DIY pain au chocolat

 last week, chris and i watched an episode of good eats, and i became convinced that making my own puff pastry was a bad idea - too much effort and poor results likely. according to alton brown, the store bought frozen puff pastry is made with big machines that can control the laminated pastry dough layers much more easily than the average amateur pastry chef can in their home kitchen.

but, the next day, i started reading a blog called dinner with julie, and she made it seem so easy! her recipe and blog entry really convinced me that i (an average person with no pastry-chef training) could do it. i threw caution (and all of alton brown's warnings) to the wind and got started on the dough.

things i learned:
- rolling out refrigerated dough is hard work. and requires significant upper body strength. i do not have much of this strength. chris was recruited to help at times.
- my oven is very temperamental, and cannot keep a consistent temperature (it wavers back and forth by 50 degrees). this results in dark-bottomed croissants if you don't watch carefully.
- alton brown was right, puff pastry is hard work. but, i'll probably try it again sometime when i have a few days to spare.

  overall, my first attempt at puff pastry was not too bad. there's definitely things i'll change when/if i attempt it again (mostly relating to technique rather than ingredients).

but, they were certainly edible - and disappeared quickly in the grad student office (although, that may not be the best way to judge their quality). they were even flaky, and i could see a few of the laminated layers.

the chocolate ganache centres were delicious (a modification i made to the original recipe). much better than using regular chocolate which hardens when the croissant returns to room temperature. the chocolate ganache centres stayed soft and creamy until the last croissant was gone.

yum.

cinnamon buns

i'm taking advantage of this funemployment to try new baking adventures that i probably wouldn't try otherwise. i've always wanted to make home-made cinnamon rolls, but the time required and possibility of failure has kept it off my baking radar until now.

then, last week one of my favourite baking blogs, bakerella posted about her attempts at making pioneer woman's cinnamon rolls. they looked delicious. but, like bakerella, me and bread-doughs don't go so well together, and i resort to my trusty bread machine to do the "dough" portion of the recipe.

i found a recipe on allrecipes.com that was highly rated and allowed for use of a bread machine. i added a bit of cinnamon and ginger to the dough ingredients, and used a bit less flour (as per some reviews of the recipe). i set my bread machine to dough setting on tuesday night, and awoke at 6:30am to the grinding sound of the bread machine spinning. i dragged myself out of bed to shut the bedroom door and then went back to sleep. by 8:00am, the dough was ready, and so was i.

since my plan was to make some half-sized cinnamon rolls, chris and i spent a bit of time the night before trying to calculate the appropriate length and width to roll the dough out in order to achieve the correct size (when rolled) cinnamon bun. we settled on 16"x32". we also calculated the size i should cut each cinnamon roll to achieve maximum uniformity. i am nothing if not a chronic-over-planner.

 when i began rolling the dough out on the counter, i realized - we don't actually have a portion of counter that is 32" in length or depth. oops. the largest portion of counter is the top of our portable dishwasher at 24"x26".

so, with some quick math and a knife, i revised my dough into two 16"x16" squares. and began spreading on the buttery-cinnamon-sugar goodness and rolling into 16" long cylinders. after that, i threw my plans for cinnamon roll size to the wind, and cut them to try to get at least two dozen similarly sized rolls.

i baked in muffin pans rather than in a 9x13" pan, so that they would be easier to get out of the pan, and more "single-serving" friendly.

 i packaged (most of) them and poured on some maple & cream-cheese icing. being a keen supporter of science research (and a thoughtful girlfriend), i walked them over to the SMU astronomy & physics grad students office so they could enjoy some tasty free food.

they've been getting a new home-baked item weekly in their office. which is nice of me, but also an excellent way to practice self-control. baked goods are definitely for sharing.

and here's one with icing, that i'm going to take to share with a friend today.
 

TOMORROW: cloth napkins; and a winner for the DIY cosmetic pads.

happy earth day everyone!