Croissants – Melt in your mouth buttery perfection

Making a croissant is a true labour of love. Looking at the recipe, it is easy to get scared! 1050 odd minutes of preparation time? That is 17 hours or so! Making a croissant is a true labour of love because you will not be very busy for long but the overall recipe does take time. Oh, and those 17 hours? Don’t worry, you will be asleep for at least half of them…

Make them, you will enjoy the recipe, but more importantly, those around you will love the result. The sheer decadence of the pastry, coupled with the presumed skill and time that it takes will automatically elevate this into the treat of all treats… it is no wonder that upmarket hotels have these in their breakfast rooms .

What are croissants?

Croissants are a sweet-dough breakfast French pastry, shaped in a crescent, hence the name. But, a croissant is not just a pastry, it is a masterpiece of flaky puff pastry. It is pillowy,, soft, crunchy, flaky, chewy, cloud-like and buttery without feeling fatty. It is a decadent treat that can just as easily be converted into a sandwich or a myriad of sweet confections by adding jams, honey or chocolate.

A proper croissant needs nothing more than a good cup of tea or coffee to complete it.

How do you make a croissant flaky?

The secret behind a great croissant is the dough, which is essentially puff pastry made by laminating the dough a few times to achieve anywhere between 135 and 1,215 distinct layers. The more lamination steps, the more layers you get and the flakier the pastry becomes.

Laminating dough simply means folding the dough over a layer of butter and rolling it down to create a dough-butter-dough sandwich. Repeating this a few times will give a dough-butter-dough-butter-dough (and so on) effect, essentially trapping butter between layers of dough until it is cooked. At that moment the butter will melt, giving off some steam which creates tiny pockets of air between the layers.

How to store croissants?

While I have never had any left-overs, the best way to store a croissant is to place it into an air-tight container, freezer bag or wrapped tightly into some foil to minimise contact with air. Place the container in the fridge and they should last 2-3 days, up to a week.

How to freeze croissants

You have two options here – either freeze them before baking or freeze them after baking

1. Freezing before baking: after shaping them into a croissant shape but before they are allowed to rise for the final time, place them on a tray and cover with plastic wrap. Then put the tray in the freezer for a few hours. Once they have frozen, simply transfer them into an air-tight container or freezer bag. They will keep for 1-2 months.
2. Freezing baked croissants is very easy. Just let them cool down for an hour until they are at room temperature. Then place them into an airtight container or freezer bags and place them in the freezer.

To bake the croissants, simply place them onto a sheet of baking paper on the countertop and cover with some plastic wrap. Allow to thaw out and proof overnight at room temperature or for about 12 hours.

How can I make croissants that melt in your mouth like homemade cinnamon rolls?

Creating melt in your mouth cinnamon rolls croissants is a delicious endeavor. Incorporating layers of butter and folding the dough multiple times will result in a flaky, buttery pastry. Adding a cinnamon sugar filling will bring that familiar cinnamon roll flavor to the classic croissant dough.

How to reheat croissants

Simply place them on a baking sheet, allow them to fully defrost if frozen, and warm them for 5-10 minutes in the oven at 180C. You want to warm them through and make the skin crispy again without burning them. Do not use a microwave – they will become tough and chewy and avoid the grill – they will burn while remaining cold.

Tips on ingredients:

• Flour: Use strong bread flour that is high in protein and finely ground. Typically you are looking at “000” flour. The finer the flour, the smoother the croissant will feel. The higher the protein content, the better the layers will hold up. You ideally want 15% protein or so.
• Salt: This brings out the flavour of the croissants. You can adjust this down to your taste and sodium preference.
• Butter: Unsalted butter is important. If your butter is salted, then reduce the amount of salt by 3g. While having the best butter can yield better results, often the difference is marginal ad I try to get a good quality butter
• Egg: The egg is just there for the eggwash and can be omitted. The results will not be as spectacular though.
• Yeast: always try to bloom your yeast in water with a little sugar. In this case the water needs to be cool, so the yeast may not foam as much as with lukewarm water. However, you always have to check that the yeast foams before using it. If it doesn’t foam, the yeast is dead.

Special tips:

• If you struggle to shape the butter, let it soften a but in the microwave, then use a suitable container to create a 40cm x 19cm rectangle. Place the container with the butter back into the fridge to harden it.
• Keep the dough as cool as possible. You want the butter to set before the next lamination step. The cold butter wil stay in place during the preparation sequence.
• If the dough seems to have lumps of butter, do not panic and leave them there. The butter will ooze out during the baking step.

