Baking Homemade Croissants

Let's take a moment to celebrate the wonderful world of butter and flour all perfectly layered for that light flaky temptation. For that special Sunday morning or weekend brunch nothing can top homemade croissants. But, what ingredients are needed? How long does the dough take to rise to get them just right? Which type of baking pan do you use?

My wife makes the most delicious croissants and I am skilled at making them disappear- a great team as far as I'm concerned! But, how does she do it? I decided it would be fun to find out and take croissant crash course 101. Homemade croissants are definitely an adventure, but the results are worth the effort.

The ingredients are simple flour, sugar, salt, milk, eggs and a heap of butter. The only thing I'm not too familiar with is yeast. The one connection I can make to yeast is beer! I could use one of those...

You don't need a lot of kitchen utensils for this recipe - A Large mixing bowl, stainless steel saucepan, cookie sheet or rimmed jelly roll pan, and electric mixer. Cathy has tried several types of baking pans- aluminum, dark coated , and non-stick. But the ones that she likes the best are a professional quality stainless steel cookie sheet or tri-ply jelly roll pan.The even temperature and shiny surface of the pans make them perfect for baking.

It's a little time consuming waiting for the dough to rise and chilling the dough overnight. But, it was fun working together. We woke up not so early on Sunday morning and finished making our croissants, After baking them to a golden brown we enjoyed our masterpieces with summer berries, homemade strawberry jam and coffee on our sunny patio. The extra time and effort was well worth it. What a glorious Sunday morning we had!!

If there any leftovers, they freeze beautifully for about a month. And, you can use them for sandwiches of all kinds or just with jam for another glorious Sunday.