It is a truth universally acknowledged

... that to be the best, you have to learn from the best. One of the highlights of my time at school has been the opportunity to interact with and observe some of the most accomplished and talented chefs working today. Yesterday afternoon I attended a demo by Jacques Torres, dean of our program and pastry legend. His resume is long and impressive, his pastries and chocolates are delicious, and his joy in baking is infectious. He laughed and joked with the audience throughout the two-hour demo, entertaining and educating with equal ease. The demo focused on yeasted dough products: croissants, pain au chocolat, and bomboloni, which are Italian cream-filled, sugar-encrusted doughnuts. Health food, basically.

Croissant dough is the starting point for both croissants and pain au chocolat, which are croissants rolled around batons of chocolate. The dough uses both organic and mechanical leavening to achieve its airy, delicate texture: organic leavening is provided by the fresh yeast added to the starter, while mechanical leavening is created by folding a sheet of butter into the dough, then "turning" it several times. This process of folding the dough upon itself creates alternate layers of dough and butter; when the croissant is placed in the oven, the butter melts away, creating steam, which lifts the layers of dough apart and leaves air pockets behind. Thus the butter gives a great croissant its tender inside and flaky crust and creates an interesting paradox - adding more fat (butter) to a croissant dough can actually make it taste "lighter"!

Chef Torres compared the elasticity of a good dough to chewing gum: the way that gum expands when you blow a bubble is the way dough needs to react when the CO2 produced by the yeast is released. A good croissant dough will be strong enough to stretch and inflate with this gas. This elasticity or "stretch factor" comes from gluten, developed when proteins in flour are hydrated and kneaded. Flour that is higher in protein will develop more gluten and be stronger - bakers usually use high protein flour for bread, and low protein flour for products like cakes that demand a delicate, not chewy, texture.

As he mixed and rolled the croissant dough, Chef Torres explained every step of his process, occasionally employing the time-honored TV trick of a "swap-out" at points where prolonged resting or overnight refrigeration would usually occur. One topic I found interesting was the distinct seasonal differences he noted in the process - in the winter more yeast is used and the dough is allowed to sit out briefly before being refrigerated, while in the summer warmer temperatures accelerate fermentation, so less yeast is added and the dough is refrigerated immediately after mixing. He also stressed the importance of fermentation for developing flavor, but pointed out that during the process, as sugar is transformed into gas the dough will get less sweet. So if you increase the fermentation of your dough, you must also increase the amount of sugar added in the initial mix.

A highlight of any demo is the part where they pass samples out to the audience, and this demo did not disappoint - the croissant and pain au chocolat were good enough to make me determined to try the recipe myself at the next possible opportunity. I meant to take a picture for you, but I ate it too quickly, so you'll have to settle for this shot of Chef Torres with his final product of the day, the bomboloni.

These bomboloni are basically pieces of brioche dough deep fried until golden and crispy on the outside and pale and tender on the inside, rolled in sugar, and filled with pastry cream, creme anglaise, or raspberry jam. Yum. If I didn't have a slight terror of deep frying, I'd be totally tempted to try these at home, too. The Food Network featured his recipe for these a few years back, so here's a link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jacques-torres/bomboloni-recipe/index.html.