Julia Child and French Cuisine

I've been reading My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme, and I am LOVING it! She had such a vivid memory of the life she led in France and the meals she ate and made. It is delightful to read about how genuinely excited she was by all the people she got to interact with and how hard she worked to master not just cooking but everything that made her feel more French - the language, habits, a way of looking at the world through a not-so-American lens.

I am about a third of the way through the book, but of course, I had to take a mini-break from it to watch Julie & Julia so I could get some wonderful Parisian scenery and Nora Ephron dialogue. And to ogle the food in that movie. I wanted to eat everything.

Which reminds me! I made croissants from scratch this weekend. The whole process took three days and more space than my NYC apartment really has, but je ne regrette rien! They turned out flaky and delicious. I made nine croissants and six pain au chocolat, but there are substantially fewer of each kind of pastry in my home now.

Tips for making croissants!

• Plan ahead! Letting the dough rest properly requires a lot of time (two separate nights in your fridge, so make room!).
• Make space! In addition to the room the dough will need in your fridge, you may also want to make space in your freezer between rounds of laminating (rolling out and folding the dough) to cool it quickly so the butter doesn't melt within the dough. This keeps your croissants from getting greasy and flat. Also, you're going to need a long working surface as you have to roll the dough out thin, narrow, and long for cutting out your croissants.
• Have fun stuff on hand! You're making a tricky dough that takes a lot of time and energy. Now is your chance to play. Have good, dark chocolate ready to go! Put ham and cheese in some! Variety is the spice of life/baked goods.
• Parchment paper! I love parchment paper like it is my job to love parchment paper. I spread it on my work surface for easier clean up. I put it in the bottom of my pans and cookie sheets before they go in the oven. It keeps the bottoms of your baked goods nicer and washing up pans and cookie sheets is MUCH easier if your line with parchment paper. Plus, it looks so old school when you take photos of your finished products. ;)

It was an oh-so-French weekend, and even though my pants are a little tighter than I'd like, I wouldn't change a thing about it!