Mo' Butter, Mo' Better

I. love. butter.

While I could stop there, I guess it wouldn't make too interesting of a post.

A little bit about butter...

• It takes 21 pounds of whole milk to make a single pound of butter.
• Butter is graded by letter code: AA, A, or B. Most butter sold in the US is AA.
• The world record for butter eating is 7 quarter pound sticks of salted butter in 5 minutes by Donald Lerman.
• When my brother was a toddler, he would get into the fridge and I'd find him sitting on the kitchen floor eating butter with his fingers.

Alright then.

I decided to make croissants. That's right, croissants. Everyone was aghast when I told them I was going to attempt croissants. Chur said, "you have to be French to make croissants!" -- What am I supposed to do? Everyone is reading this blog. The world is counting on me!

I did a lot of research:

Google searches:
"how to pick a rolling pin" (Juh told me to use a wine bottle - she's such a lush)
image search "dough hook" (got it, Captain Hook's hand)

I even watched videos on YouTube, including one in Cantonese.

I decided to use Plugra butter. "Plugra" is actually "plus gras," which means "more fat, bitches" in French. What more could I ask for?




Day One (yes, it takes more than a day)

I followed a recipe on Epicurious and gathered my ingredients.

I was a little nervous about activating the yeast because I only had enough for one try.


(It's alive! Mmm... smells like beer and bread.)


The recipe called for use of a mixer. Guess what? I have one! I've owned it for over 4 years and have never turned it on. Good thing I'm smart and I figured out how to use it.




After mixing the dough, I kneaded it by hand and then wrapped it in plastic wrap to let it chill for an hour.



I then watched some Man vs. Food on TV. In a world where people are starving to death, I find it ironic that Americans have shows about overeating and obesity is our country's No. 1 health problem. For another day... (wait, did I mention I'm using a pound of butter?)

After an hour... oh how it had grown!




I rolled it out and folded in the butter like how I saw the Chinese man do it.





I then let it chill overnight.


Day Two

Good morning!




I cut triangles and rolled mes petit croissants!




Before...




and after.







Can you smell them?


*UPDATE
Now that I've eaten about 14 over the weekend. I have some lessons learned:

• I would not use a mixer again - I think it overkneaded the dough making it denser that preferred.
• The recipe called for unsalted butter and since I used salted butter, I only put a pinch or two in the dough mix. The croissants weren't quite salty enough so I sprinkled salt on top. I would add the full salt amount even though I used salted butter.
• Finally, the recipe only called for 3 sticks of butter, but I used about a pound (I guess that means I consumed 1/2 pound of butter over the weekend).