A minute ago I was reading someone’s question about rolling out the dough now I can’t find it or remember who asked it so I thought I would address it here and hopefully this is what you’re asking about. You roll in one direction, away from you and back, stretching the dough into a long strip. You don’t roll side to side across the width. When you roll across like that, you push the butter out the open edges and press your layers together, and keeping those layers separate is the whole game. That’s what builds the honeycomb. Between each fold, give the dough a quarter turn, then roll long again. Firm, even pressure, one direction at a time. Roll it long. Keep it cold. Let the layers stretch. Henry ⭐🔥

Well, here we are. Bake day. And it landed on the Fourth of July, so let’s make something beautiful today. 🇺🇸 Most of you have your dough or your butter blocks resting in the fridge right now, which means the hard part is behind you. Today’s the payoff. We shape, we proof, we bake. Here’s the game plan: 🥐 Pull your dough, roll it out long, cut your triangles, and shape ⏳ Proof until puffy and jiggly. This is the make-or-break step, so don’t rush it. French folks, you’re looking at a couple hours. Sourdough, yours runs longer, 3 to 5, so be patient with it. 🔥 Egg wash, then bake to a deep mahogany. Pale is underbaked. Let that color build. Now, two things about the heat. 🎇 First, the real one. This heat wave across the country is dangerous, not just uncomfortable. Drink your water, stay cool, and check on the older folks and neighbors around you. Your bread can wait. You come first. Take care of yourselves out there. 🇺🇸 Second, that same heat is sitting in your kitchen. Your final proof has to stay under 78F or the butter melts and weeps out before the croissants ever hit the oven. Find the coolest room in the house. If your kitchen’s running warm, the fridge is still your friend, use it to hold the proof steady. Keep a close eye today, because in this heat they can over-proof faster than you’d think. This thread is home base all day. 🎆 Post your progress right here. Your shaped croissants, your proof, your first tray out of the oven, your crumb shots when you cut in. And if you hit a snag, butter leaking, dough fighting you, proof looking off, drop it in the comments and I’ll walk you through it. I’m around all day. Let’s bake, everybody. 🇺🇸🥐 Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥🇺🇸

Quick history before we bake this weekend. The croissant isn’t French. Not originally. It traces back to Vienna, Austria, and a crescent pastry called the kipferl. That’s why this whole family of buttery breakfast pastries gets called viennoiserie, which literally means “things from Vienna.” The French got hold of it, fell in love, and turned it into the buttery laminated pastry we know today. So the croissant you’ll be folding on Saturday is really an Austrian idea wearing a French tuxedo. I put the whole story into a short video. Where it came from, the legend behind that crescent shape, and how it ended up in every French bakery window. Worth ten minutes before you laminate. Give it a like while you’re there, and tell me in the comments: did you know it wasn’t French? I sure didn’t when I started this research. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Guys im so excited, probably more excited than a kid at Christmas. Just made my first sourdough starter, and her name is Sandy after @Sandy Chong 🥰🤣

I made 2 small portion control banana chiffon cakes. I decorated one with summer berries and left the other one plain. I gifted it to my neighbor and she is highly allergic to berries. I added a large overriped mashed banana to it. The banana made the cake very soft and moist. It was a real treat to eat some homemade fresh cream again and so delicious. I am loving it, but not my hips. @Robin Yount I baked this especially for you, Robin. Your wish is my command, Sweetheart. ❤️ You are so right @Kathee Judd fresh cream makes everything tastes so much better. @Dianne Givens . Here is another great portion control for us lovely Ladies! This recipe requires a chiffon tin, as the batter is so light and nothing to climb up on the funnel in the center and it will collapse and not hold it's form. https://preppykitchen.com/chiffon-cake/