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  • HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List

    Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List

    Okay so before we do anything with dough, let's get you set up. Good news: you don't need a professional kitchen for this class. You need a few key tools that actually matter, and the rest is stuff you probably already own.

    I've split this into "budget" (get this, minimum) and "nice-to-have" (get this if you catch the bug like I did). No worries at all if you show up week one with just the budget list. That's basically what I started with.

    Budget Tier — get these before class 1

    • Kitchen scale. This is the one non-negotiable on the whole list. Cups and spoons for pastry are how you get inconsistent results and then blame yourself for it. A basic digital scale is ten to fifteen bucks. Get one.
    • Rolling pin. Doesn't need to be fancy. A straight wood one with no handles is easiest to control for lamination, but whatever you've got will work for week one.
    • Half-sheet pan(s), at least two. Standard size, the kind that fits a regular home oven. Macey's and Costco both carry these. Two lets you rotate dough in the fridge without stacking.
    • Plastic wrap and a roll of parchment. You'll go through more of both than you think.
    • Regular butter. Whatever's on sale at Macey's. I mean that. Learn the technique on cheap butter first. European-style is lovely but it just makes your mistakes more expensive while you're still figuring out temperature.
    • Bench scraper. Three or four dollars, and it does half the job a fancy tool would.
    • Instant-read thermometer. Butter temperature is 90% of lamination, and you can't manage what you can't measure. This is how you check.
    • Basic mixing bowls, a whisk, plastic bags for the fridge. You've got these already, I'd bet.

    Nice-to-Have Tier — once you're hooked

    • Marble slab. Cold surface, holds temperature, makes lamination noticeably easier. I found mine at a yard sale up in Highland for four bucks and I still call it my best purchase ever. You don't need marble specifically, but a cool, hard, non-porous surface helps a lot when your kitchen runs warm.
    • European-style butter (higher fat, firmer). Once you can laminate reliably with the cheap stuff, this is where you'll notice a real difference. Not before.
    • Bench-top proofer or just a warm spot you trust. Not required, but handy once you're doing this more than a couple times a month.
    • Stand mixer with a dough hook. Makes the enriched doughs easier on your arms. I did years of this by hand first, so don't feel like you need it to start.
    • Digital oven thermometer. Home ovens lie about their own temperature more than people expect, and up here at elevation your bake times run a little faster than most recipes assume anyway. Worth knowing what's actually happening in there.

    A few shopping notes

    Buy your butter in bulk if you're planning to practice between classes, because you will burn through it fast. Costco's block butter works fine for practice batches.

    Skip specialty flour for now. All-purpose from wherever you already shop is completely fine for this class. We'll talk about protein content later if you want to go down that road, but it's not where your first ten batches will succeed or fail.

    If you're not sure whether something on this list is worth buying yet, ask me at class one. I'd rather talk you out of an unnecessary purchase than have it sit in your cupboard.

    See you all soon. Bring an apron you don't mind ruining a little.

  • HandoutHandout 2: The Cheat Sheet

    Handout 2: The Cheat Sheet

    Print this, tape it inside a cupboard, whatever works. This is everything I keep repeating during class, in one place so you don't have to write it all down mid-fold with butter on your hands.

    Butter Temperature (the whole ballgame)

    • Dough and butter block need to be the same firmness before you laminate. Not close. Same.
    • Cold butter should bend without cracking and without going greasy. Press it with your thumb. If it cracks, it's too cold. If your thumb sinks right in, it's too warm.
    • If it's warm out (and in July here it can be, even with the AC fighting for its life), your butter is going to give up faster than the recipe expects. Check your kitchen temp before you even start rolling.
    • If you see butter leaking out the sides while you roll, stop. Bag it, fridge it, ten minutes. Don't push through it. I did that once and set off the smoke alarm and woke up a three-month-old. No worries at all if it happens to you, but stop and chill it.

    Resting Times (more important than your fold)

    • Between every turn: minimum 30 minutes in the fridge, wrapped so it doesn't dry out. Dry air up here will crust your dough faster than you'd think.
    • If the butter starts looking streaky or soft while you're folding, that's your dough telling you it needs a rest. Listen to it.
    • Overnight rest before shaping is never wrong. When in doubt, rest longer, not shorter. This fixes more problems than a fancy fold ever will.

    Turns, Simply

    • Single turn: fold dough in thirds, like a letter.
    • Double turn: fold both ends in to meet the middle, then fold that in half.
    • I'll demo both in class. Don't stress about which is "correct." The turn matters less than whether your butter was the right temp going in.

