Making croissants at home can seem daunting, but if you’ve mastered puff pastry, you’re halfway there! Croissants are essentially "baby" puff pastries—requiring fewer turns and an overnight rest. While they demand patience and practice, the reward is a flaky, buttery masterpiece that rivals the best Parisian bakeries.
My standards for croissants are high: I expect a rich, golden, crinkly surface; I expect it to explode (quietly) when bitten into; and I expect every crumb to be loaded with butter.
- Pam Frier, Times Columnist
Croissant-Making Simplified
1. Fewer Turns: Unlike puff pastry, croissants require fewer laminating folds, making the process more approachable.
2. Overnight Rest: Resting the dough in the refrigerator develops flavor and makes it easier to work with.
3. Practice Makes Perfect: Achieving that perfect flakiness takes time, but every attempt is deliciously rewarding.
Recipe: Croissants
Makes: 12-16
Ingredients:
1 pound all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 ounce fresh yeast or 1/4 ounce dried yeast
1 1/3 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 ounce fresh yeast or 1/4 ounce dried yeast
1 1/3 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
[You can find the recipe for Croissants in the book Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection (affiliate link)
.] You can watch this video to see the method: How to Make Croissants.Tasting Notes
With all that butter and fresh dough, what's not to love about these croissants. I will keep practicing and aim for crumb-explosion perfection.
Next Time
Brioche in Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection (affiliate link) page 430
Links
Food Timeline's Croissant History
Food & Wine: Lamination: The Art of the Perfect Croissant
::Whisk::
I'm baking my way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link) cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, I try to find a suitable substitution.
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4 comments:
Hmm...I have only tried making croissants once but they didn't work out that great. The only 2 ingredients in the puff pastry dough were butter and flour so it yielded a very dense, heavy final product. Maybe it wasn't laminated enough but I think adding the eggs and yeast would definitely help. Thanks for the recipe.
These look pretty darned good to me! The only time I have ever made croissants was at a class at Ecole Lenôtre in Paris. It was so much work and enough to convince me that I am happy to pay whatever is costs to buy decent croissants in Toronto!
I'm making these on Sunday!
the starving student - you're right. Puff pastry doesn't have yeast, which makes it more difficult to make!
Mardi - Ooh, a class at Lenôtre sounds amazing! Have you found any decent croissants in Toronto?
Baker Man - hope you had time to make these croissants today. :)
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