Buh-Bye, Mubarak - What's Next?? CROISSANTS!

BREAKING BREAD BREAKING NEWS - MUBARAK STEPS DOWN!
Let's bake and celebrate with Croissants and discuss timeliness....
With our minds and hearts in Egpyt, it is easy to get caught up in the urgency we read in Tweets, the stress in the voices of those being interviewed and the impatience that we all feel with Mubarak ignoring the wishes of the people. However, one thing that everyone must understand is that we have to show patience in these trying times. We have to have calm decisions and clear direction in Egypt and that comes with well thought out planning and vision, not rash decision making.
Consider the French Revolution, it was three years from the UPrising to the creation of their new republic and four years to the "removal" of their leader, Louis XVI. Rome wasn't built in a day and a government shouldn't be, either.
In this age of Twitter and Facebook, the youth of Egypt and the world watching want instant gratification with this UPrising, the same kind we get when our Facebook posts get a lot of likes, or when our Tweets are re-Tweeted. Maybe in this instance, we should slow our pace and change our expectations. But of course, never give up what is RIGHT. Prosecute Mubarak, give his wealth back to the people, remove Suleiman, elect a fair leader. With grace. 

 While we wait, let's bake something from France. But of course, CROISSANT!

UPrising

France is famous for their pastries and the first thing I ate upon my arrival was a delicious croissant. The evaporation of the water in the butter, the layers and layers and layers, the way they tear apart, cracking open to let out their magical, steamy perfume. There is nothing like it. A known lover of all things French, it is a wonder that I, Chef Guavara,  have not yet tried this at home. The idea of it was daunting!  Plan for a two day process, and if you are having them for breakfast, you will love this recipe!

The fun and exciting part is the BUTTER. The recipe here used more butter than I did, I used only 3/4 pound. Browsing through recipes, it seems that there is  kind of a contest to see how much butter one can smash into a croissant. Although I did use less, they were absolutely scrumptious.

CROISSANTS RECIPE LINK:

Tracy's Culinary Adventure


I used this recipe because I thought Tracy did an excellent job of showing the process and her instructions were easy to follow from a recipe by James Peterson from his book, Baking. I am also linking to her because the instructions are super long.

All of the pics on this page were of our own creation. No mixer and less butter being the only difference besides practice and technique. Does anyone want to do the math and tell us how many layers are in this thing? (Yes, we already did the math, but it is fun to figure out. You will be surprised. Learn.)

I am sure these could have been more beautiful, but as this is a blog about LEARNING, our baking skills are a work in progress.