I’m gonna be honest, homemade croissants are extremely time consuming and difficult, but when done right are one of the most satisfying things to make. I would recommend you follow steps that are Here is a detailed recipe that my sister uses to make homemade croissants.
What type of flour to use?
Ideally, you want to use a flour that has a higher protein percentage – around 10-14%. For this recipe, I used a 13% protein flour. Higher protein means higher gluten formation (more structure). More gluten formation means more carbon dioxide can be trapped inside. This helps the dough rise more in our first step, preparing the dough. Low protein flour is mostly used in cakes to achieve a softer texture. But for croissants, we want more structure to keep our dough layers separated between the butter layers.
How to make the butter block in homemade croissants
- Cut your unsalted European style butter into approximately 1-inch x 4-inch-long rectangular pieces and place it on a large piece of parchment paper.
- Loosely fold all the sides of the parchment paper towards the center over the butter pieces so it forms into a packet, ensuring that there are no spaces for the butter to come out.
- Turn the packet over and lightly beat the butter with a rolling pin, roughly fusing the sticks together. You want to aim for approximately ½ inch thick layer.
- Unwrap your parchment paper and fold to make an 8-inch x 8-inch square. Fold in your parchment paper once again to this dimension and continue beating your butter to fill in all the spaces of the parchment paper.
- Eventually, you will be able to roll the butter out with your rolling pin without beating it, forcing the butter into the corners of the square.
- Place in fridge until ready for use.
Suggested time schedule
Day 1:
9:30 AM – Prepare your detrempe ball for proof
10:30 AM – Proof dough ball at room temp and prepare your butter block
11:30 AM – Proof dough ball for a slow, long rise in fridge
2:30 PM – Shape the detrempe
3:15 PM – Fusing the butter block and detrempe
- 3:15 PM – First fold
- 3:30 PM – First turn
- 3:45 PM – Second fold
- 4:30 PM – Second turn and third fold
- 5:20 PM – Pre-shaping
Day 2:
10:00 AM – Prepare proofing environment in oven
10:15 AM – Shaping croissants
10:45 AM – Proof croissants
1:15 PM – Chill in fridge for 20 minutes before baking
1:35 PM – Brush egg wash 1:45 PM – Bake
Homemade Croissants
Homemade croissants are one of those foods you never thought you would be able to make. Here's the recipe you've been waiting for.
Equipment
- Stand mixer with dough hook
- Rolling Pin
- Parchment paper
- Plastic wrap
Ingredients
Dough
- 8 g active dry yeast
- 215 g warm water
- 600 g flour
- 70 g sugar
- 12 g kosher salt
- 120 g whole milk
- 58 g unsalted butter (cut into pieces)
Butter block
- 340 g unsalted butter
Egg wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
Making the dough
- Mix yeast in warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Add the yeast mixer along with the remaining dough ingredients into a bowl and mix for 5 minutes on low.
- Toss in the pieces of butter one at a time and mix over medium heat until fully incorporated. (8-10 minutes)
- Form your dough into a more precise ball shape, place seam-side down on a lightly floured work surface. A trick I learned is to cut an X across your dough so that after the proofing process, your dough will have taken the shape of a rectangle, which is what we want in this recipe.
- Put your dough back into the mixer bowl and cover with a plastic wrap to rise at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour (around 1.5x its original size). Then transfer to your fridge and chill for 3-4 hours for a slow, long rise.
- While the dough is rising, prepare your butter block.
Butter block instructions
- Cut your unsalted butter into approximately 1-inch x 4-inch-long rectangular pieces and place it on a large piece of parchment paper.
- Loosely fold all the sides of the parchment paper towards the center over the butter pieces so it forms into a packet, ensuring that there are no spaces for the butter to come out.
- Turn the packet over and lightly beat the butter with a rolling pin, roughly fusing the sticks together. You want to aim for a ½ inch thick layer.
- Unwrap your parchment paper and fold to make an 8 x 8 inch square. Fold in your parchment paper once again to this dimension and continue beating your butter to fill in all the spaces of the parchment paper.
- Place in fridge until ready for use.
Shaping the dough
- After the slow, long rise of your dough, take it out of the fridge and make your dough into a rectangular shape by hitting it with your hand. (Remember, cutting the X shape before this initial proofing should have made this step easier for you to form this rectangle shape.)
