Okay here it is, my unadulterated love for croissants. Never have I once denied croissants. The more I ate them, the more I noticed the difference between your common grocery store croissants and local artisan bakery croissants. To be honest, this obsession began with a distant on-look as I had an affair with the danish braid. I was confident in baking a danish braid, rolling out the dough and letting it rise. Both pastries begin with the same lamination technique (I’ll further describe), but for whatever reason, I skirted away from the croissant. I always thought, one day I’ll make a croissant, one day. But that day took several years to come. It took meeting french friends to conquer my lack of motivation and/or fear of making the beloved croissants.
Like the danish braid, a croissant uses laminated dough. Lamination simply means having layers of dough, somewhat like laminating paper, there’s paper squished between two pieces of plastic. For croissants, the layers consist of a yeast-risen dough and butter. The key is having patience to let the dough chill and temper a bit before rolling. The mixing of the dough and the whole rolling/folding process is rather straight-forward. Patience is tricky because, if you’re like me, you tend to rush and want to get to the next step. But the issue with not waiting is primarily this: the butter will melt into the dough and not properly stretch out during the rolling step, thus creating more of a brioche than a flaky pastry.
“The key is having patience to let the dough chill and temper a bit before rolling.”
So what is this rolling/folding technique? Essentially we start with a block of butter that gets enveloped into the dough, to create that first lamination (dough is the plastic, butter is the paper). The rolling process stretches the dough out, thinning each layer. Then we fold the pastry in thirds like a letter. Then repeat the process 3 more times to get 3x3x3x3 = 81 layers. I suppose in theory you could fold it in half or quarters, but thirds is a good size and what is traditionally done. Anyway, you roll and fold away (but not too many times or the butter and dough will not have enough structural integrity).
And then once you’ve mastered the lamination technique, you can basically make any puff pastry, danish pastry, croissant pastry, even phyllo dough! The differences lie in the type of dough used. But here, we’re just going to do the standard, plain croissant. Okay, it’s not that boring, it’s actually delicious and a quintessential french pastry that I think every home baker can master! Well, given patience of course.
Personally, I find that making the dough over the course of a day produces the best results. If there’s a Saturday when I’m not doing much and chilling around the house, that’s perfect for croissant making. I won’t be too distracted by other activities and have the time to go in and out of the kitchen every hour or so. But it’s also doable to make in the late afternoon/evening after work! Maybe leave the baking till the next day though haha, cause fresh morning croissants are the best!
Let me know how yours goes!
French Croissants
Ingredients
- 1 package dry-active yeast (2-1/4 tsp or 10 g)
- 6 Tbsp water, luke-warm
- 2 Tbsp sugar, divided
- 3.5 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1 cup milk, warmed
- 3 Tbsp oil
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 1 egg white (optional)
Instructions
- Part A: Preferment: Mix the warm water and 2 tsp of sugar. Sprinkle the yeast and waiit until the yeast foams up, a few minutes.
- Part B: Dough: While waiting for yeast to foam in Part A, dissolve the 4 tsp sugar and salt in the warm milk.
- Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in all liquid mixtures (preferment, oil and milk). Mix with a spatula until everything comes together.
- Lightly knead the dough by folding the dough in half and quarter-turning it for a few times within the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a wet towel and set aside to rise for 2-3 hour, or until triple in volume. Covering the dough keeps it from drying out. If pressed on time, turn on your oven for about 2 minutes to slightly heat up the space and let the dough rise in there.
- Part C: Chilling: While waiting for dough to rise in Part B, prepare the butter by creating a 8x16 in block. I like to talk room temperature butter and rolling it between wax/parchment paper. You could also melt it into a container lined with parchment of the same size. Chill the butter block in the fridge until hard again (around 1 hour).
- Lightly flour a flat surface/counter. When the dough has risen enough, turn it out to the surface and lightly flour the top. Pat the dough into a rough rectangle and chill in fridge until cool to touch (at least 30 min).
- Part D: Lamination: Once butter and dough has chilled, remove them from the fridge. Roll out the dough to 24×16 in. Place the block of butter in the center where the its short edge meets the long edge of the dough (16 in side matches on both). Fold the two sides of the dough in 1/3 at a time like a letter in an envelope. Chill again for an hour, and always chill in doubt. The butter needs to remain cool so it doesn’t blend into the dough.
- Repeat the rolling, folding, and chilling process as follows: Start by taking the dough out of the fridge for a few minutes for the butter and dough to warm up slightly so it isn't stiff to roll out. Then begin by placing the dough on a floured surface with the crease away from you and roll the long dimension left/right (landscape style). Then fold the thirds left/right. Chill between each roll. Use these dimensions for the next 3 cycles: 10×30 in, 24×24 in, 10×30 in. After the last iteration, you can cover the dough and let it sit in the fridge overnight before shaping.
- Part E: Shaping: Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- For shaping, roll the dough to 8x12in. Using a sharp knife, cut it in half, chill one half. Roll out one piece again (from 6x8in) to 12x16in. Cut out 4 triangles from each dough piece, such that each base is 8 in. If you have scraps, you can roll them into any odd shape.
- Starting from the wide bottom, roll the triangles up and curve them into a crescent with all the tips pointing towards the center. Make sure that the end of the rolled tip is at the bottom of the croissant so it sticks better to itself. Place them on the prepared baking sheet 2 in apart. Chill in fridge while shaping the other half of the dough.
- Part F: Baking: Let the croissants sit to rise (about 15-30 min) as the oven preheats to 450°F.
- Whisk a teaspoon of water with the egg white and brush the egg wash on all the croissants. Bake for 15 min, or until croissants become golden brown on the outside.
- Cool and enjoy!
Notes
- The recipe can be easily halved – cut down on the rolled dimensions by about 75%
- For mini croissants, cut out 8 triangles in each half of dough, such that the base is 4 in and they're 8 in long (instead of 8 in base with 12 in length).
- Key to yeast is to use water slightly warm to the touch. Also, avoid using metal tools – this can react and destroy the yeast.
- If you want to speed up the initial rise, heat up your oven to the lowest temperature and let it cool back down to under 100°F and let the dough sit in there for 30 min or so.
- Ingredient notes: I use vegetable or avocado oil, but most cooking oils will work too. Like most of my recipes, I do not use milk (except in butter). Although milk might be preferred, soy milk still makes beautiful and delicious croissants.
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