Homemade croissants are the ultimate slow food. Its takes 2 days to make the dough and another day before you can bake them – and the waiting is torture but oh so worth it. These croissants are not like those faux croissants you get from chain store bakeries – these croissants are flaky and buttery and very very rich. We make them only a few times a year and its a whole family weekend project.

I didn’t get a really good photo of them coming out of the oven as they were nearly all gone before I could think to get the camera out – and then it was just all hands and grabbing. Once we were satisfied after our first one – we could relax a bit and breath. We pile them up and have a luxury breakfast with our stove top expresso made from freshly ground coffee beans and we dip our croissants into our lattes french style.

The recipe I use is from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook – and it works every time. It might take a while, but it isn’t rocket science – it just requires patience and a bit of muscle – oh and lots and lots of butter.

Day 1: Make your yeast dough (if you don’t happen to have Martha’s book – here is a good recipe that shows you how to kneed and roll the dough)- knead it lightly and then let it stand overnight in the fridge (the dough is a slightly sweetened dough with a little honey). You will also need to make a butter package – which is about 5 sticks of butter (500g), flattened and mashed into about a 10inch square and you refrigerate this too.

Day 2: You spend a few hours incorporating your butter package into the dough by rolling it out and folding it into thirds – then turn it and roll fold again. You roll out fold into thirds three times before putting it back into the fridge to chill again for an hour each time. You must keep it cold so the butter doesn’t start to melt and seep through the pastry. You do this step 3 times – so 9 folds and turns in total and about 4 hours – then you let it rest again overnight.

Day 3: Roll the dough out into a long strip and cut into triangles using a pizza cutter or knife. Then shape the triangles into croissants by making a small slit in the wide end and then rolling toward the thin end – give them a slight curl and let them rise in a warm place for an hour. Then bake on med/high for about 20 mins.

The dough also freezes really well – you can cut the dough in half before shaping the croissants and freeze it in a square – or you can roll and shape all the crossants and freeze half of them before baking – then just get them out of the freezer the night before you want to eat and presto – they will be ready to bake in the morning.