I find few breakfasts more stimulating than those I quickly improvise with freshly baked croissants. Fragile in texture, almost ethereal, with a pronounced buttery flavor and a weight close to 80 grams, my favorite size so as not to fill me up too much. What characteristics do quality croissants have? We are talking about small treasures of traditional pastries, golden pieces with marked indentations in their crust that ring in contact with the hand and crunch at the first bite. Inside, a soft and spongy dough full of countless alveoli scattered due to the effect of the puff pastry. Pieces that are not related to those elongated or crescent-shaped buns, generally caked dough, lousy brioches that taste like margarines and hydrogenated fats of unknown nature, fake croissants, in mini or giant size, that proliferate in so many breakfasts. hotel. Or, worse still, those weightless and tasteless pieces, light as air, bathed in sticky syrups with strange aftertastes, decorated with certain frostings.
Fortunately, Spanish pastry shops and bakeries that make butter croissants continue to rise, pur beurre, as the French affirm, in whose country they constitute a kind of religion.
For what reasons have today's croissants abandoned their past half-moon shape? I have asked myself on several occasions. “The peaks harm the puff pastry. They are the narrowest portions of the pieces that end up burning in the oven,” responds Jordi Gallés, owner of the Fripan company. “To some extent they break the puff pastry when folding it and dry out a few hours after baking. When they are omitted, their cooking is much more uniform,” later confirms pastry chef Ricardo Vélez, from Moulin Chocolat. “The results of a good croissant are influenced by the quality and quantity of the butter used, and the characteristics of the flours, always of medium strength, so that the layers do not break during puff pastry. As important as fermentation times and temperatures. It is not at all easy to make truly high-quality artisan croissants,” he continues.
I assume the technical reasons that have caused the evolution of croissants, the pride of European pastry, but I cannot erase from my memory with a certain nostalgia the past crescent-shaped pieces that are supposed to have been created in Vienna in 1683 during the attempt to siege of Ottoman Empire troops stuck in front of the city wall. It is a story involving Viennese bakers. Thanks to the nocturnal nature of their work, they detected dull knocks that echoed under the vaults of their ovens. Warning signs of the tunnel drilling works that the Ottoman militias were drilling in their attempt to build an underground corridor that would give them access to the heart of Vienna. Professionals who alerted the forces of the Count of Starhemberg, defender of the square, who ended up frustrating the efforts of the assailants. In reward, those sagacious bakers were awarded multiple privileges. Reason for rejoicing for the artisans of the guild who, among the outpourings of their euphoria, would have created two new breads, the emperor and the croissant (crescent moon), icon stamped on the flag of the defeated army. Some rolls that Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI and Austrian by birth, tried in vain to introduce into France and that only under the reign of Louis Philippe achieved popularity in Paris, already as flaky pastries and late in the first third of the century. XIX. A whimsical story that is not entirely original to the extent that half-moon breads inspired by astral religions appear documented in the bakery of Rome many centuries ago.
When it comes to assembling my breakfasts, I use croissants in two ways: as rolls that I fill to nibble like the best of sandwiches, or as if they were sandwiches, open and toasted that, once filled, I taste in the plate with knife and fork. I have fun exchanging ingredients, sweet and savory, meats, cold cuts and sausages, and also cheeses, smoked foods and canned fish. Eggs play a fundamental role in my repertoire. I prepare them poached, in potato omelette, French style or scrambled. And also fried with lace, which I use as a filling with thin slices of chorizo, salchichón or ham. I love the green asparagus tips and the sprouts of young garlic with the scrambled eggs and even the piparras sautéed briefly with sausages. And of course I thoroughly enjoy enclosing the eggs in a croissant. benedict with bacon or smoked salmon (eggs royal) whose recipes I documented in a previous article. A single requirement is mandatory when thinking about possible combinations: in no case must the ingredients have textures more resistant than the croissants in which they are enclosed. They must be soft fillings that do not dissolve the continent at the first bite. The list of my favorites stretches daily: stuffed with sobrasada and anchovies; Galician cream cheese and Bologna mortadella; of spreadable cheese paste and bitter orange marmalade; with avocado, smoked salmon and grilled egg; with grated tomato and ham…
The harmonies are endless. Let no one ask me for quantities, proportions They are subject to personal tastes. There are few things more fun than putting aside routine and applying a certain imagination to breakfast.
Croissant stuffed with scrambled green asparagus
When preparing dishes with them, these pieces of flaky pastries can be used in two ways: as stuffed rolls to nibble on like the best of sandwiches, or as if they were sandwiches, open and toasted.
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