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"Welcome to The French Chef, I'm Julia Child.
"We're going to make french croissants today.
"They're used in France mostly for petit déjeuner [breakfast]."
Petit déjeuner!
Hey guys, salut [hi], this is Alex. So pleased to be back on the channel.
You got this. We are making croissants.
This is THE series I've been waiting for. Lets start.
Spoiler alert: I have never ever made a croissant before.
And I think that's the most beautiful of this series, as you and I are probably standing in the same shoes.
(Unless, of course, you are a French pâtissier [pastry chef])
You're going to learn something as I'm learning it
The whole point of this series is not only to make a good croissant, but lets face it: to make a great croissant.
I... I understand that we need to set the... referential first, so follow me.
Voilà. This is a random croissant, but still, this is...
Um...
This is a "fair" croissant. But most importantly, this is probably the croissant you've been exposed to.
Especially if you live abroad. I mean, outside of France. Obviously. Since I'm—
Okay, let's get a bit technical with this one.
125 mm long... 72 mm wide
43 grams ...
I mean, to be honest, it doesn't look bad. There is a bit of shine on top. It's not crispy. It's mostly soft.
*sniff* It smells yeasty. Let's crack it open
You can see the different layers inside.
But, to be honest, they are a bit dry.
If you try to unwrap it, it does unwrap.
It shouldn't. It should just turn into a flakey mess.
Also, yes, I'm definitely getting...
...uhh, a slight, you know, distant, very remote, croissant vibe somewhere.
But I'm definitely not getting THE croissant experience.
I should probably go and get a real croissant, huh? Yes.
Monsieur, bonjour. [Sir, hello]
Bonjour, je prend un croissant s’il vous plaît. [Hello, I'd like to buy a croissant please.]
Voilà. [There you are]
Merci beaucoup. Bonne journée. [Thank you very much. Have a good day.]
Merci, au revoir. [Thank you, goodbye.]
So I just went into a classic boulangerie [bakery] in Paris. I've got myself a good solid croissant.
How can you know what a great croissant is if you never saw one?
Ok, right, I guess it's sponsor time.
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let's get back to the crispy business.
Now this...
...is what I call a croissant.
*laughs*
*crispy sounds*
Ah! This is totally orgasmic.
Outrageous smell of butter, like that, you know, soft, mellow, reassuring, comforting.
This is just memory to me.
Let's get technical.
Wow! 166 ...
in length. 90 millimeters wide.
The view I get right there is just absolutely stunning.
All those beautiful layers, spread like if they were stairs to heaven.
That's how I speak to my croissant in the morning.
47 millimeters high... 65 grams
It's definitely longer.
A bit wider. Not so much higher
But definitely heavier, as well.
The anatomy of the croissant is quite simple, but it needs to be specified anyway.
You've got the main body in the center.
You've got the folds.
One, two, three, four folds.
Which makes for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven different parts. Seven is the classic.
Each fold being made of several different layers of dough. I'm not sure if I can count them.
Maybe I can. Hold on a second.
So around 13-14, maybe, per fold.
And then you've got my favorite part of the croissant.
The most, crispy part of the croissant called the ear.
It's like the sot-l'y-laisse [oyster] of a chicken.
You know what I mean?
*laughs* It's time to slice it open. That's why I'm excited.
*crispy crunching sounds*
*giggling*
Oh la vache [Holy cow]! I love croissant.
This is pure refinement. This is finesse.
*crispy sounds*
Finesse with a kilo of butter. But still finesse!
One of the beauties of a croissant stands in the contrast between the outer layers and the inner layers.
The outer layers are crispier, lighter, more caramelized.
And the inner layers are just softer, moister.
One thing worth mentioning is that it's not salty, it's not sweet, it's somewhere in between.
The line is delicate. As delicate as those beautiful flakes everywhere.
If your croissant is not messy,
it's not gonna be a good croissant.
You don't wanna be fooled by its apparent simplicity.
A croissant still is one of the most intimidating, daunting, and technical French pastry ever.
The croissant dough is in fact a hybrid between bread dough and puff pastry.
It's known as a layered yeast-leavened puff pastry.
That croissant dough is super specific in the sense that it's a sandwich between
a leavened dough (like a bread dough) and butter... Obviously.
So that sandwich dough is then folded on itself several times.
And that is responsible for the amazing puff you get at the end.
There are mainly two reasons for that.
The first one is that those dough layers will rise during fermentation, just because of the yeast activity.
And this butter layer will vaporize during baking time, creating spaces in between the layers.
And that's how you the magical puffiness of a croissant.
Besides mastering this complicated dough, there's a sh*t-ton amount of variables that have
a tremendous impact on the end product.
The time of flour, butter, puffing time, resting time, baking time.
Dah! Some times I'm asking "Why?
Why, why am I doing this to myself?"
Okay, whatever, in the next video I'll give it a go with
simple ingredients that everybody can get from the supermarket.
Am I scared? Yes. Am I nervous? Yes. Will I do it?
Take care. Bye bye, salut [bye].