    Oven and Elevation Notes

    • We're at about 4,600 feet here, which means things bake faster and dry out quicker than the recipe timer expects. Start checking 3-5 minutes before the recipe says done.
    • Croissants: look for deep golden color, not just "set." Pale croissants are underbaked croissants.
    • Rotate your pan halfway through if your oven has a hot side. Most do.

    Pastry Cream, Don't Panic

    • Keep whisking. That's 90% of the technique.
    • Don't walk away, even for ninety seconds. Ask me how I know.
    • If it looks lumpy or broken while you're cooking it, keep whisking through it before you panic and start over. It usually comes back together.

    General Reminders

    • Weigh your ingredients if you can. Cups lie. A cheap scale doesn't.
    • Butter from Macey's is fine to learn on. Save the fancy European stuff for once you can laminate without thinking about it.
    • Mess is normal. Butter on the counter, flour on the floor, that's just what this looks like. Clean up after, not during.

    That's basically it. Bring this back next class, we'll build on it.

  • WorksheetHandout 3: Lamination Check-In Sheet

    Handout 3: Lamination Check-In Sheet

    Print this one out and keep it by the marble slab (or your counter, "the rock" is optional). Fill it in as you go through your folds. This isn't homework, it's just so you actually notice what your dough is doing instead of guessing at the end and wondering where it went wrong.

    ---

    Before You Start

    • [ ] Room temperature checked: ______ °F (if your house is running warm, dry air messes with this fast — cool it down before you touch the dough)
    • [ ] Butter block temperature feels: ⬜ too cold/cracking ⬜ pliable, bends without breaking ⬜ too soft/greasy
    • [ ] Dough temperature feels: ⬜ colder than butter ⬜ about the same as butter ⬜ warmer than butter

    Remember: butter and dough need to match. That's basically 90% of this whole thing. Everything else you can fix along the way.

    ---

    Fold 1

    • Time started: ______
    • Butter stayed in one piece? ⬜ yes ⬜ some cracking ⬜ it blew out somewhere
    • Did I rest it cold before this fold, full time? ⬜ yes ⬜ I sluffed it a little
    • Notes on what I saw (any butter poking through, dough fighting back, anything sticky):

    _______________________________________________

    Fold 2

    • Time started: ______
    • Butter stayed in one piece? ⬜ yes ⬜ some cracking ⬜ it blew out somewhere
    • Rested cold, full time before this one? ⬜ yes ⬜ nope
    • Notes:

    _______________________________________________

    Fold 3

    • Time started: ______
    • Butter stayed in one piece? ⬜ yes ⬜ some cracking ⬜ it blew out somewhere
    • Rested cold, full time before this one? ⬜ yes ⬜ nope
    • Notes:

    _______________________________________________

    ---

    Honest Self-Check

    Circle whatever's true, no worries at all either way:

    • My dough felt too warm at some point: yes / no
    • I was tempted to skip a rest because I was hungry or impatient: yes / no
    • I checked the temperature by feel with my thumb, not just by the clock: yes / no
    • Something leaked, tore, or looked ugly and I kept going anyway: yes / no

    If you circled yes on most of these... that's a totally normal first attempt. My first batch leaked butter all over the oven floor and set off the smoke alarm. This is how everybody starts.

    ---

    What I'd Do Differently Next Time

    _______________________________________________

    _______________________________________________

    ---

    Quick Reference While You Work

    • Butter and dough firmness should match before every single fold. Check with your thumb, not your eyes.
    • Cold rest between folds matters more than getting a perfect fold. If you're only fixing one habit today, fix your patience on the resting time, not your folding technique.
    • If it's a warm day in the house, put the dough back in the fridge and go do something else for ten minutes. It'll still be there.
    • Weigh your butter and flour if you haven't already. Scoop-and-level guessing is where half the inconsistency comes from.

    That's basically it. Bring this sheet back next class so we can compare notes as a group — I like seeing where everybody's dough is fighting them, it's usually the same two or three spots for most people.

  • HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide

    Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide

    Okay so here's the thing about pastry problems: almost all of them trace back to temperature or patience. You'll see that theme repeat through this whole list. No worries at all if you're seeing two or three of these on your first go. That's basically everybody's first go.

    ---

    1. Butter squishing out the sides when I roll. Your butter's too warm, or your dough's too warm, or both. They need to match in firmness before you fold. Stick the whole thing back in the fridge for 20 minutes and try again. Don't push through it, that's how you get the smoke-alarm situation I've told you about.

