Woohoo!! Beautiful picture, and a lovely pastry! You can just see the butteriness. Your grandmother sounds like a remarkable woman. My great-aunt made noodles like that. Heap of flour in a volcano shape, egg dropped in the middle, mixed with a fork, rolled and cut. I can't tell you how many times I've tried with pitiful results. And she showed me many times! But you do have her recipe. It's flour, lard, milk, baking powder, and probably salt. To replicate it, you need a similar flour, good "real" milk, and good, old fashioned lard. By real milk, I mean 100% whole milk, but pasteurized. Raw milk has too many potential dangers and traditionally, one was supposed to scald the milk before baking breads, anyway, so think of pasteurized milk as pre-scalded. :) If you think your grandmother's milk might have been grass fed, you might even be able to find that (the flavor is different). Try to avoid ultrapasteurized milk, however. It's pretty dead. A lot of the commercial organic milks, like Horizon, are ultrapasteurized. You can't make cheese out of it. ;) You should be able to find a pig farm in your area where they have good flake lard, though you'll have to ask other people (there are some in this forum) how to use it. Once you have ingredients, it's a bit of trial and error until you get it just right, but you can get there if you're determined. On another note, I am trying a very traditional recipe for macarons, and am aging my egg whites in the fridge. It sounds riduculous to me, but apparently the egg whites like to be aired out. You put them in a dish with a paper towel over it. I might try an experiment down the road to see if there's a fluff difference between aged egg whites and straight from the egg egg whites from the same carton, but to start with I'm following directions. :)

cc, Yes, they will stay frozen easily until your DD gets home from work. They are packaged in one large plastic bag. Not the best packaging but it holds the cost down. There have been MANY requests for different packaging. There are some reviews where people have had a few croissants arrive broken. In all my orders, I have only received one (butter) arrive with about 1/3 broken off. I just baked the two pieces (shrug). However, when they arrive, I do REPACKAGE them immediately. I put them two to a package in Zip-Locks. They could easily be vac-packed but they don't last long enough here to justify the cost of the bags. :) I separate each croissant with a small piece of parchment. DO NOT REMOVE them from the freezer until your oven is preheated. Have your parchment lined baking sheet ready to go before getting the croissants. You want them straight from the freezer to the hot oven to get the best rise. The recommend baking is 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. In my oven, I bake on Convection 325 degrees for 25 minutes and they are perfection. So, I suggest starting with just one or two and the recommended times/temps. Adjust from there based on your individual oven. All ovens bake slightly different. Allow them to cool on the baking tray a couple minutes before devouring, if you can resist. It take those couple minutes for them to set up properly. IMPORTANT: Do NOT open the oven door while they are baking. /tricia

Finally found this...it is the perfect choice if you don't want the molds but do want the exquisite taste. Cannelé Colossus No, your eyes did not deceive you - this gigantic cannelé is baked in a good old American bundt pan, which happily seems to be making a comeback in baking circles. Those of you outside of North America might want to try a Kugelhopf pan, which a bit narrower and taller but still has the same general shape (though they do tend to run a bit smaller so some recipe adjustments may be necessary). If all else fails I imagine a plain tube pan or even a savarin mold might do the trick - you'll never know unless you try! Just make sure whatever pan you use is quite thick and heavy, to evenly distribute the heat during the long, long baking time. I should also point out that while the white oil is technically optional, it is important to giving the right texture and shine to the crust. Beeswax may seem like an odd ingredient but it is easy to track down online and costs very little - and is well worth investing in if you like cannelés the slightest bit! Source: adapted from Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen for white oil: 1 oz (30g) beeswax 1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil for cannelés: 2 vanilla beans, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 cups (1ltr) whole milk 2 cups (400g) superfine/caster sugar 1 1/2 cups (200g) cake flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons (60g) cold unsalted butter, diced 10 large egg yolks 4 tablespoons (60ml) dark rum equipment: a 12-cup (10-inch) heavy-duty bundt pan For the white oil, melt the beeswax in a glass measuring cup set inside a pan of simmering water. When completely melted, stir in the oil, a little at a time, waiting for the mixture to remelt each time before adding more. When all the oil is incorporated, remove the cup from the pan and let cool slightly. Rewarm the mixture before using, if necessary. Split the vanilla beans in half and scrape out the seeds, then throw the seeds and beans into a medium saucepan with the milk. Bring to a boil, then cover and set aside to cool to 183F (about 5-7 minutes). In a food processor, combine the sugar, flour, salt and butter and pulse until the butter is well distributed. Add the egg yolks one by one, pulsing just until the mixture starts to come together into a batter. With the machine on, slowly and steadily pour in the hot milk through the feed tube, discarding the vanilla beans. Strain the mixture into a large bowl to remove any lumps, pressing through any congealed egg yolk. Stir in the rum (and vanilla extract if that's what you are using), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next day preheat your oven to 400F/200C and center a rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan with a thin film of the white oil (it should really be a fine coat, so wipe out any excess with a paper towel). Place the pan in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then remove and fill with the cold batter (give it a stir first to re-homogenize). Place directly on the center oven rack and bake for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to 350F/170C and continue baking until the crust looks deep brown and smells caramelized, about 2 hours more. How dark you let it get is actually up to you - the darker it gets the more bittersweet it will taste (you can unmold the cannelé and check its color periodically if you want to be sure). When it's done unmold it immediately and let it cool completely on a rack. When it's hot the crust will still be soft, but will harden upon cooling. The cannelé is best enjoyed at room temperature or slightly warm; the crust will soften over time but a few minutes in a hot oven should crisp it up again like new.

I bake 2 loaves of sourdough a week for sandwiches and occasional treats (cinnamon rolls) or a different kinds of loaves during the week. I don't like it to be too complicated but want what I consider excellent results. Personally, what works for me is just preheating the oven (Wolf CSO) to whatever temp I need in convection steam mode. If loaves in a pan 335, ciabatta type 445, free form loaves generally 400-425. I don't use a stone. One of the reasons I prefer sourdough is the 'to die for' crust and I get it w/the straight up steam convection mode. There's always a great poof of steam when putting the bread in and taking it out but you don't notice the steam in the oven as you would if steaming veggies while cooking. As mentioned steam only exists at 210 degrees over that the waters there but not noticeable until it is 210 degrees. I'm not sure how often or exactly when the water is injected, I can hear the valve working but I'm pretty sure it's not constant. I will sometimes use a large gas oven as I can heat it to ~550 or a large electric convection if I need a larger oven. The results from the CSO are always more impressive, the oven 'spring' is more noticeable and the crust is crustier w/the steam. I'm sure adding water to either of the other 2 would work similarly but like I said I'm in the K.I.S.S. group and don't like overthinking things too much. A lot of people get caught up in thinking rather than doing, having a good understanding of what you're doing, the 'why and how', will eliminate a lot of the guess work. Worse case is you mess up, so? You get to do it again but now you know more than last time. I don't use recipes or measure things a whole lot anymore, I have over the years but learned what to look for and the 'how and why' so have the latitude to experiment relatively successfully and don't get too upset when I fail. A fail for me is a boon for the chickens. My audience isn't very large, as long as we're all happy and occasionally overjoyed it's all good. The best night is when the kids say 'thank you for making this wonderful dinner dad!'. I have no idea where that came from, they started it when they were about 4 (now 8 yo twins). I don't get it every night I cook, but it makes my day when I do.