Croissants

​I recommend getting a cup of coffee and a snack before you sit down to read this post - it's lengthy and it's guaranteed to make you hungry.

Okay, now that you're ready, let me tell you about my first experience with homemade croissants.  I first came across a recipe for croissants in the January issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine.  I've never actually attempted homemade croissants because quite honestly - I was intimidated by this delicate pastry.  After reading through 3 full pages of instructions, I came to the conclusion that mastering croissants was not going to be easy.  It took a couple of months for me to work up the courage to conquer this recipe but I dreamed of the satisfaction that it would bring if I could pull it off.

​Before I even started my homemade croissants, I made a trip to the grocery store to buy European-style butter and high protein flour.  The European butter has a higher fat content and less water and helps to create flakier layers.  King Arthur flour has a high protein content and produces more gluten necessary for croissants.   

​The recipe warns that it takes a minimum of 10 hours to prepare the croissants (not including my trip to the store) so I set aside plenty of time.  It was a lengthy process but it was fun, and at times even stress revealing. 

Croissants
3 Tablespoons butter
24 Tablespoons European-style butter
1 3/4 cups whole milk
4 teaspoons yeast
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water 

​Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.  Remove from heat and stir in milk.  Whisk in yeast.

​Transfer yeast to the bowl of a standing mixer.  Add flour, sugar and 2 teaspoons salt.  Using a dough hook, knead on low speed 2-3 minutes.  Increase speed to medium and knead 1 minute longer.

Remove bowl from mixer, cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Transfer dough to silpat lined baking sheet.  Shape into a 10x17 inch rectangle.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

​While the dough chills, fold a 24 inch length of parchment paper in half lengthwise to create a 12 inch rectangle.  Trust me - you will need a ruler for this recipe.  Fold over 3 open sides of the rectangle to form an 8 inch square.

​Place 24 Tablespoons of butter directly on the counter and beat it with a rolling pin for 60 seconds.  

​Fold butter on itself and beat into a 6 inch square.   

​Unfold parchment envelope and transfer butter to the center of the parchment.

​Refold parchment at creases and gently roll until butter fills parchment square.  Refrigerate at least 45 minutes.  Transfer dough to the freezer for 30 minutes.

​Transfer dough to a lightly floured counter and roll into a 17 by 8 inch rectangle.  Unwrap butter and place in the center of dough. 

​Fold sides of dough over butter so they meet in the middle.  Press seam together.  Press ends together with rolling pin.

​Roll out lengthwise into a 24 by 8 inch rectangle.

​Starting at the bottom of dough, fold into thirds like a letter.

​Turn dough 90 degrees and repeat rolling and folding.

​Place dough on a baking sheet, wrap in plastic wrap and return to freezer for 30 minutes.  Transfer dough to counter and  roll into a 24 by 8 inch rectangle.  Fold into thirds.

​Place dough on baking sheet, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours. Transfer dough to freezer for 30 minutes.  Transfer dough to counter and roll into an 18 by 16 inch rectangle.

​Fold dough in half lengthwise.

​Using a ruler, mark dough at 3 inch intervals along the folded edge.  (You will have 5 marks.)

Starting at the lower edge of dough, measure in 1 1/2 inches and then begin marking on the dough.  Cut dough from bottom marks to top marks forming triangles.  You will end up with 12 triangles.

​Unfold each triangle to form a diamond shape.

​Cut into triangles. (You will have 22 triangles.)

​Cut a 1/2" slit in the center of the short side of the triangle.

Holding triangle by the 2 corners on either side of the slit, start to roll up the croissants.  Gently tuck the end of the croissant underneath and bring the two ends together.

Place croissants on a baking sheet at least 2 1/2 inches apart.  Lightly warp with plastic wrap and let rise 2 1/2 - 3 hours.  You can also refrigerate formed croissants for up to 18 hours or freeze them for up to 2 months.  (Refrigerated croissants take an extra 30 minutes to rise and frozen croissants take an extra 1-2 hours to rise.)  I put mine in the freezer because I didn't want to bake my croissants at 10:00 at night.  The next morning I set out 4 croissants to rise.  (I only planned to make 4 croissants because I wanted to save the others for a special occasion.)

Heat oven to 425.  Whisk together egg, water and a pinch of salt.  Brush croissants with egg wash and place in oven.

Reduce heat to 400 and bake 12 minutes.  Rotate baking sheet and bake another 8-12 minutes.  

​After 10 hours of croissant preparation, to say that my expectations of these pastries was high, is an understatement.  As I pulled the tray out of the oven, the overwhelming smell of buttery dough was captivating.  I quickly slid them to a cooling rack so I could take a quick picture of the warm pastries.

There was no need to add butter to these croissants.  They were a perfect balance of rich and buttery goodness with light, flaky, delicate layers of dough.  This was by far the best croissant that I have ever had - it was CRAZY good!  It took less than 2 minutes to eat the entire croissant and then the picture taking resumed. 

I was so glad that I had only defrosted 4 croissants because I don't think I could have stopped myself from eating a whole lot more of these.  I managed to find the will power to save the other 3 croissants for my family.  (Mostly because I had already promised them a sampling.)

I have 18 croissants left in my freezer to save for another day.  I'm not quite sure what occasion I will deem special enough for these labor intensive pastries but you can be sure that it will be soon.  These would be a perfect compliment to any brunch menu.

Hungry yet?  Don't say that I didn't warn you.  I was so proud of my very first batch of homemade croissants.  I think I found a new favorite recipe to add to my collection.

Ciao!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe