Croissants Revisited and a meme

A few weeks ago, when I ventured into the world of croissants, I decided to put 4 into the freezer to see how well they'd freeze as well as any other complications that would arise from thawing and proofing them after freezing.

Yesterday after we got back from a late morning hike, I decided to pull them out and have a go at figuring out what would happen. When I worked at the bakery, we'd take out our IQF sandwich croissant dough out toss them on a parchment lined pan and thaw/proof them in a steam box. When they were 'jiggly' they were ready to go into the oven.

Keeping this knowledge in mind, I put the plug in my sink so that it would drain very slowly. I then put a rectangular cake pan in bottom side up, so that I had a platform in the middle of my sink I pulled the frozen criossants out of the freezer, plopped them onto a parchment lined pan and placed the pan on the 'platform.' I filled the sink with hot water about halfway up the side of the turned over pan and then covered the sink opening with a garbage bag that was pulled taut and anchored down at each corner.

After 20 minutes, I checked to see how the croissants were doing. They were definitely thawing and proofing, and the water was nearly gone, so I filled it up again, replaced the plastic and let them go another 20 minutes or so. When I pulled them out they looked like this:


I wasn't expecting so much better to weep out, but I wasn't overly concerned considering how much butter was actually in them. I imagine that the weeping was resultant from the 'heat' of the steam box, when I had somewhat limited control over. I washed them with an egg/cream mixture, and baked them for god knows how long as you can see here:


I blame WoW (world of warcraft for those of you lucky enough not to know).... I got distracted playing the game, but luckily caught the croissants before they were burnt to a crisp! Note to self.... (yes, I have a lot of these) - don't play WoW when doing any kind of cooking.

They weren't inedible, just extra dark, which I didn't mind. They had a yeastier smell than what I could remember of the original. Straight out of the oven they tasted okay, but as they cooled they definitely became the flavorful, light, buttery rolls of heavenly goodness their earlier siblings were:



My husband thought they were great, and considering how simple it was to take them from freezer to plate, whipping up a batch and freezing them is definitely on the list of must dos sometime in the next month of two.

Now to the meme - Ashley of Memoirs from My Kitchen graced me with a meme today! So first some rules:

#Link to the person who tagged you.
# Post the rules on the blog.
# Write six random things about yourself.
# Tag six people at the end of your post.
# Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
# Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Now that's out of the way - Six random things about me:

1. I play violin.
2. I have an Aussie named Kramer. He's probably smarter than me, but he can't cook nearly as well!
3. I love cheese, especially most varieties of blue cheese.
4. I have a secret obsession relating to all things macaron.
5. I gave the first boy who kissed me a black eye when we were in kindergarten.

Now for my victims! I tag fellow Daring Baker Freshmen:

Kelly from Another Baking Blog
Lauren from I'll Eat You
George from Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess
Alexis from Baking to De-stress
Ruth at Adventures in Amateur Baking & Cooking
Temperance at High on the Hog

The meme is sent to y'all in good fun and I thought it would be cool to tag other newbies to the Daring Bakers ranks! Welcome guys and great job with the first challenge - hope we all can keep it up!