Back to Basics: Croissants

Making croissants has always seemed like a daunting task to me. Pounding butter into a square, freezing, folding, turning, head-spinning confusion, not to mention the seemingly endless waiting periods in between turning. But, I decided to finally just go for it. Go hard or go home, right? I figured if they failed, they'd still be nice....dinner rolls? In the end they came out beautifully! Buttery and flaky and all things croissants should taste like. I'll be honest....all I wanted was to snuggle and eat some warm croissants and jam and watch tv. 

I started them on a gloomy Wednesday afternoon. I don't have class on Wednesdays so I thought I could start a habit of starting one blog post and working out. (Hint: only one of those actually came to fruition). I was inspired by topwithcinnamon's post on how to make croissants here and her gifs are probably one of the smartest things to come to food blog posts. Topwithcinnamon is one of my favorite baking/food blogs as of late. I can't get enough of her beautiful photography and gifs. If I had the patience to make those gifs, they'd be all over this blog. Anyways,  I never really understood the whole turning business but looking at her short clips helped. I also loved the rustic, boulangerie look of her croissants. Sadly, I don't think I put enough egg wash on mine so they came out more golden brown (which I am totally fine with!)

Alright, enough rambling. That's not what you're here for anyway, right? Well, here ya go. 

Confession time: I didn't follow the recommended refrigerator time of an hour between each turn to allow the butter to stay cold. I also didn't refrigerate them overnight....or let them rise...
Wow, I'm surprised that these even turned out. Not as many layers as expected but still a good amount! 

Struggles of not having a fully furnished college apartment part I: not having a rolling pin and having to use a saran-wrapped bottle of wine.

Hope you enjoyed some of this baking porn. Head over to topwithcinnamon's recipe HERE for her intensely documented recipe and directions and beautiful pictures.