I remember when going out to eat at California Dreaming was THE height of sophistication and class in Columbia in the late 90s to early 2000s. That was a right fancy night out there for someone coming from Lexington!
Their salads are their calling card (or one of them) and I still find myself craving one every once in a while. But this isn't your garden-variety throw together kind of salad. It involves a lot of prep work, but not so much it cannot be done in one evening. But I will warn you there are a lot of moving parts here. To keep it manageable, I break it down by the various components, starting with the one that takes the longest to do first. There's even some downtime so you can clean as you go while some parts are baking/heating if you've got kitchen skills! Now that's sophisticated — a nice meal and a clean kitchen at the same time.
The Order of the Salad and Croissants
- Set puff pastry out to thaw. Preheat oven.
- Hard boil eggs, if not already done.
- Begin chopping salad ingredients and set aside.
- Cook bacon.
- Melt honey butter.
- Roll croissants and put in oven.
- Mix dressing ingredients, minus bacon.
- Set bacon aside, mix dressing.
- Finish chopping salad ingredients if needed.
- Remove croissants from oven, drizzle with honey butter.
- Pile lettuce and toppings into large bowl, dress salad.
- Place croissant on the side and eat!
Luckily you're in your own kitchen so you don't have to be precise with the timing unless you want!
California Dreaming Style Salad + Honey Butter Croissant
Ingredients
Honey Butter Easy Croissants
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed on counter for 30 minutes
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
Salad
- romaine lettuce
- dash salt
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- ¼ cup scallions diced
- 3 hardboiled eggs sliced
Hot Bacon Mustard Dressing
- 4 strips uncooked bacon
- 1 cup honey-Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons non-pulp orange juice
- ½ tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ⅛ teaspoon ground mustard
- 1 ½ tablespoons reserved bacon drippings
Instructions
Croissants
- Let the puff pastry thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes or until pliable.
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Open the puff pastry on a cutting board. Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into long triangles.
- Roll up each triangle from the short flat side to the pointy end and place each croissant on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top. While these are baking, move on to making the dressing.
- Heat up 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Once melted, remove from heat and add in 2 tablespoons of honey. Mix until well combined.
- Pour honey butter mixture over croissants right before serving.
Dressing
- Cut the bacon into 1" segments and place into a cold frying pan. Turn the heat up to medium and use long tongs to move the bacon around to evenly brown it, about 7-10 minutes.
- While the bacon is cooking, mix the other dressing ingredients together.
- Turn the heat off from the pan. Set the bacon pieces aside on a paper towel covered plate to drain.
- Pour the mixed dressing ingredients into the bacon grease in the pan and stir quickly to emulsify. Set aside, off the heat.
Salad
- Pile torn romaine leaves in a large bowl. Lightly salt the leaves and toss. Use your hands to shape the lettuce into a tall pile with the apex in the middle.
- Add cheese, tomatoes, eggs, and almonds, trying to keep the middle part the tallest (if you care).
- Dress with the still-warm dressing (reheat to lukewarm as needed), and finish topping with bacon pieces and scallions.
- Add a honey butter croissant to the side and serve immediately.
Notes
Do You Have to Make the Croissants?
You don't have to do anything you don't want to! This is just a quick and easy way to replicate the experience, since the salad is already a bit complex. There are tons of ways to get honey butter croissants on your table besides this one. You can buy canned croissants and make those, then add the honey butter later, or you can buy store bought croissants and drizzle those with honey butter!
Looking for More Leafy Salads?