    2. My layers disappeared. It's just... bread now. Butter melted into the dough somewhere along the way, usually from rolling too long or too warm a kitchen. Dry Utah air and a warm house speed this up more than recipes account for. Check your room temp before you even start, especially in summer.

    3. Dough keeps shrinking back when I roll it. Gluten's tight and hasn't relaxed. This is a resting problem, not a rolling problem. Get it cold, let it rest longer than you think you need to. I'd rather you rest it twice as long and have it behave than muscle through it.

    4. Croissants baked flat, no lift. Either your butter layers merged (see above) or your dough proofed too warm and the butter started melting before it hit the oven. Proof somewhere cool. Your kitchen counter in July is not cool.

    5. Pastry cream looks like scrambled eggs. You walked away from the whisk, or the heat was too high. My son caught me doing this once and it was accurate. Keep whisking, keep the heat moderate, and don't multitask this step. I've scorched a whole pot trying to do two things at once and I still don't make custard while watching a toddler.

    6. Pastry cream never thickens. Probably needs more time on the heat, or you didn't get it to a full simmer. It looks done before it's actually done. Trust the visual cues we talked about in class over the clock.

    7. Dough tears when I'm rolling out a fold. Cold butter is brittle and can crack instead of stretch. If it's cracking, let it sit a couple minutes to soften just slightly, not warm, just slightly less cold. Small patches are fine, patch and keep going.

    8. Everything's baking faster than the recipe says. Elevation. We're up around 4,600 feet here and that changes things. Start checking 5 minutes before the recipe's stated time, every time. I'd rather you pull it a touch early and peek than trust a recipe written for sea level.

    9. Results are inconsistent every time I make a batch. Are you measuring by cups or by weight? Volume measuring is the number one hidden culprit here. A cheap kitchen scale will fix more problems than any tip I can give you in this handout.

    10. It just doesn't look like the pictures. Honestly... mine doesn't always either. I make good dough. I make ugly-pretty pastry. If you want gorgeous, that's a different skill set than what we're building here. Taste it before you judge it.

    ---

    That's basically it. Butter temperature and resting time solve most of this list. When in doubt, put it back in the fridge and walk away for a few minutes. The dough isn't going anywhere. 🤙

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —so he's telling me this on the phone, and I'm just picturing the whole kitchen full of smoke.

    BLAKE: It was bad. It was really bad.

    JESS: Okay, for people just tuning in, this is the podcast for French Pastry Fundamentals, the class starting up at the community center. I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Utah Community Learning. This is Blake, he's teaching it.

    BLAKE: Hey, no worries at all, glad to be here.

    JESS: Tell them the milk story. That's what we were just talking about.

    BLAKE: Okay so, this was pastry cream, which is basically just a fancy custard. You scald the milk, you temper it into your eggs, whatever. Not hard. But I had Phoenix, my youngest, who was maybe eighteen months at the time, and he was fighting a nap really hard that day.

    JESS: Uh oh.

    BLAKE: Yeah. So the milk's on the stove, and he starts fussing in the other room, and I think, I'll just go pat his back for like ninety seconds, milk'll be fine. Come back, and the whole bottom of the pot is scorched. Like, black. And the smell just... it gets into everything. Curtains, the cabinets, I swear I could smell it a day later.

    JESS: Did you save the custard?

    BLAKE: No. Threw the whole thing out. And that's when I decided, I don't make custard and parent a toddler at the same time anymore. Those are two separate activities in my house now.

    JESS: I love that as a life lesson honestly.

    BLAKE: It's a decent one. Do one thing at a time. I'm bad at multitasking in a kitchen, I've scorched enough stuff to know that about myself now.

    JESS: So that's kind of a nice segue, because people are going to hear "French pastry" and think it's this precise, scary thing where one wrong move ruins everything.

    BLAKE: Yeah, and here's the thing, it's not, mostly. Pastry cream especially. People are scared of it and the recipe doesn't deserve the fear. If you keep whisking and you don't wander off to deal with a toddler...

    JESS: Or anything else.

    BLAKE: Or anything else, you'll be fine. It's forgiving. The fear is the actual problem more than the technique.

    JESS: Okay, give me something people can use right now, before they even sign up for the class. A real tip.

    BLAKE: Get a kitchen scale. That's it. That's the tip.

    JESS: That's it?

    BLAKE: I'm serious. Cheap one, ten bucks, doesn't matter. Volume measuring, cups and spoons, is how you get inconsistent pastry and then you blame yourself for it. You weigh your flour, your butter, your sugar, and suddenly your results are way more consistent. It fixes more problems than any fold or technique tip I could give you on this podcast.