Croissants – Melt in your mouth buttery perfection

Recipe by Alexander WhaleyCourse: Breakfast, BrunchCuisine: French, Continental

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

17

hours 

30

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Inactive Time

12

Hours

Total time

17

hours 

50

minutes

Croissants are the quintessential French breakfast dish. A proper Croissant is a contradiction – They are buttery but not fatty. They have to be soft, fluffy, flaky with just a little crust to bite into and yet it must dissolve away in your mouth.

Croissants terrify most bakers and yet they really are the simplest to make if you are methodical and careful. The simple truth is that this is a recipe to be approached with passion and it will more than amply reward you.

The preparation of a croissant involves 3 phases:
1) The creation of a puffy pastry
2) The creation of the croissant
3) The baking of the croissant.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour. If you can get 15% protein and extra fine (000) flour, it is best.

• 10 g salt

• 80g caster sugar

• 300ml cool water

• 300g chilled unsalted butter, invest in a top quality butter

• Optionally: 1 medium egg to glaze and a pinch of salt

Directions

• Keep the dough very, very cool!
• Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a stand mixer bowl using the dough hook.
• Add in the water and the yeast and mix on low for 2 minutes. Then crank up to medium speed and mix for another 6 minutes. The dough will feel stiff.
• Lightly flour a work surface, tip the dough out and shape it into a ball.
• Dust the ball with flour and place in a clean plastic bag in the fridge for an hour.
• While it is in the fridge, dust the work surface again and lay out the butter. Use the rolling pin to bash it out to a rectangle about 40cm by 19cm. Place it on a lightly floured tray in the fridge.
• Dust the work surface with some flour and tip the dough out. Roll it out to a rectangle about 60cmx 20cm.
• Place the butter rectangle on top of the dough so that it covers two-thirds of the dough (so long sides align and 1 short side also aligns). This will leave a square roughly 20cm x 20cm without butter.
• Fold the exposed dough back onto the butter. You now have 1 side with dough-butter-dough and the other with dough-butter. Fold this side onto the dough-butter-dough side so that you have a set of layers dough-butter-dough-butter-dough in a square 20 cm x 20 cm.
• Pinch the edges down a bit to seal in the butter. Put the dough back in the plastic bag or on the tray and place back in the fridge for another hour to cool down…
• Lightly flour the worksurface again and put the dough down on it. it should have 2 sides that are shorter (17cm, due to the folding) and 2 that are longer (20cm). Roll the dough out on the shorter sides until you get a new rectangle of 60 cm x 20 cm.
• Take the first 20 cm of the rectangle along the length and fold over so that you have a rectangle 40 cm x 20 cm with dough -dough on one side and dough on the other side. Fold the other side over the dough – dough bit to get a 3-layer dough sandwich.
• Put the dough back in the plastic bag or on the tray and place back in the fridge for another hour to cool down…
• Repeat the steps 11 to 13 two more times, making sure that the dough rests in the fridge for an hour in between each repeat.
• After the 3rd sets of dough folds, put the resulting square of dough back into the plastic bag or on the tray covered with plastic and place the tray in the fridge overnight for 8 hours.
• The next morning, line 2-3 baking trays with silicone paper or baking paper.
• Lightly flour your work surface and put the dough on it.
• Roll out the dough to make a rectangle 42cm long x 30 cm wide. It should be about 7mm think. Neaten the edges.
• Cut the rectangle along the length into 2 strips (so each is 42 cm x 15 cm).
• Cut triangles out of each strip. they should be 12 cm wide at the base and 15 cm high. It is easiest if you first cut this shape out of paper and use it as a template. The first and last triangles will be half triangles… that is OK. You should manage 6 triangles per strip.
• Separate each triangle and holding the base, give the top end a gentle tug to add some tension to it. Then starting at the base, roll up the dough towards the tip.
• Bend the resulting shape into a crescent shape just lie a croissant and set on the baking sheet to rest. You will get 12 croissants and you can put 4-6 on each baking tray, leaving space between them to grow.
• Place each tray in a plastic bag or loosely cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise until they have doubled in size – about 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 200C
• Optional: Whisk the egg with a pinch of salt and brush the top of the croissants with this eggwash.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm.