Fleur Style Danish and Savory Croissants

In Tuesday's Laminated Doughs class, we made Fleur Style Danish and Savory Croissants. Fleur Style Danish refers to the shape of the product. Basically, you cut the dough into squares, stretch the corners, and then fold the corner into the center. The dough is then proofed, a hole is formed in the center, and then the product is filled before baking. Chef let us experiment with a filling so Gilly and I made a filling with dried apricots and pistachios; we flavored it with honey, star anise, thyme, and lemon. Sadly, our dough didn't perform that well and our product didn't rise nicely before baking or during baking. The consensus of the limited rise is due to the yeast we used; we normally use fresh yeast but we only had dry yeast available, and it just didn't perform. The danish still look good, and I liked the taste of them, so it was a good lesson:



The savory croissants tend to be filled with things like ham and cheese. We didn't have ham available, so I made mine with pepperoni, cheese, black pepper, garlic salt, and fresh oregano. These were shaped like a traditional croissant:



Savory croissants inspired the now popular "Hot Pockets" so I asked Chef if he would play one of my favorite comedic acts of all time - Jim Gaffigan's Hot Pockets. I seriously love this clip and always laugh even though I know exactly what Gaffigan is going to say. If you're never seen/heard it, it's worth a look so I am giving you the link. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-i9GXbptog