Croissants

Croissants are somewhat of a Holy Grail baking project for me. With a lot of patience, and a bit of science (or magic?) you can make a decent Croissant at home, but fair warning, this is a difficult skill to master. I play around with Viennoiserie, the dough that croissants and pain au chocolat are made out of, every few months to try and better my skills. Honestly, my progress is as slow as a snail, but nevertheless, it’s a delicious experiment!

As I said earlier, I first made croissants for my “do something new everyday” challenge in 2020, and although they weren’t terrible – to be honest, they were bloody delicious! – but there was also plenty of room for improvement.

Due to the high butter content, croissants are hard to make in a home kitchen. The dough should always be at the right temperature – not too warm otherwise the butter melts, and you don’t get the beautiful layers, but also not too cold as then the butter breaks, and you have the same problem. Bakeries have special equipment to help fold the dough quickly and carefully in order to keep it cold – at home, we get to have a little more “fun”!

This time round I used the same recipe – a 3-day adventure – so that I could quickly see and compare my progress. This recipe also makes enough dough for 3 different attempts, so I have also planned to make pain au chocolat and pain aux raisin in the next few weeks, but today is all about the croissants!

Croissants Day 1

The most important part of Viennoiserie is the butter. Those that have been to an Italian Pasticceria might be familiar with the cornetto. It looks just like a croissant, but margarine is used instead of butter and is therefore softer and lighter than the French style. In my opinion, the cornetto is too fatty instead of flaky, so I’m always on Team Butter.

My first step was to prepare the dough so that it’s strong enough to hold the buttery layers to come. For this reason, strong white bread flour is used, so that the gluten can support the butter. After resting the dough overnight in the fridge, I prepared the butter. Similar to a puff pastry recipe, you fold the dough around a relatively thin square of butter (a bit like you’re folding a baby into a blanket) and then roll it out to make your first layer. After, a series of folds are completed to build up the buttery layers, with a rest in the fridge between each one. Now you can understand why it takes 3 days!

Day 2

Eventually, day three arrived, and I was happy that I’d soon be able to eat the croissants. First, I needed a few more hours to make them perfect. I like turning the croissants from long triangles into the famous crescent shape because I can soon see how well the layers have turned out. To be honest, I just like playing around with dough. The only advice here is to not roll the croissants too loosely otherwise they will be too airy, but be careful, they shouldn’t be too tight either!

Day 3

Unfortunately, I find the homestretch the hardest when making croissants at home, as there are often problems knowing exactly how long to let them rest (prove). In some recipes, there are defined times (around 3 hours), but I find it better to judge with your own eyes. I wait until they feel really light and airy, and jiggle slightly when you (carefully) move the tray, and at this point, you should also be able to see a bit of space between the layers too. To be honest, I don’t always trust myself with this and usually end up checking Google! This time however, I must give myself credit, I think I judged them better than I have previously, and I was super pleased with the result of my 3-days of hard work.

I have the feeling that in this post I’ve just complained about how hard and troublesome I find it to make croissants at home, but I actually love the challenge. This was my best attempt yet, but until I get it just right, I can’t wait to eat all the happy accidents to come.