. Instead of rolling in a chocolate baton like the recipe said, I decided to be frugal and sub that for ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. High five, anyone?

Once the croissants finally made it into the oven, all I did was pace back and forth in the kitchen and peeked in. It smelled pretty good and just watching the mutation process of it all is so so satisfying...The fact that all these random individual ingredients, mixed together a certain way can result in something so enchanting. I'm freakin' obsessed.

The oven beeped. Wheee! It was so golden, puffy and again, deeply golden brown! Wow! Not bad for my first time at all. I bit into it slowly, the pastry flakes were divine. Success!

On a side note, I had $8.38 in my checking an hour ago. Right before I sat down in Barnes & Noble to get my free internet, I wandered into Williams-Sonoma like a lost soul, trying to find the light. The light turned out to be tartlett shells that were made in france, real shiny stuff. Needless to say, it's free movies from the library and ramen for the weekend ;) This shitty economy has taught me that it's not about the economy at all. It's about the time spent. Not money spent.

See ya ladle!

Here are the visual aids in this project: