The croissant, my dears, is nothing less than an engineering marvel disguised as breakfast. Those impossibly flaky, shattering layers? Each one is a sheet of dough separated by a sheet of butter, 27 layers in all, if you've done your folds correctly. The process requires patience, a cool kitchen, and an absolute refusal to rush. When you pull these from the oven and they're golden and puffed and your kitchen smells like a Parisian boulangerie at dawn, you will understand why the French consider pastry-making a noble art. And you will never buy a supermarket croissant again.