- Take a large piece of plastic wrap and use the same technique as you did for the butter block to measure out an 8-inch by 10-inch rectangle as best as you can. (This will make enclosing the butter block easier in a later step.)
- Use your rolling pin to roll out to the corners of your plastic wrap.
- Freeze for 15 min.
Fusing butter block with dough
- First fold: Take the dough and butter block out of the freezer and fridge, respectively (keep your plastic wrap). Ona floured surface, roll out the dough the same width as your butter block(8-inch) and twice in length (16-inch). Place the butter block in the center of the rolled-out dough. Fold the long sides down to the center of the butter. Pinch all sides of the dough to make sure you lock the butter in.
- First turn: Flour your work surface gently. Turn your dough so that the crease is now vertical to you and roll out to 24-inch length, while keeping your width to 8-inches. Beat it first and then go in with a rolling pin. Push your dough towards and away from yourself. Be mindful not to push downwards into the dough to avoid squeezing the butter out. Keep lightly flouring the dough and surface as needed, but not too much as you don’t want the dough to look dry. You just want to avoid having the dough stick to your working surface, so you may want to periodically lift your dough as needed. Once you have reached the desired length of 8×24 inches, use a wheel cutter to trim the shorter ends of the dough where the butter does not extend to. If you find any air bubbles in the process, carefully pierce them with a sharp toothpick.
- Second fold: Fold the top and bottom ends of your dough to the center, leaving a small gap between the ends so that they don’t touch and then fold the slab in half at the center like a book. This is your book fold. Beat this dough gently and roll it out very slightly, then place back into the plastic wrap. Freeze for 20 min and then place in the fridge for another 20 minutes.
- Second turn and third fold: Flour your work surface gently. Have your dough on the work surface so that the shorter ends at the top and bottom (this is your second turn). Beat your dough gently with a rolling pin and roll this out to an 8×24-inch rectangle again. Fold your dough into thirds (bottom end to about the 1/3 mark of the dough then top end down to the bottom of the dough). Press gently so the layers adhere and wrap this in your plastic wrap again. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into the sharper corners to form a square. Freeze for 20 min and then place in the fridge for another 20 minutes.
- Pre-shaping: Flour your work surface gently. Beat your dough lightly and do your best to roll it out to a 10×12-inch slab. This step is to pre-shape your dough so that you do not have to roll it out to the desired size all at once. This is also to prevent the dough from springing back on you when you are rolling it out tomorrow. Wrap this slab back in a plastic wrap and slide it onto a baking sheet or cutting board. Freeze for 20 minutes and then chill it in the fridge overnight (8-12 hours).
Shaping croissants for baking
- Prepare your proofing environment: Arrange your oven racks in the upper and lower third of the oven. Bring a skillet of water to simmer over med-high heat on your stove and put this at the floor of the oven to create the ideal proofing environment. You want your croissants to proof around 75°F. This temperature will proof your croissants while ensuring that your butter will not melt. If you have an oven setting that creates a consistent proofing temperature of 75°F, you can use that as well.
- Shaping: Bring your dough out and do your best to roll to a 15×17-inch slab. Trim out irregular edges and create a rectangle that is 14×16-inches. Try to be as precise as you can here. Cut into four 4x-16-inch rectangles. Then cut each rectangle diagonally to form two long triangles. This should form 8 triangles total. Grab the corner of the shorter end of your triangle and pull it out gently to widen the base (about ½ inch on both ends) and lengthen the triangle by 2-inches or so. Fatten the base slightly, then snugly roll the dough upwards towards the point of the triangle. Rest each croissant on the point of the triangle. Place4 croissants per baking sheet, allowing an ample amount of space for each to grow while proofing.
- Proofing: Loosely cover your croissants with plastic wrap. Put your croissants in your prepared oven for proofing for 2.5 hours.
- Carefully uncover the croissants and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes while pre-heating the oven to 400°F.
- Egg Wash: Mix one large egg yolk and the heavy cream. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the croissant surfaces. Avoid touching part of the dough with the layers exposed
- Baking: Once your oven hits 400°F, put your croissants in the oven for 1 minute, and then lower the temperature to 350°Fand continue baking for 19 minutes.
- Rest your croissants on a wire rack for 15minutes before eating.
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