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Croissants for Beginners

How to Make Croissants (For Beginners)

Rachel Roszmann
This recipe is designed to help beginners practice creating homemade laminated dough without committing to a full croissant recipe.  
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Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine French
Servings 5

Ingredients
  

  • 2 TB warm water
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 TB unsalted butter melted, slightly cooled, plus more for bowl
  • 1 TB sugar
  • â…“ tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
  • ÂĽ cup cold milk
  • 7 TB unsalted European-style butter (at least 82% fat) (Plugra or Kerry Gold are good) at least 82% fat (Plugra or Kerry Gold are good)
  • â…“ tsp kosher salt

Instructions
 

Dough

  • In a large bowl, pour about a teaspoon of melted butter and set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let stand for 5 minutes and the yeast gets foamy.
    How to make croissants: Making a croissant dough: the first frame is mixing yeast and water; second frame is adding salt, sugar, butter and flour; third frame is mixing it all together.
  • Add the remaining melted butter, sugar, salt, flour, and milk.
  • Stir everything together until it’s fairly smooth and the dough is tacky. Don’t worry if it’s sticky, you’ll add plenty of flour when you’re rolling out the dough.
  • Place the dough in the buttered bowl and roll it around to coat the dough with the butter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave in a fairly warm, draft-free place to rise for 1 ½ hours and it’s doubled in size.
    How to make croissants: Letting the croissant dough rise: the first frame is the freshly mixed dough; the second frame is the dough puffed up; third frame is punching down the dough.
  • Punch down, cover again, refrigerate, and let it rise for another 1 ½ hours and it’s doubled in size (that's called "proofing").

Butter Block

  • Take a piece of parchment paper and draw a 5”x 3” rectangle in the middle with a Sharpee. Turn over the paper and place the butter in the square.
    How to make croissants: Creating the butter block: drawing a 5"x3" rectangle on a piece of parchment paper to use as a guide when you beat down the butter.
  • Place a second piece of parchment paper on top and beat the butter with your rolling pin until it makes a 5” x 3” rectangle.
    How to make croissants: Beating down the butter between two sheets of parchment paper to fit in the 5"x3" rectangle.
  • Place the butter (still on the paper) in the refrigerator for an hour.

Dough + Butter  

  • Prepare a small sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper and sprinkling it with flour and set aside. Unwrap dough from plastic wrap. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to make a 12” x 6” rectangle. Place it on the prepared baking sheet, cover with plastic and place in the freezer for ten minutes.
  • Return the cold dough to your work area. Place the cold butter block in the middle of the dough slightly right of center so that you can fold about 1” of the dough over the right side of the butter and the dough on the left side can fold over the remaining butter so it’s enveloped by the dough.
    How to make croissants: Placing the butter block in the dough to create an envelope.
  • Using the rolling pin, lightly beat the dough so it starts to spread a little. Then gently roll out the dough until you have a 10” x 5” rectangle.
  • Place on the prepared sheet pan, cover and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

2nd Turn

  • Take the rectangle of dough and place it on your work surface. Repeat the same method for rolling out the dough from the first turn so that it makes a 12” x 6” rectangle and fold into thirds again.
    How to make croissants: Creating the second turn of the croissant dough to further thin out the layers of butter and dough.
  • Repeat this for the 3rd and 4th turns. Place on the prepared sheet pan, cover and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
  • Prepare a second sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Roll out dough one final time to make a 15” x 7” rectangle.
    Shaping the croissant dough: first frame is dough rolled out into a rough rectangle; second frame is trimming the edges to make a perfect rectangle; third frame is rectangle sliced into six triangles with a pizza wheel.
  • Slice the remaining dough into 6 triangles—the base should be about 3.5”
  • Place the triangles back on the sheet pan, cover and place in the freezer to work on one at a time.
  • With a sharp knife or pizza wheel, make a ½” vertical slit on the base of the triangle.
    How to make croissants: Cutting slits into the croissant dough for shaping.
  • Gently stretch the corners made by the slit and fold them away from each other and then roll the dough away from you to make the croissant shape. Place on second prepared sheet pan.
    How to make croissants: Rolling up the croissant triangles to make a crescent shape.
  • Repeat for remaining five croissants.
  • Cover with a dry towel and let rise for 1.5 hours or they’ve doubled in size.
    How to make croissants: Prepping the dough to bake: first frame is crescent-shaped rolls placed on parchment paper; second frame is brushing the croissant with egg wash; third frame is baked croissants.
  • Preheat oven to 425℉.
  • Brush croissants with egg wash.
  • Place in the middle rack of the oven. Reduce heat to 400℉ and bake for 20 minutes, turning half way through. They’re done when they’re a golden brown. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.
    How to make croissants: The interior of a flaky, homemade croissant.
Keyword flour, sunbutter, yeast