Julia Child's Croissants

My most recent adventure in the kitchen was inspired by an episode of "The French Chef" with Julia Child. During this episode, Julia explained the "in's and out's"of croissant-making, in a way that made the long laborious process seem effortless and fun! There are many steps to the recipe, and in between each step, the dough has to rest for 1-2 hours. The resting periods make this recipe take up to an entire day! However, the end results make it all worth it. These croissants are the flakiest, richest, and most delicious croissants I ever had...and fresh from my oven! 

I followed Julia Child's recipe from "The French Chef" television episode step-by-step, so I do not take credit for this recipe. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
(Makes 12 croissants)

Yeast mixture:
1/4 cup warm (not boiling!) water
1 package dry active yeast
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Dough:
2 cups flour (Julia uses a 2 part pastry flour to 1 part all-purpose flour mix; I only had all-purpose flour available and it turned out great)
4 teaspoons vegetable oil (2 teaspoons if using pastry flour)
1/2 cup tepid milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (4 oz.) cold butter (good quality makes a big difference!)

Egg wash:
1 egg
1 teaspoon water

The first step is to proof the yeast to make sure it is active before adding it to the dough. To do this, I mixed all of the ingredients listed above under "Yeast mixture" in a small cup and set that aside for 5 minutes. If after 5 minutes the mixture has begun to foam, the yeast is active. If not, you may want to check the expiration date or try making another mixture with a new packet of yeast.

Next, I made the dough by adding the flour, oil, milk, sugar, salt, and yeast mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl. I stirred the ingredients together with a spatula, just to combine, and then turned it out onto the counter to knead it. The dough is sticky at first, but as you knead it, it becomes less sticky and more elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 3-4 minutes, until it was fairly smooth, and then placed it in a clean bowl. I then cut a cross shape on the top of the dough as shown below, and then covered the bowl with plastic wrap and set it to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.

Ready to rise!

Once the dough has doubled in size (timing may differ depending on the temperature), I punched the dough down (removing the air), removed it from the bowl, and wrapped it in wax paper to refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Risen dough

The next step was incorporating the butter into the dough. I removed the butter from the refrigerator, placed it on a flat surface, and beat it with my rolling pin to make it pliable (yes, I know it sounds silly, but Julia did it!). The object is to make the butter smooth and pliable while keeping it cold.

Beating the butter

Next, I removed the dough from the fridge, rolled it into a small disc shape, and placed the butter on top of the center of the dough in a square shape.

I then brought up the four sides of the dough around the butter and pinched them together on top to form a square dough packet with the butter inside. I rolled the dough packet into a rectangle that was about 5" wide and 14" long. Be careful when rolling not to tear the dough. Use extra flour for dusting and pinch any openings that may appear!

The next step is to fold the dough into thirds, similar to how you would fold a letter. I brought the top edge down about 2/3 of the way, and then folded the bottom up. Then, I turned the dough 90 degrees so that I could begin rolling again. This is known as the first "turn."

First turn

I had to repeat the rolling out and folding process one more time for the second turn, and then took the folded dough, wrapped it in wax paper, and let it rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Resting allows the butter to stay cold and to rest the gluten, making it easier to roll.

After it had rested, I repeated the process again for another 2 turns (total of 4 turns), and set the folded dough in the refrigerator to rest for another 2 hours.

Finally, it was time to form the croissants! I buttered my baking sheet and set it aside, and then took the rested dough out of the refrigerator. I rolled the dough out into an even longer rectangle this time (about 20" long), and then cut it in half. I put one half back in the fridge to stay cold while I worked on one half.

I rolled one half of the dough out into a rectangle about 12" long, and then cut it into thirds.

I then rolled each third out a bit more, into a square, and then cut diagonally to make two triangles from each.

Using my hands, I then rolled each triangle up from the base of the triangle to the tip, forming the croissant shape. Be sure to keep the tip at the bottom so that the croissant doesn't open up while rising or baking.

