Croissants Archives

We all view the world through our own unique lens. My husband, for example, walks through life looking for ways to make the world a better place. From a macro perspective, by chairing a $400 million fundraising campaign to replace our city’s 100 year old hospital, right down to a micro perspective. The other day, I came into the kitchen found him on the floor, sorting and organizing the Tupperware lids so it would be easier to find a match for the containers.

I, on the other hand, walk through my day looking for ways to make life more beautiful. As my sister says, “We are ~~cursed~~ blessed with a strong sense of aesthetic.” We have text chats about the prettiest way to label storage baskets, and the optimal font choices for them. It matters to me that my spice drawer has identical bottles for all the spices, and that my pantry is organized with uniform glass jars, rather than the packages that the food is sold in. I think that’s why I love food photography so much. With each shoot, I get to create a beautiful scene. I feel so creatively fulfilled.

A unique way of viewing the world has led to some wonderful culinary creations. Remember the Cronut from 2013? Recently, some genius, came up with the Croffle, a croissant-waffle hybrid . Not sure who to credit with the idea, but it was clearly someone viewing the world through a lens of “Can you Waffle it?” The internet is filled with strange and wonderful things people have waffled.

I felt compelled to try my hand at the Croffle. There is an excellent French Bakery down the street from me, so I bought a bag of their frozen croissant dough. Instructions on the bag said to lay the frozen croissants on a baking sheet with a small bowl of water. Place the baking sheet in a cold oven and leave it there overnight to thaw and proof.

Check out how it all came together.

So, in answer to the cosmic question, “Can you waffle it?” , the answer is a resounding hell yes! Croissant dough in the waffle iron is awesome! I mean, what could be bad? Crispy AF on the outside and tender flaky layers within. A simple drizzle of maple syrup or dusting of icing sugar and all is right with the world, for a few minutes at least.

If the title of this post has left you shaking your head, wondering what the heck I am writing about, let me enlighten you.I wrote about cookie butter last year. It is also known as Speculoos or Biscoff spread. Basically, we are talking about ground up spicy gingerbread cookies, mixed with additional sugar and oil, to create, a somewhat addictive spread, in the vein of peanut butter and Nutella.

Rugelach is a small Jewish pastry, of Eastern European origin. Traditionally they are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling. The origin of the name comes from the Polish word “Rog” which is the prefix for horn, (croissant shaped pastries kind of look like horns). “El” is used as a diminutive and the “Ach” ending indicates plural. So put together we have horn shaped little pastries –Rugelach.How this little cookie came to be made in a crescent shape is an interesting story. I have read several versions, but this is my favourite. In the 16^th Century, the Jews were living under the rule of the brutal Ottoman Empire. Life was not easy for them. A baker with a warped sense of humour, decided to create little pastries, shaped like the crescent that decorated the Ottoman war flags. With every bite of these delicious little noshes, the Jews imagined that they were “chewing out” their merciless oppressors.

Back in Europe, the dough for rugelach is light, airy and yeast raised. Somehow, when it arrived in North America, it transformed into a dense cream cheese based dough. This is the rugelach I grew up with and love. Rich and flaky, but not too sweet, the best rugelach let the dough be the star and the fillings play a supporting role.

Most often they are filled with jam, cinnamon-sugar, raisins and nuts. Often chocolate is thrown into the mix. Screwing with a 500 year old cookie could be a dangerous thing, but I like to live on the edge, so I played around with the traditional recipe and spread mine with Cookie Butter instead of jam.

The dough is simple to put together. I used the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated for the dough, with the addition of some cinnamon and ground ginger to mimic the gingerbread flavour of the cookie butter. The butter and cream cheese must be very cold.Only process the dough until it resembles small curd cottage cheese. Don’t let the processor form the dough into a ball, or you will have tough rugelach. I decided to make two varieties. The first, shaped in the traditional crescent, featured Cookie Butter and toasted chopped hazelnuts.These got treated to a shower of cinnamon sugar as soon as they came out of the oven. For the second variation I created little roulades. The dough was rolled into a rectangle, filled with cookie butter and chopped chocolate, and rolled and sliced, before baking.