The croissant is a small and curious object. A mundane roll of butter and flour that makes up the division between coffee and orange juice in the typical continental breakfast. Across America the croissant is paired with sausage, cheese, and eggs to make breakfast sandwiches. Pillsbury sells countless thousands of croissant in a can, just pop peel and bake. These things we all call croissant and enjoyed, and why shouldn't they be? We all love bread, in its many forms, and isn't a croissant just another variation? Well it is and it isn't. What most American's think of as a croissant is really just a roll, which is fine, who doesn't like a roll? But a real croissant is something different. Unless you grew up in France, it's possible you have never tasted one.

But the real croissant is surprisingly difficult. It takes almost 24 hours to make, with frequent intercessions of butter, refrigeration, and rolling. A true croissant has three crucial components: shatter, butter content, and flavor profile. When you bite into a croissant to should not yield or bend, it should shatter raining perfect shards of its crisp buttery outer layers onto your plate. The interior of a perfect croissant should contain no bready bubbles, but instead thin buttery layers that are soft and damp with salted butter. The flavor should be a perfect balance of butter and flour with no hint of sweetness or the sourness of yeast. A perfect croissant is ruined by even a fleck of powdered sugar, and should be kept far away from pastries. The goal of this blog is to explore this odd buttery creature, where they can be found, and how close they come to the ideal. All examples will be photographed, rated for shatter, butter content, and flavor profile. You are welcome to post your own examples, but spam, and your post will be deleted.