Once I formed the croissants, I placed them on the buttered baking sheet, and set to work on the other half of the dough I had in the refrigerator. The croissants were then placed in a warm place to rise, uncovered again for another 45 minutes.

Ready to rise

At this point, I set my oven to preheat at 475F. Once the croissants had doubled in size (again, timing may vary, but be sure they have doubled before moving on!), I made the egg wash by whisking the egg together with the water in a small bowl. I then brushed the tops of the croissants with the egg wash.

I then placed the croissants in the oven to bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops were beautifully golden brown.

Once they were out of the oven, I placed them on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. This part felt like the longest! The apartment smelled like heaven!

Julia suggested eating the croissants with a bit of jam and a warm cup of cafe au lait, so that's just what I did! Bon appetit!

Strawberry and Nutella Stuffed French Toast

This recipe is great as a breakfast or as dessert! It includes two of my favorite things: strawberries and chocolate, and brings them together in a delectable creation. 

Ingredients:
     4 thick slices of challah or brioche bread (at least 1 1/2 inches thick)
     2 eggs
     1/2 cup milk
     1 tablespoon white sugar
     1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
     1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
     4 tablespoons Nutella (or any brand chocolate hazelnut spread)
     5-6 medium sized strawberries, washed, dried, and sliced thinly
     1-2 tablespoons butter
     confectioner's sugar, for dusting (optional)

To prepare the batter to dip the bread, whisk together the two eggs in a small mixing bowl. Add the milk, sugar, and extracts. Whisk until well combined, and pour into a shallow dish, large enough for at least one slice of bread to lay in it. Set aside.

To stuff the bread, take a bread knife and slice into the bottom side of a bread slice, forming a pocket. Slice until the pocket reaches almost from one end to the other, taking caution not to slice all the way through the other three sides. Using a butter knife, spread one tablespoon of Nutella inside the pocket. Gently lay strawberry slices on top of the Nutella. Repeat with the other 3 slices of bread.

Heat a skillet over low heat. Melt a little butter into the pan. Take one stuffed bread slice and place it into the batter. Let it soak for about 10 seconds on one side, and then flip it over and let the other side soak for about 10 seconds. If you like your toast more on the custard-y side, you can let it soak for a few more seconds on each side. Place the soaked bread onto the hot skillet. Let it cook over low heat for about 2 minutes on each side, or until each side is golden brown. Repeat with the remaining bread slices.

Place the french toast on a serving platter, and garnish with a dusting of confectioner's sugar and a sliced strawberry. Bon appétit!

French Toast with Caramelized Bananas and Walnuts

Since I've arrived back on the island from summer break, I've had a craving for french toast. I decided that I wouldn't make it until I had the time to enjoy making and eating it, and until I had all the right ingredients. Finding all the right ingredients is tough here, but it was a success! I found a lovely little bakery in the city of St. George's called The Merry Baker. It is owned and run by a friendly South African couple who agreed to bake me a fresh loaf of brioche (even though it wasn't one of their regular items). Once I had that, I had to decide what I would add to my french toast to take it to another level. I could not use that wonderful fresh bread on just a simple french toast. My first idea was to make an amaretto-flavored french toast, but I could not find a nice small bottle of amaretto here. The next idea was to top it with fresh berries, but as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are not grown locally, they are expensive and hard to find. I decided on the caramelized bananas since they can be found grown locally everywhere on the island. It was my first time making a caramel sauce, but it turned out to be easier than I expected and so delicious! 

Ingredients:
French Toast:
4 thick slices of brioche bread
2 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of almond essence (this can be substituted with an extra 1/4 tsp of vanilla)
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons of butter

Caramelized Banana and Walnut Topping:
2 ripe bananas, sliced thick at an angle
1/4 cup of walnuts
2 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of light brown sugar

To Make the French Toast:
Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, almond essence, and vanilla. Once they are well combined, pour the batter in a shallow dish large enough for dipping the bread slices. Place a slice of bread into the batter and let it soak for at least 30 seconds. Flip the bread over to let the other side soak. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of butter in a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat. Once it has melted, add the soaked slice of bread to the pan. Fry until that side is golden brown and flip, adding more butter if necessary. When both sides are nicely browned, the french toast is finished! Repeat with the remaining slices. You may serve this as is, or topped with syrup, fresh fruit, or powdered sugar.
*Note: French toast is best made with day old bread, so try to buy your bread a day ahead and it will be perfect when you are ready for it!

