Mike Nolan
Thu. Jan 15th, 2026
I thought the croissants were just a bit overdone, especially on the bottom, but there's only one left after supper tonight, so they must have been OK. It wouldn't surprise me if I make them again in a few days, my son and granddaughter are both here and enjoyed both the chocolatines and the croissants.
I might make bagels tomorrow or Friday, and I'm about out of semolina bread, so I'll probably make that tomorrow.
I was pleased that our granddaughter seemed to enjoy the chicken and mushroom dish I made to go with the croissants, too.
I've used that method or variations on it. I take a big bowl, heat it with near-boiling water (an instant hot water tap is great for that), pour the water out, then invert it over a platter with the stick of butter on it.
We had chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce, with croissants.
So you would think a 2 hour final proof would be fine under those conditions?
If I was answering a question on the food safety certification exam, I'd hesitate before saying yes, but I think as long as the fillings are cooked to at least 180 degrees they should be fine, and with most breads the internal temperature is more like 190-200.
The general rule of thumb is 2 hours in the danger zone (40-140) is the upper limit, 1 hour if at 90 degrees or hotter.
Would proofing in the refrigerator be possible?
I've been using sticks I made from Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate (54.5% cacao) but most of the bakeries use pre-made sticks, so I bought a box of 300 Callebaut croissant sticks (44% cacao).
The pre-made ones are a bit smaller, 3 inches long and 5.3 grams each vs 4 inches long and about 10 grams for the ones I made, so I used 2 per chocolatine.
I had enough of the home made chocolate sticks left to make 2 croissants, the other 7 were made with the pre-made sticks. I tried some of both, and found it hard to pick a favorite.
The ricotta in a cannoli usually has some sugar added, would the cranberry sauce supply much sweetness, it tends to be tart.
How long can I let a meat filling sit around while the bread dough rises?
Meat and egg fillings should be OK with a 2 hour final proof after shaping and filling, are they cold, room temperature or warm when you fill the bao?
Today's chocolatines came out much nicer looking.
And less butter leakage, too.
We're leaning towards doing a ham for Christmas this year, probably a spiral sliced one that has been marinated in Dr. Pepper for 24 hours.
We had tomato soup and cheese sandwiches tonight.
I'm working on another batch of croissant dough, I'll make some chocolatines and some croissants.
I've got my 3 turns done (1 simple fold, 2 letter folds for a total of 37 layers) and I rolled it out to the point where I need to divide it into two parts for final rollout to 2 or 3mm thick. I'll make some chocolatines in the morning, bake them in the afternoon, and do the croissants on Thursday or Friday.
No cooking tonight, I took Diane to Outback for her birthday.
They went over very well, as usual.
They smelled so good baking (the dough and butter) that I think I'll make a batch of regular croissants over the holidays while our son and granddaughter are here. And bagels, since my granddaughter LOVES bagels.
I made two sizes of chocolatines today, I think I like the smaller ones better. They were rolled out to 2 mm and cut in 2.5 x 5 rectangles, the bigger ones were rolled out to 3 mm and cut in 3 x 6 rectangles.
I need to work on keeping them from unrolling in the oven.
