An European Affair

Who would ever thought yeast could be added to pastry dough! It is said that Croissants are the descendants of Kipferi, which originated from Austria. Croissants, pronounced s "Kwa-sont", means crescent in French and are essentially layered yeast leavened dough. The addition of yeast and lamination of fats help produce a flaky and buttery yet chewy texture. 

The method of making Croissants are pretty much like those of puff pastry; yeast is used to make a bread dough which then undergoes fat lamination process. Each folding requires 10 minutes of chilling time in the fridge; once the dough is ready, it is cut into diamond shapes and folded into a crescent form.

Croissant in the Making

In order to give the Croissant some flavour and colour, we topped the unbaked Croissant with some shredded cheddar. The Croissant tasted über good, straight out of the oven! It was crispy yet had the chewy texture of a bread. 

Pardon my ugly looking Croissants, much practice is needed

We spent the afternoon making Danish Pastries which are pretty similar to the Croissant dough. The Danishes were piped with bake-able custard and was topped with canned fruits and/or pastry cream. I thought the Danishes were pretty good albeit a tad to oily for my liking.

Danish with Custard

Cutting and shaping 

Folding of Danish

Peach Danish