Autumn: Sunsets, rocky shores, pumpkins, baking and more!

It’s my time of year! Cool nights, sunny skies, autumn colors appearing - I’ll take it.

The last week of September Steve and I had a wonderful driving trip to Michigan’s upper peninsula. We made it all the way to Copper Harbor, the northern most town in Michigan at the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Our lodging for four nights was just outside the small town of L’Anse at the base of the Keweenaw and right on the “Big Lake” itself. Our first sunset was stunning!

A work of art!

After exploring and visiting various U.P. sites for a few days we headed west over to Wisconsin into Minnesota and down to Minneapolis to visit niece Rachel and family for a couple of nights. Then a brief one nighter in Lake-in-the-Hills IL to see Steve’s brother Greg and his wife Joyce before returning to Grand Rapids. Many miles traveled, many hours in the car and well worth it.

Here’s just one view of the rocky, rugged Lake Superior shore line along the Keweenaw.

While I’ve not posted much this past summer, I’ve recently been prepping for a few upcoming classes including one of my faves - croissants. After a number of months without laminated dough projects it feels great to go through the steps again and anticipate the end result.

Typically when I teach a croissant class, I plan to have baked croissants available to demonstrate making croissant aux amandes, a huge favorite.

Croissants destined for “amandes”

A cool (and practical) thing to do when making laminated dough is to use the trimmings from the edges (I trim to neaten the dough layers while going through the process of folds and turns) and make “squiggle buns”. Using about 50 g of dough per “squiggle”, loosely place a tangle of dough scrap strips into muffin papers and let them rise an hour or so. Then (this time) I topped them with dots of butter, some chocolate pearls and a sprinkle of raw sugar.

Bake at 350ºF about 15-20 minutes until golden. Then drizzle caramel over the tops, pop ‘em back into the oven for a few minutes to set the caramel. Et voilà!

A delicious dessert treat one evening

One recent beautiful afternoon we popped over to Meijer Gardens to check out the bonsai show. Here are a couple of images of the entrance area all gussied up for autumn.

For another upcoming class, scones and teacakes are in process as well.

Love these lemon scones!

Here’s my favorite cheese braid to accompany bowls of chili with neighbors. Yum!

Bottom line? Bake your little heart out and enjoy the season!

At our local Fulton Farmers Market

Providence croissant tasting

The photo above is a freshly baked batch of The French Tarte’s croissants. As a followup to my croissant project making Philippe Conticini’s croissants from his tome La Pâtisserie des Rêves, I decided to do a tasting of croissants from some local Providence purveyors. I trekked around the city on a beautiful autumn morning recently and picked up croissants from Olga's, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain and Seven Stars to face off with those I made from La Pâtisserie des Rêves, as well as my own from The French Tarte.

Here’s the assortment - interesting eh?

I know I've included only a fraction of the croissants one can find in this city, but those which I highlight here are within walking distance of my home. And I love walking!!

What does one look for in a croissant, you might ask? For me it's the nicely browned appearance, that just right heft when you pick it up, the exterior crispiness and fragility which causes golden shards to shower down as you bite into it and the buttery, airy yet bodied layered interior.

Let's take them one by one.

First up, Olga's:

Just looking at this one makes me feel heavy; cutting yielded minimal crumb without any flaky shards; the interior is heavy and bready without any airiness; the texture is doughy, like an average roll, with a dull, non-buttery flavor and unappealing mouth feel.  

Next, Au Bon Pain, Westminster St. (financial district).

When I asked the staff where their croissants were made, they reported "we bake them here".  They receive them frozen and ready for the oven.

The look is appealing; cutting yielded some crisp flaking of the exterior; the interior has nice airy laminations and it feels light in the hand; the taste isn't bad but is lacking in rich, buttery goodness or that freshly made mouth feel. 

OK, so next up was Seven Stars on Broadway:

Cutting demonstrated some nice exterior fragility and airy interior, but the feel is too light; the texture is rather nondescript and the taste is bland without that buttery goodness or impressive mouth feel. 

The French Tarte:

The look is so-so in the pristine croissant sense, but it'll do; cutting yielded a beautifully fragile exterior and a nicely laminated interior; it has a light heft in the hand; the texture is crisp on the outside and soft on the inside; the taste is delicious with a rich, buttery goodness without being too heavy in the mouth. 

My version of La Pâtisserie des Rêves: 

This one looks like a sad excuse for a croissant - lumpy and rough; cutting demonstrated some exterior fragility, but the interior is dense, bready and without any laminated airiness; it feels heavy in the hand; the texture is doughy and unpleasant, and the taste is heavy and greasy. Too bad!

Finally, Starbucks (La Boulange) at the Providence Biltmore. When I inquired as to where the croissants were made, the staff didn't know the answer but shared that they receive them baked and flash frozen, and they thaw them on site.

The look is so-so, a bit flat; cutting yielded minimal exterior fragility, but a nice looking airy, laminated interior; the heft in the hand is on the heavy side; the texture is not crisp, a bit bready, and the taste is bland without any buttery goodness or flavor.

Costs for all the local croissants range from $2.00 to $2.75.

There’s a lot that goes into making a great croissant. Certainly large scale production is an entirely different animal than small-batch hand crafted croissants. And as is demonstrated with Philippe's recipe (see my preceding les croissants post), even that doesn't necessarily yield a delicious product!

It takes just the right ingredient proportions, a feel for handling the dough and, as always, practice, practice, practice!