the Nom Lab.: A New Fold - Matcha Croissants

A New Fold - Matcha Croissants

By Passionthy 12:32 AM Baking, No Recipe

"It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

- by George Orwell, 1984

And here I am, grabbing and folding and cramming into a worryingly squishable backpack, en route to plum wine island. Japan, where, hopefully, it will be just as bright but not as cold.

I spent the last week scurrying through the last bits of work in a haze and, today, I dragged home the last pieces of my belongings.

The past months had been my first experience as a contracted worker and, as a fresh graduate, the lack of job security had been hovering over my head like a black cloud almost constantly. In the past few weeks, I had done the standard things that you do when you expect having to look for employment - updating my CV, honing my interviewing skills, refreshing my academic knowledge... While I knew that the project I had been contracted for was coming to an end, there was talk of a possible contract extension to assist in other departments, and when that discussion met a dead end, I still took the news with a feeling of finality and an emotional turmoil that I had not prepared myself sufficiently for.

All the old feelings of self-doubt and of being lost came back in waves, flashbacks of the job hunting struggles after the end of studies, yet clashing against the anticipation bubbling up for my first completely solo trip.

It's a bit surreal to look forward to a holiday when you've just lost your job, but I had heard so much about Japan - the cultural heritage, the food, the beautifully preserved historical architecture... that going there can probably only soothe the worry of coming back to the reality of being unemployed and the stress of an unknown professional future.

I can't believe that I am finally taking off on a solo travelling trip. In a way, it feels so liberating.

I finished packing the last of my hiking gear and tried my new Osprey on to test the weight-to-munchkin height-ratio.

I look like a biblical donkey.

...sigh.

Welp. Onwards.

I'm sharing a matcha croissant recipe from Thirsty for Tea that I had tried to do a couple of months back. Given my upcoming soul-searching destination, this recipe seemed fitting. I'm still new at working with puff pastry, so I spent most of my time patching up my dough when I was laminating it.

Usually, I will try to only share recipes that I have modified and tested, but as I am still learning I want to keep this recipe on file as a track record of my baking attempts :).

Moreover, the step-by-step instructions from Bonnie are very thorough and the croissants still turned out delish despite my countless newbie mistakes, so I think that they deserve some spotlight.

Please see: Matcha Croissants, from Thirsty for Tea.