    JESS: So even if somebody never takes a class from you ever, that's the one thing.

    BLAKE: That's the one thing. Get a scale, weigh your stuff. That's basically it.

    JESS: Now, this class is specifically about laminated dough, right, croissants...

    BLAKE: Croissants, yeah, we build up to it. And the number one thing I tell people, over and over, is butter temperature is like ninety percent of the whole game. If your butter and your dough aren't the same firmness when you start folding, you are already losing before you've rolled once.

    JESS: And you learned this how?

    BLAKE: By ruining butter. Repeatedly. That's genuinely my whole résumé, I'm self-taught, I learned by burning through batches. My first laminated dough ever, the butter was too warm, it leaked all over the oven floor, set off the smoke alarm, woke up my daughter who was three months old. My wife came downstairs, looked at it, and just went back to bed.

    JESS: She didn't even say anything?

    BLAKE: Nothing. Just turned around. Which honestly was the right call.

    JESS: What do people need to know for next time, before session two?

    BLAKE: So next session we're actually doing the dough. Detrempe, folding, the whole thing, hands in it. Wear something you don't mind getting flour on, and if you've got a rolling pin at home, bring it, otherwise we've got extras. We'll talk temperature a lot, dry air out here messes with dough faster than people expect, so I'll show you what to actually feel for instead of just trusting a clock.

    JESS: Love it. Alright, that's episode one, everybody. See you at session two.

    BLAKE: See you there. No worries at all if you've never done this, that's the whole point.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    BLAKE: —so by the time she came downstairs it was already a lost cause, butter everywhere, smoke alarm going, the whole thing.

    JESS: Wait, you have to back up. I don't have context.

    BLAKE: Oh, sorry, okay. We're talking about my first laminated dough. Ever. This is years ago. I rolled the dough too warm, butter just blew out everywhere, all over the oven floor, and it started smoking. Woke up Hailey, she was three months old.

    JESS: Of course it did.

    BLAKE: Caitlin comes down, sees the disaster, sees me standing there like an idiot with a rolling pin, and just... turns around and goes back to bed. Didn't even say anything.

    JESS: That's the most married-with-kids response I've ever heard.

    BLAKE: It's the correct response, honestly. There was nothing to say. I still use that batch as my example of what not to do in class. Butter everywhere, no worries at all in the moment, but also, lesson learned hard.

    JESS: Okay so for people listening who weren't in session one, this is the lamination class. Croissants, that whole world.

    BLAKE: Right, and last week we did the dough itself, the détrempe, got everybody's butter block made. This week's the folding, the actual lamination. Which is where everything either goes great or goes exactly like my story.

    JESS: So what's the one thing. If somebody's listening to this in their car and never sets foot in the class, what do they need to know.

    BLAKE: Butter temperature. It's ninety percent of the whole thing. If your dough and your butter aren't the same firmness when you fold, you are already losing, no matter how good your folds are.

    JESS: How do you even test that at home.

    BLAKE: Thumb test. Press your thumb into the butter block. You want it to give a little, like cold play-doh, not squish and not crack. If it cracks it's too cold, if it squishes it's too warm. And here's the thing, in Utah County, with our dry air, that window closes faster than people expect. Your kitchen's warmer than you think it is, especially if it's summer and the AC's working hard.

    JESS: You've mentioned before you had a July disaster.

    BLAKE: Total butter surrender. AC couldn't keep up, butter just gave up on me, dough turned into a greasy mess. Now I actually check the house temp before I even start a batch. Sounds excessive. It's not.

    JESS: So cold kitchen, cold butter, cold dough.

    BLAKE: Same firmness across the board, that's the goal. Everything else, your folds, your shaping, that's technique you can fix later. This part you can't really fix once it's gone wrong.

    JESS: What about people who don't have a marble slab or fancy equipment.

    BLAKE: You don't need it to learn. I found mine at a yard sale in Highland for four bucks, and Caitlin calls it "the rock" in this very specific tone, like she's still not sure it was worth the trunk space. But for learning, your countertop's fine. Cold countertop, cold hands, that's most of it.

    JESS: Okay, practical tip people can use tonight without ever coming to class.

    BLAKE: If your dough starts feeling soft or sticky while you're working it, stop. Put it back in the fridge for fifteen, twenty minutes. Don't push through it because you're impatient, that's how you get butter leaking out the sides. Resting time matters more than people think. Way more than whether you did a single fold or a double fold. Everybody obsesses over the folds. I think most home failures are just people not letting the dough rest cold long enough.

    JESS: Patience over technique.

    BLAKE: Basically, yeah. That's basically it.

