Croissants?

Has anyone ever tried making them from scratch? Ive been curious lately, but just kept forgetting to search the net when I would sit in front of the computer. Well, I just got this month's Cooks Illustrated in the mail today and they had a recipe in there. While I tend to think that they can make a simple thing a little more difficult than it really can be, I love the magazine and love love the explainations they give. Anyway...I am asking about it because thier recipe called for a total of 27 table spoons of butter!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Paula Deen! I cant believe it. I plan to sit and explore other recipes soon, but I wanted to ask here. The recipe only made 22 croissants. That just seemed like a lot of butter. Maybe that is the key to them? I dont know. I need to read the article again, and better.