Lauryn Copeland Hatten, like most people, loves to bite into a warm buttery, flaky croissant. Unlike most people, she took her pastry-romance to the house, along with butter, all-purpose flour, a little sugar, yeast and milk. On her second try – voila – she produced the perfect batch. (On her first try, she pronounced croissant as the French do, Kwuh-saunh.)

“I watched five or six videos on the subject and came up with what worked best for me,” she said.

When COVID kept Hatten at home, she  got into experimenting in the kitchen, branching out with more challenging recipes, and putting her own mark on recipes she had learned from cooking with her grandmother, Peggy Copeland.

“I’ve been in the kitchen with her since I was old enough to stand,” she said.

For Hatten, it’s standard to look at three or four different recipes for something she craves and pick what suits her from each. If she can’t find a recipe, she’ll create her own.

She had been wanting to make her own croissants for some time, and she realized quickly why more people don’t.

“It’s a 24-hour process,” she said. “It takes two pounds of butter and it only makes eight croissants, but to me, it’s worth it,” she said. Eating one hot out of the oven takes it to a whole new level, she said. When they’re hot, the melted butter coats the bottom of each croissant. Of course, they taste great warmed up, as well. The first batch was good. We ate them, but they were a bit more dense than I preferred.”

She said that’s because her first try took more than 24-hours between mixing the dough and putting the croissants in the oven. The second batch was begun early Saturday morning and baked on Sunday morning.

“In addition to the investment of time and resources, another reason more people may not make their own croissants is because I know when I don’t do something right the first time, it makes me not want to try it again,” she said.

As for the croissants, she’s glad she did. She’s added almond paste and dark chocolate to one batch. Her other major baking achievement during COVID, is perfecting a basic cake recipe given to her by her grandmother and adding the Lauryn Copeland Hatten twist.

“I like experimenting with flavors,” she said. “A blueberry lavender cake was my brother’s favorite.”

She’s also made a pistachio pound cake with raspberry filling and Italian cream frosting, a blueberry and lemon cake with Italian cream frosting, a vanilla cake with cereal infused milk and a blood orange and thyme infused olive oil cake.

Not all of Hatten’s cakes are a huge success. After four attempts to bake a lavender cake for her 2020 birthday ended up exploding, she scooped the exploding pieces into a cup and served it.