Croissants, take one.

All week I have been CRAVING croissants like none other.  They have been all I could think about, so obviously that meant that I needed to try my hand at making them.  The only problem that I could foresee was...well, everything.  Hahaha.  Nonetheless I scoured the internet looking for a GFDF solution to my problem.  What did I find?



Gluten-Free Croissants from Living Without
1 cup sorghum flour
½ cup chickpea flour
½ cup almond meal or additional flour
1 cup rice flour
1 cup cornstarch or tapioca starch/flour
4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1½ teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons yeast
¼ cup sugar
1 cup warm milk of choice or water
2 eggs
8 tablespoons butter, margarine or Earth Balance spread, melted
12 tablespoons cold butter, margarine, vegetable shortening or Earth Balance spread, cut into small pieces

Combine first seven ingredients and blend well.
Scoop 1 cup of this flour mixture into a medium mixing bowl. Add yeast and sugar to this cup of flour mixture and blend thoroughly. Combine milk and eggs and add them to this mixture. Add melted butter and beat until smooth. Reserve.
In a separate bowl, cut cold butter into remaining flour mixture until butter pieces are the size of large peas. Pour in liquid batter and stir or beat until moistened throughout. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Remove dough from refrigerator and press into a compact ball on a surface that has been lightly covered with rice flour. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each third into a 12-inch circle with a rolling pin. Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges.
Separate wedges and roll out each wedge through the length of the piece so that it is about ⅛th-inch thick.* Brush each wedge with gently warmed fruit spread, if desired. Then roll up each wedge toward the point. Shape into a crescent by curving the edges.
Set croissants on an ungreased baking sheet or a sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic and let them rise at room temperature until doubled. (This may take 2 hours if the room is cool.)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush each croissant wedge with egg beaten with cold water. Place croissants in preheated oven and immediately lower oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden.

Ugh.  I tried?  I think this was doomed to fail from the beginning.  I did a BAD thing and didn't follow the recipe completely.  I ended up using a pre-mixed GF flour instead of mixing my own.  I figured that would be fine, especially if I followed the rest of the recipe just right.  So I mixed it up, using my vegan butter, hoping that it would magically become the delicious croissants that I know and love.  I let them sit and rolled them out after the 4 hours, then waited patiently.  I baked them for the 20 minutes.  And what did I have?

Glorified crescent rolls.  They weren't bad.  They didn't rise as much as they should/could have, but they were edible.  Gabe even volunteered to eat a bunch of them.  I brought home a few bags, and had some for breakfast as mini sandwiches.  That alone was almost worth all the effort - I miss sandwiches like none other.  The ease of walking to the kitchen and throwing delicious things on pre-made store bought bread?  Oh man.  Not many things were better in my book.  The best was croissant sandwiches.  Turkey and cranberry cream cheese?  Oh man.

To get to a place where I am good at this, of course I have to have failures.  I am thrilled that at least these were edible.  Maybe they weren't the delicious buttery croissants that I was dreaming of, but I have time to experiment, to learn.  I think I will try to make regular croissants for everyone sometime so I have a good understanding of what the procedure is supposed to be, then I will go experimenting until I have it right.  I will be able to have my croissants again one day, I just have to be patient.