I may mention the movie, It’s Complicated in at least one conversation I have with you at some point, because I LOVE that movie. I may not be the demographic they were targeting, but I find this movie to be hilarious and a half. But the thing I like the most about it is the beautiful serene set design and the fact that it makes me hungry! Give me any movie about food or cooking and I’ll swoon.
The scene that I could not get out of my head was when Steve Martin asked Meryl Streep to make him a “warm chocolate croissant” in her bakery. In culinary school, I learned how to make puff pastry dough, which required tons of butter, made into a square and lots of rolling of the pastry by hand, over the course of several days. I am in no way in the mood for any of that nonsense, especially when I want my warmed chocolate croissant NOW.
Enter a trip to Trader Joe’s when I spy a gleaming box of frozen bake-at-home chocolate croissants. Before I know it, I’m standing in line with nothing more than this box.
When I opened my present I was shocked to see 4 skinny sad logs half stuck to each other, but quickly read to see that they needed time to rise and double in size.
And boy did they ever! Poofy and cute!
Now, I followed the directions on the box, and I believe they recommended adding an egg wash, although not necessary, but I don’t remember. In any case, that’s what I decided to do, since I do this with any pastry I bake, including Pilsbury biscuits.
The smell of them baking was intoxicating and Joe stuck his head out of the office to say, “mmm… smells good.” I was practically salivating when they were done and expecting an oozing gush of chocolate to come out of the warm flaky pastry…
But I was let down. After the first bite, we soon realized that the croissant was almost hollow with somewhat dry, yet tasty chocolate. Maybe I just don’t know what a chocolate croissant is supposed to really be like. Maybe they’re not supposed to ooze like lava from a chocolate molten cake, but nevertheless, Joe and I were disappointed about it. BUT that’s as far as our disappointment went.
In the end, they were still delicious, buttery, flaky, crispy, chewy and light- as light as a buttery flaky pastry could be, with a good dark chocolate inside. It was nice to pull it straight from the hot oven to mouth in a matter of minutes and wash it down with some hot coffee. Verdict is: I would definitely buy them again.
peace out for now,
julie
