Everytime I watch a culinary show on tv, I get incited to pick up my cooking hat and whip up something delicious in my kitchen. It’s this short burst of enthusiasm activated by those lively colours, fancy presentation and experienced chefs who make the food seem heavenly, that pushes me to get into my culinary zone. It may be something simple and non-complicated that I may wish to prepare but those tv shows have glamorized food to such an extent that I feel silly to settle for some easy cooking. I hence set out for a challenging, extremely ambitious cooking adventure that will ultimately test my mental and physical patience. If you are wondering how cooking something can make you sound like a Titan Games’ survivor,you have obviously not tried making chocolate croissants!
Croissants are a type of puff pastry of European origin. As pretty as the name sounds and as delicate as it looks, beware the monstrosity that goes into cooking it. It takes a minimum of 24-28 hours to prepare it from scratch. Though you are not cooking it straight for that many hours, you are expected to be around the subject within regular intervals of time. The dough we use here is to be subjected to as much torture as possible. The dough principle to be adopted here is flattening, folding, refrigerating and repeat. Let me highlight that each time it is refrigerated, the folds would have increased and the dough would have coagulated to a united mass that refuses to flatten. With my mighty flabby arms I apply my upper body power onto the rolling pin to flatten the dough. It’s quite a scene to watch me at work. What’s funnier is that inside this dough is butter that would have solidified with the dough and each time you roll and the dough reluctantly flattens, the butter inside becomes quickly uncooperative by flattening out faster than the dough and oozing out from all sides and mocking at how silly I look trying to manage the mix. I obviously become heartbroken thinking I would not be able to click drool-worthy pictures of my croissants (which is easily 20 hours away from the step I was doing then) but then I muster my strength thinking of all the master chefs who have paraded around umpteen number of travel channels and continue to build my muscles, or in other words, continued with the flattening. The best part about this process is that you get a break of two hours after all the tiresome flattening before you go at it all over again.
27 folds and 24 hours later, the dough is ready for its last flattening which are then cut into little triangles and individually rolled from the base to the tip ensuring tiny chocolate pieces are neatly tucked in. These rolled units are coated and placed in the oven to cook. I anxiously wait peeping into the glass door of the oven to see how they magically rise and start turning brown. The aroma that slowly fills the kitchen is reassuring and I breathe a sigh of relief. Before my fate turns awry and the croissants burn, I take them out and keep it aside for cooling. At the end of this long ordeal I click few pictures of these shrimp-shaped croissants and I taste them. My god, they are delicious! I roll my eyes and smack my lips the exact way the celebrity chefs do when they taste something unique and exquisite.
Yes, I am elated at my cooking and my friends love it too. Will I ever invest 26 hours in cooking a single dish again in the future? Sure,why not? But, let’s take a break for 2 months before you ask me to. What will I do the next time I see something amazing being cooked on tv? I go to the kitchen, take two slices of bread and sandwich a layer of cheese in between. Voila! A simple cheese sandwich tastes great too. I may roll my eyes at this.
The shrimp-shaped croissants were indeed yummy and filling, was wort for the efforts u put but now only cheese sandwich 🙁 🙁 🙁
Thank you Anu! I’ll make a fancy cheese sandwich for you 🙂