When I want to dazzle someone, I make croissants. There is something timeless and classic about the carefully baked, soft layers imbued with buttery richness, and you can take them in many directions - savory by adding herbs, sweet by adding chocolate. You can nibble them as they are, with an exquisite side of java, or turn them into sandwiches for eggs, cheeses or smoked meats - even into tiny appetizers.
Homemade croissants taste and feel like nothing you get at the grocery store, which tend to be airy, crackly, and lacking in depth of flavor. The real thing is the real thing, a difference the tastebuds gleefully acknowledge and pass on straight to the soul.
Once you've introduced them to a friend, they'll throw open their doors and slap your back if they know you're coming with a basketful of croissants and a little champagne. That's how I like to visit Ellen Christine Millinery in New York - with croissants, champagne and thirst for one of Ellen's latest hat designs. Imagine trying on hats while seeing yourself in a mirror, a croissant in one hand and a champagne flute in the other. This is the essence of "Live, Live!" as Rosalind Russell exhorted in "Auntie Mame." Life is a banquet, and so on, and so on.
Before you ask me for croissants, know this: I need 3 days. I prefer more time, because the dough develops even more flavor essence if you give it time in the freezer. The French have always known this, and I suspected as much myself when I confirmed it with Joe Ortiz, who has been perfecting the art of baking bread since the 70s, when he and his wife, Gayle, opened Gayle's Bakery in Capitola, California. (http://www.gaylesbakery.com/index.html)
Joe stands alongside Julia Child in the book "Baking With Julia" with his recipe for Pain de Campagne, and this baker, author and musical show thinker-upper is a perennial favorite at the Maui Writers Conference. His own book "The Village Baker" and Gayle's book "The Village Baker's Wife" are both back in print. If you're serious about making bread with patience, enthusiasm and excellence, these are must-haves in your collection. Joe also told me that he has a new musical called "Smoke: A One-Woman Cabaret" running until Oct. 3 up in San Francisco. A guy who is an artisanal bread master and a musical theater lyricist? My instincts say "Check this out!" See the website for more information(http://www.gaylesbakery.com/smoke/index.html).
Next post, I'll give you the croissant recipe from "The Village Baker's Wife," the one I use especially for my friend Ellen, the Hattie Golightly of Manhattan. I added the picture of the lillies here because they look like something Ellen could use on one of her creations. They're beautiful, she's beautiful, croissants are beautiful.
Making croissants is a lengthy process, so you need a day just to digest what I'm telling you here. And yes, I've got some croissant dough chilling in the fridge that's waiting for me, do you mind?
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