    JESS: Next session's the actual shaping, right? Croissants into croissants?

    BLAKE: Right, we're cutting, rolling, shaping, getting them onto the tray, and then baking. Which is its own adventure because at our elevation things bake faster than the recipe says, so I'll show you what to actually look for instead of trusting a timer written for somebody at sea level.

    JESS: Any teaser for what could go wrong.

    BLAKE: Oh, plenty. I'll tell you about the batch I photographed from four angles because it had like forty layers, I was so proud of it. Sent pictures to the ward group chat at six in the morning, which in hindsight was a lot. That one worked out. Next week you'll see one that didn't.

    JESS: Love that. See everyone there, bring your dough from this week if you kept it.

    BLAKE: And if it's a mess, no worries at all. Bring it anyway. That's usually the interesting one.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —wait, say that part again, because I don't think people are going to believe you sent croissant photos to the ward group chat at 6 a.m.

    BLAKE: I did. Four angles. It had like forty layers, I counted them, I wasn't going to just... let that moment pass quietly.

    JESS: No shame in it.

    BLAKE: No shame at all. Caitlin was asleep. The kids were asleep. I had nobody to show. So the ward got it.

    JESS: Okay, for people just tuning in, this is episode three of the podcast for French Pastry Fundamentals, I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Community Learning, and this is Blake, who apparently narrates his own baking wins to entire church congregations.

    BLAKE: Guilty. 😂

    JESS: So last session was lamination, right, the folding.

    BLAKE: Yeah, we did our first full set of turns. Some people had beautiful dough. Some people had... dough that had given up on life a little bit. Both totally normal.

    JESS: You keep saying that.

    BLAKE: Because it's true! Here's the thing, everybody's butter behaves differently depending on how warm their kitchen is, how warm their hands are, how long they took getting the dough out of the fridge. It's not a level playing field on day one. That's fine.

    JESS: Give me the one tip. The thing somebody listening right now, who's never taking this class, could actually use in their kitchen tomorrow.

    BLAKE: Okay so. If you're doing any kind of laminated dough at home, and you live up here where it's dry and we're at elevation, just know your butter and your dough need to be the same firmness before you fold. Same firmness. Not "close enough." If the butter's warmer than the dough, it squishes out the sides and you lose your layers. If it's colder, it cracks and tears through the dough instead of folding with it. Ninety percent of lamination problems are a temperature mismatch, not a technique problem. I'll say that probably four more times before this class ends.

    JESS: You've said it twice already this episode.

    BLAKE: See, I'm consistent.

    JESS: Okay, tell me the neighbor story. I feel like this is a good spot for it.

    BLAKE: Oh, the Arizona ones.

    JESS: The Arizona ones.

    BLAKE: So we had neighbors moving, this was a couple years back, and I brought over a dozen croissants the morning of the move, mostly because I had extra dough and also because I wanted an excuse to help load the truck without just standing there being useless.

    JESS: Multitasking.

    BLAKE: Bribery, honestly. Anyway they get down to Arizona, settle in, and like a week later I get a text. They'd frozen half the dozen and were rationing them out. Like, one croissant every few days so it would last.

    JESS: That's kind of touching.

    BLAKE: I count that as a win two different ways. One, the croissants were good enough to ration. Two, I got out of unloading anything at the other end because I wasn't there. Efficient use of butter, honestly.

    JESS: Solid logic. Okay, so next session — what are we doing.

    BLAKE: Pastry cream. Which sounds fancy and intimidating and it is neither of those things, it's basically a custard you keep whisking. People get scared of it because it looks like a "technique," but really it's just patience and not walking away from the stove.

    JESS: Is this the one where you scorched the milk because of the toddler?

    BLAKE: That's a different one, we'll get to that one eventually, that's a whole cautionary tale about parenting and custard at the same time, I don't recommend either happening simultaneously.

    JESS: Noted for a future episode.

    BLAKE: But yeah, bring your rolling pin again, bring the marble if you've got a home version, and honestly bring a kitchen scale if you have one, because we're weighing everything. Volume measuring is how good pastry cream turns into scrambled eggs, and my son Lincoln has actually called me out on that exact thing before, so I know from experience.

    JESS: Scrambled eggs?

    BLAKE: He looked at my overworked pastry cream and just said "Dad, it looks like scrambled eggs." Ten years old. Devastating. Accurate.

    JESS: Alright. That's episode three. See everybody next session for pastry cream, no scrambling required if Blake's tips actually work.

    BLAKE: No worries at all if it goes sideways the first time though. That's basically the whole class. 👍

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