To Make the Caramelized Banana and Walnut Topping:
Melt the butter over medium heat in a small frying pan, and add the sliced bananas to the pan. Sprinkle in the sugar and flip the bananas, being careful not to cook them too much. Once the caramel sauce starts to bubble, add the walnuts and cook for a few more seconds. Remove from the heat and immediately spoon the topping over your french toast. 
*Be careful not to cook the caramel sauce too long or the sugar may re-crystallize and turn your sauce into candy.

 Beautiful brioche loaf

Nice thick slices

Mini Chocolate Chip Pancakes

This is your basic pancake recipe; the only difference is my choice of using almond essence as a flavoring instead of vanilla extract or spice. The pancakes my mom made at home always had the almond essence, so that is the flavor I grew up with. It was late afternoon, not morning, when I made these. I added chocolate chips and made them small so they were more like a sweet snack than breakfast. You can use this same recipe and omit the chocolate chips for plain pancakes, or add different ingredients like blueberries or mashed bananas to make other kinds of pancakes.

Ingredients:
     1 cup of all-purpose flour 
     1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
     2 tablespoons of white sugar
     pinch of salt
     1 egg
     5 oz (almost 3/4 cup) of milk
     1/4 teaspoon of almond essence 
     handful of chocolate chips (optional)
     butter or margarine for greasing the pan

(Note: This recipe makes 10-12 mini pancakes, double the recipe to make larger pancakes or more servings.)

Sift together the flour and baking powder into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Sifting makes it easier to whisk the batter and prevents too many lumps from forming. Add the sugar and salt, and mix. Add the egg, almond essence, and most of the milk. Whisk together until a smooth batter forms. Add the rest of the milk or more, if necessary, to create a batter that is thin enough to drop but not too watery. 

Before adding the milk

Batter after whisking

Heat a frying pan or griddle on medium heat, and grease with butter. Use a ladle to drop batter onto the pan in an amount according to how large you want the pancakes to be. Use the back of the ladle to spread the batter in a circular shape. Drop some chocolate chips onto each of the wet pancakes. Let them cook until bubbles start to form, and then flip. 

Pancakes ready to be flipped

Check to see when they can easily slide around the pan and the other side has turned golden brown. Remove the pancakes and place on a paper towel-lined plate, and continue until you have used up all of the batter. You can keep the pancakes warm in the oven at 175F if you are making a big batch. Enjoy!

Apple Crumble

Had a couple extra apples leftover from making a pitcher of sangria, so I decided to turn it into dessert. This crumble is delicious warm out of the oven, and it makes the house smell divine while baking in the oven. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce and you have a wonderfully scrumptious treat!

Ingredients:
Filling:
     2 apples (I used Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and sliced
     1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
     4 tablespoons of light brown sugar
     1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Topping:
     1 cup of all-purpose flour
     2/3 cup of light brown sugar
     1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter 
     1/4 cup of chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8 pan with butter and set aside. For the filling, sprinkle the one tablespoon of flour, four tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon over the apples. Toss them a bit and add them to the prepared pan. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the flour and sugar for the topping, and add the butter piece by piece, crumbling it into the flour mixture until it resembles bread crumbs. Add the pecans, if desired. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the apples in the pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling on the sides.

