Croissant
France's most technically demanding pastry — a yeasted, laminated dough folded 27 layers of butter, baked to a shatteringly crispy exterior with a honeycomb interior. The benchmark: it should leave buttery flakes on your shirt.
- Total
- 50 min
- Serves
- 12
- Level
- Hard
Prep 20 min · Cook 30 min
Ingredients
Method
Détrempe: mix flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Add cold milk and softened butter. Knead until smooth but do not over-develop gluten. Shape into a rectangle, wrap and refrigerate overnight.
About 5 min
Beurrage: pound the cold butter between sheets of parchment into a 20×20 cm square. Keep cold but pliable — it should bend without cracking.
About 11 min
Roll détrempe into a 40×20 cm rectangle. Place butter block in the centre. Fold dough over the butter like an envelope, sealing all edges. Roll out to 60×20 cm. Give a letter fold (3 folds). Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes. Repeat rolling and letter fold twice more (3 turns total, with 30 min rests in fridge between). You now have 27 layers.
About 11 min
Roll the laminated dough to 4–5 mm thickness. Cut into long isoceles triangles (base 12 cm, height 20 cm). Stretch each triangle gently lengthways.
About 11 min
Roll each triangle from the wide base toward the point, keeping tension, to create a tight roll. Curve the ends toward you to form the crescent shape. Place on parchment-lined trays leaving space to expand. Brush with egg wash. Prove at 24°C for 2–3 hours until doubled and visibly wobbly.
About 11 min
Brush gently with egg wash again (avoid the cut layers on the side). Bake at 190°C/375°F for 18–22 minutes until deeply amber and caramelised. Cool on a rack. They should shatter when broken open.
About 3 min
Nutrition per serving (estimate)
- Calories
- 340
- Protein
- 6 g
- Carbs
- 32 g
- Fat
- 22 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 6 g
- Sodium
- 280 mg
Contains: gluten, dairy, eggs
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Recipe by Boon Tools.