Croissants have become so synonymous with breakfast that they have almost transcended their French origins. They can be found in any hotel from the five star to the unclassified and even our local Tesco sells some mass-produced, hydrogenated stuffed croissant like things. They have been used and abused, fiddled with and taken for granted. And yet ... and yet, we still love them. Fluffy and buttery with yet more butter smeared over them with a liberal helping of jam, there's nothing quite like it.
Now anyone reading this may be thinking; "Gosh, isn't that fiddly? Wouldn’t that take ages? My word, what patience she must have!" and of course you'd be right - about it being fiddly of course. I, however, do not have the patience to embark on such a crusade. Besides, it wasn't my turn this week, it was Ax's. As the fully trained chief in the house and myself a mere amateur, I leave the really complicated stuff for her cut and bruised, artistic hands.
The recipe came from a book I was lucky enough to buy last week when we visited the Taste Festival (lots of fun btw - I now have this great desire to visit Le Gavroche as we enjoyed their food so much). In honour of our breakfast traditions I bought a copy of "Breakfast at the Wolseley" by Mr. A.A. Gill. Expect a lot of the breakfast series to be taken from the book, I would certainly recommend reading what he says about the bastardisation of our illustrious friend the croissant by a multitude of cultures. But I digress ... rather a lot really ... so let’s get on to our breakfast and Ax's Croissants.
Ax spent the entire week working on a multitude of batches for this one, the first batch she wasn’t happy with as she didn’t allow the yeast to fully dissolve but the second got her approval. That is until we discovered just how fragile the dough was. A little tip, when the dough is going through its final rise it is so sensitive that even the barest hint of the weight of a tea towel will traumatise them so much that they will retreat in terror and stubbornly shrink to the thickness of a pancake. However, I was much impressed with the end result of the final batch; they were fluffy, buttery, ever so slightly creamy and a tad of crisp resistance that succumbs to your first bite to release a pillow of buttery yummyness.
(... I apologise for the ramble-ness of this post- old woman that I am, it was getting a tad late for me)
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