Scrumptious Banana Cake

I am so excited to share this recipe. The first time I made it, I ran around the house making everyone try it and they could not believe I made it from scratch. This is by far the BEST cake I have ever made...and I have made a good number of cakes, both from the box and from scratch. If you have ever had Entenmann's Banana Crunch Cake, this is pretty much a copycat recipe of that. The cake is soft, moist, and has the perfect balance of sweetness and banana flavor. Unlike banana bread, it is not dense; instead, it is very light and fluffy. It is easy to make, but it is important to keep the proportions of all the ingredients as close to the recipe as possible. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
     1 1/2 cup of very ripe bananas, mashed
     1 1/3 cup of white sugar
     1 cup of sour cream
     4 tablespoons of butter
     2 eggs
     1 teaspoon of almond essence (or vanilla extract)
     1 tablespoon of honey
     2 cups of all-purpose flour
     2 teaspoons of baking powder
     1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 9x13 pan and set it aside. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs. Use the mixer and beat it for at least 3 minutes to help make the batter a little fluffier. Add in the mashed bananas, honey, and almond essence (or vanilla extract). In a separate container, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add it little by little to the batter and beat until combined. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool, and then cover it with plastic wrap or store it in a container to keep it from drying out.

Note: I used to be tempted to add more banana than a recipe calls for to make it have a stronger banana flavor. However, doing this can mess with the texture of the cake, and can prevent it from rising fully and becoming fluffy.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

So I came to Grenada with a huge tub of peanut butter, and the only way I thought it was possible to finish it (or most of it, at least) was to bake with it. I got tired of baking peanut butter cookies, which for some reason never turned out right over here, so I went searching for something different. I came across a recipe for peanut butter bars and adjusted the ingredients to my taste and to what I had available to me at that time. It turned out delicious, almost like a peanut butter blondie. If you are a peanut butter lover, you are sure to enjoy this one!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3/4 cup of peanut butter

3/4 cup of light brown sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup) of margarine

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil, and grease with some butter. Mix together the dry ingredients and set aside. In another bowl, mix the peanut butter, sugar, and butter and beat until smooth (a blender would be useful here, but I had to use my hands). Mix in the egg and vanilla, then add the dry ingredients a little at a time until it is all incorporated. 

Take about 1/4 of the dough and place it in the freezer for a couple of minutes while you put the rest of it together. Add the remaining dough to the pan, and press down so that it evenly covers the bottom of the pan. Spread the strawberry jam evenly on top of the dough. Next, remove the dough from the freezer and crumble it over the jam layer. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Allow it to cool first, and then cut it into squares. 

Nutella and West Indian Cherry-filled Crepes

When I do chocolate in desserts, I sometimes like to add fruit like strawberries or raspberries. The acidity of the fruit helps to cut some of the rich sweetness of the chocolate and help to balance out the flavor of the dessert as a whole. Strawberries are not grown in Grenada, and therefore are expensive and difficult to find. So instead, I used a set of cherries I had bought at the local market. The West Indian cherries are a bit more tart than the cherries you will find in the U.S., so they were a good match for the sweet Nutella. Also, I chose to use almond essence instead of the usual vanilla extract for these, as that is my mother's choice when she makes pancakes. Either would work just as well, but the almond essence reminds me of home. The crepes can be made in advance, but hold out on filling them until right before they will be served.

Crepes:
Ingredients:
     1 1/2 cups of flour
     1 tbsp white sugar
     1/2 tsp baking powder
     2 cups of milk
     1/2 tsp almond essence
     2 eggs
     2 tbsp butter
Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, and baking powder), and then add the milk, essence, and eggs. Continue whisking until the batter is smooth. Butter a 6-8 inch skillet and place it over a medium fire. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the heated skillet, then immediately lift the pan and swirl the batter around to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook for a few seconds until that side is light brown, and then flip to cook the other side. Remove the crepe from the pan, and follow the same steps with the rest of the batter. Cover the crepes to prevent them from becoming hard.

Filling:
Ingredients:
     1 small container of Nutella
     1 cup of sliced cherries (or whatever fruit you like)
Spoon about 2 tbsp of Nutella in a line down the center of the crepe. Sprinkle with the sliced fruit and fold the two empty sides of the crepe over the middle part with the filling. Flip the filled crepe over, drizzle with heated Nutella or melted chocolate, and garnish with some of the fruit pieces. Serve immediately.