How to make Croissants from scratch
Recette Croissants façon boulangerie
These light, buttery pastries, or viennoiserie, are a staple across the world. I hope you enjoy following along!
Croissant recette
Time to make: eight hours
Involved time: one hour
Ingredients for the dough, or pâte
1 kg flour
50g sugar
18 g salt
60 g baker’s compressed yeast
0.5 L milk
Ingredient for butter layer:
425g butter
Préparation
It is très important to follow the recipe — you can’t break the rules until you’ve mastered the craft! We begin with the first stage: mixing, or frasage. The milk must be cold, and many bakers will go a step further and cool the flour in the fridge as well.
Frasage
Mix all the ingredients except for the butter. The croissant dough must be very cold because otherwise it will not only begin to proof, but it will also absorb the butter instead of creating a delicate layer during our next steps.
When everything is mixed (a stand mixer is preferred, but you can also mix by hand), you will shape your pâte, or dough into a rough diamond shape. I have seen some tutorials online in which they break out the measuring tapes, rulers, and scales, but this is unnecessary. Lay your diamond-shaped dough onto a parchment-lined tray, and place in the refrigerator for two hours. This step allows gluten — the main protein and building block of any pain, to relax and form long protein chains. It will become softer and easier to work with as well.
While your dough is relaxing, begin on your butter layer. Take your softened butter and wrap it in parchment paper. The idea is to form a flat square of butter inside the parchment paper, about ½ inch thick, or 1.3 cm. You can hit the butter with your French rolling pin, roll it, or otherwise mould it with your hands. Don’t let the butter escape the parchment or you’ll have a mess! Once you get a flat square of butter (it doesn’t have to be perfect), place it into the fridge to rest for approximately 30 minutes, called laisser .
Tourner la pâte
During the next step, it is important to use the butter when it is softened up a bit. If too melted, it will incorporate into the pate, and you won’t get those sought-after layers. If too hardened, it’ll break into tiny pieces in the dough, creating a rough croissant with a disturbed honeycomb and uneven texture.
The next step will be the beginning of lamination. When the butter and the pate are both ready, take them out of the fridge and place on a lightly floured surface. Take your rolling pin and roll it into a rough rectangle. Place the butter into the center of the dough. Now close the dough around the butter, like an envelope or package. When all the butter is covered, you can start to roll it out. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Remember to work quickly, before the butter can melt. Return it to the fridge, or in the summer the freezer, for about 30 minutes.
Tourner la pâte et le feuilletage
After about 30 minutes are up, or when the dough feels thoroughly chilled but not yet frozen, take it out again. Roll it out into a rectangle about 5 mm thick. Cut off the uneven edges so that you can make a more perfect rectangle. Next, make a “letter fold” by folding the left and right sides over each other. There will now be 6 layers of dough, and 5 of butter. Lay the dough back in the freezer again. If the dough is drying out, place it in a layer of plastic.
Take the dough out after around 30 minutes again, and repeat the process of rolling it out to 5 mm, and folding it. Place it in the fridge or freezer for the 3rd time.
Now take the dough out after 30 minutes again. This time you will get to shape the croissants. Place the dough on your counter, and roll it out to 4 mm thick for croissants, and 5 mm for pain au chocolat. This time, make a longer rectangle. Just make it as even as possible before the butter can melt.
Façonnage
Now, with the rectangle’s long side horizontal to you, fold it over towards yourself in two. Fold it back over to its original position, then cut on this line with a knife. Next, if you’re making croissants, cut triangles down the dough, long triangle going down on the top dough, and one on the bottom. Take the triangles, stretch them a bit by pulling them lengthwise, place it on the counter, and roll it up. Place the croissant tip down on a tray with parchment paper.
If you’re making pain au chocolat, cut rectangles instead of triangles. Place two chocolates inside.
The croissants and pain au chocolat can be baked as soon as you wish, or you can store them in the freeze for up to 2 months.
Preuve le Croissant
To bake croissants, you must first proof them, which allows the dough to rise. However, by proofing frozen croissants, you risk melting the butter and losing flaky layers.
When you’re ready to proof fresh croissants, begin by making the egg wash. Just whisk an egg yolk with around 1 tsp. heavy cream or milk. Gently brush the wash onto each croissant. The croissants should go in a plastic or a proofing box, preferably at a temperature between 75 and 80 degree Fahrenheit, or 23 to 26 degrees Celsius, for one and a half to two hours. You could also proof them in your oven to speed things up.
When ready to bake, the croissants will be bigger, though not quite doubled in size. The pièce de résistance of making croissants is baking them at the right time! If you tap them or move the tray, it will be very delicate and jiggly, but the butter shouldn’t be melting out.
Cuisson
Shortly before the croissants are fully proofed, put racks in the top and lower thirds of the oven and heat it to 400°F/200°C convection, or 425°F/220°C conventional. Gently add more egg wash, then put them in the oven. After 10 minutes, rotate the sheets and swap their positions. Continue baking until the bottoms are an even brown, the tops richly browned, and the edges show signs of coloring, another 8 to 10 minutes. If they appear to be darkening too quickly during baking, lower the oven temperature by 10°F. Let cool on baking sheets on racks. Vous venez de faire votre premier croissant français!
Croissant congelé
To bake frozen croissants you can use the method above to proof them, but it will take longer. You can proof them right away with an oven. If your oven doesn’t have a proofing setting, it’s harder but still doable. With the proofing setting, turn your oven to proofing and set it to 90 degrees for 110 minutes. Brush the croissants with egg wash, then place your croissants in the oven seam side down on baking sheet. It must be covered. Let it proof in the oven. After nearly two hours, remove the croissants from the oven. You may notice a little bit of butter just starting to melt out, but that’s fine.
If you have no proofing setting, preheat your oven to the lowest temperature it allows. Place your croissants in the oven and shut the door. Turn on the light inside your oven to give it a little extra heat. Start checking your croissants at the two hour mark to see if they’ve proofed properly. It may take up to three hours, depending on your oven.
Once they’ve risen, remove them from the oven. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Return the croissants to the oven and bake using the same method under cuisson.
Take out and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy, bon appétit!
If you want to make the precursor to the croissant, called the Kipferl from Vienna, Austria, check out this recipe!
Or kick it up a notch and make these sourdough croissants!
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