Serves 4

For best results, choose a good challah or a firm, high-quality sandwich bread, such as Arnold Country Classics White or Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White. Thomas’ English Muffin Toasting Bread also works well. If you purchase an unsliced loaf, cut the bread into 1/2-inch-thick slices. To prevent the butter from clumping during mixing, warm the milk in a microwave or small saucepan until warm to the touch (about 80 degrees). The French toast can be cooked all at once on an electric griddle, but may take an extra 2 to 3 minutes per side. Set the griddle temperature to 350 degrees and use the entire amount of butter for cooking.

Makes 12 muffins
If fresh cranberries aren’t available, substitute frozen: Microwave them in a bowl until they’re partially but not fully thawed, 30 to 45 seconds.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Cranberry-nut muffins can make a quick and hearty breakfast, but all too often they are dense and leaden, with an overwhelming sour berry flavor and soggy nuts distributed haphazardly throughout. We wanted a moist, substantial muffin accented—not overtaken—by tart cranberries and toasted, crunchy nuts. Mixing the batter by hand was quick and gave our muffin enough structure to accommodate the fruit and nuts. Grinding the nuts and using them in place of some of the flour added complexity; to compensate for the smaller amount of gluten, we let the batter rest. Chopping the berries and tossing them with a little sugar toned down their tartness. Finally, a streusel topping added back the crunch lost from grinding up the nuts.

Serves 4

It’s important to follow visual cues, as pan thickness will affect cooking times. If using an electric stove, heat one burner on low heat and a second on medium-high heat; move the skillet between burners for temperature adjustment. If you don’t have half-and-half, substitute 8 teaspoons of whole milk and 4 teaspoons of heavy cream. To dress up the dish, add 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley, chives, basil, or cilantro or 1 tablespoon of dill or tarragon to the eggs after reducing the heat to low.

Serves 4

Crêpes will give off steam as they cook, but if at any point the skillet begins to smoke, remove it from the heat immediately and turn down the heat. Stacking the crêpes on a wire rack allows excess steam to escape so they won’t stick together. To allow for practice, the recipe yields 10 crêpes; only eight are needed for the filling.

MAKES 22 CROISSANTS
Twelve croissants are baked first; the remaining 10 can be frozen. The croissants take at least 10 hours to make from start to finish, but the process can be spread over two days. We strongly encourage using high-protein all-purpose flour, such as King Arthur, and European-style butter (we like Plugrá). If the dough retracts or softens at any point, fold it into thirds, wrap it in plastic, and freeze it for 15 minutes. Do not make these in a room that is warmer than 80 degrees.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
The layered structure that characterizes croissants is formed through a process called lamination: A relatively lean yeasted dough is wrapped around a block of butter, and then the package is rolled out and folded repeatedly to form paper-thin layers of dough separated by even thinner layers of butter. Due to increasing gluten formation, the dough becomes more difficult to roll with every turn, so we were relieved to find that three turns was sufficient to yield a light pastry made up of hundreds of delicate layers. High-protein all-purpose flour struck the right gluten balance: enough to support all that butter but not so much that we struggled with the dough. Using the right butter was important, too. The higher water content of conventional butter caused it to break up in the dough, which meant that the dough layers stuck together, resulting in less lift. Using higher-fat European butter worked much better and was worth the extra expense. Lastly, giving the dough and butter packet a couple of intense 30-minute chills in the freezer brought the two components to a more comparable consistency, making it easier to maintain distinct layers.

http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/bake-it-better/2013/03/secrets-to-making-croissants-2/