Croissant
Croissant: flaky laminated butter crescents, the Paris bakery breakfast
FrenchThe croissant is the breakfast of Paris, bought warm from the corner boulangerie on weekend mornings and eaten with café au lait, and although it came from Vienna it was in 20th-century Paris that it became the buttery, flaky crescent we know. A lightly sweet yeasted dough is wrapped around a sheet of cold butter, rolled and folded three times, shaped and proved until wobbly, then baked until deep golden with a honeycomb of layers inside. The common mistake is proving in a warm place, which melts the butter out of the layers. Chef's tip: prove the shaped croissants at cool room temperature, about 24 °C, until they have doubled and jiggle when the tray is shaken.
- Total time
- 680 min
- Difficulty
- hard
- Serves
- 12
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 ⅛ lb strong white bread flour
- 2 oz caster sugar
- ⅓ oz salt
- ¼ oz instant dried yeast
- ½ cup cold milk
- ½ cup cold water
- 1 ⅜ oz unsalted buttersoft
For laminating
- 9 oz cold unsalted butter
To glaze
- 1 eggbeaten with 1 tbsp milk
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (4)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Mix the 1 ⅛ lb strong white bread flour, 2 oz caster sugar, ⅓ oz salt and ¼ oz instant dried yeast, add the ½ cup cold milk, ½ cup cold water and 1 ⅜ oz unsalted butter and knead for 5 minutes into a smooth, fairly firm dough. Flatten into a rectangle, wrap and chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
10 minStep 2: Beat the cold 9 oz cold unsalted butter between sheets of baking paper into a 17 cm square and chill until firm but bendable.
10 minStep 3: Roll the dough into a 34 x 17 cm rectangle, lay the butter on one half and fold the other half over; pinch the edges to seal.
10 minStep 4: Roll into a 60 x 20 cm strip, fold in three like a letter, turn a quarter turn and chill 30 minutes. Repeat twice more, chilling 30 minutes between, for three folds in all. Chill 1 hour.
20 minStep 5: Roll the dough into a 25 x 60 cm rectangle, 4 mm thick. Cut into 12 tall triangles with a 9 cm base. Make a 1 cm nick in the centre of each base, then roll up loosely from the base to the tip and set on lined trays with the tip underneath.
15 minStep 6: Brush with 1 egg and prove at about 75°F for 2–2½ hours, until doubled, puffy and wobbly.
150 minStep 7: Heat the oven to 400°F (350°F fan). Brush again with egg and bake for 18–20 minutes, until deep golden brown and crisp; they should feel very light. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before eating.
20 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 290 kcal
- Protein
- 5 g
- Carbs
- 28 g
- Fat
- 17 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does croissant take?
- About 680 minutes in total: 660 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 12 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of strong white bread flour?
- Plain flour, same amount (the dough will be softer and rise a little less).
- What can I use instead of caster sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Sandwich grecKebab baguette
In Paris, a "grec" is the late-night kebab sandwich named after the Greek-run shops that first sold it in the Latin Quarter. On rue de la Huchette and rue Saint-André-des-Arts near Saint-Michel, students queue after a night out for crusty bread or pitta stuffed with meat shaved from a turning spit, lettuce, tomato and onion, a garlicky white sauce, and, the Paris touch, a handful of fries pushed right inside. This home version marinates chicken thighs in spiced yoghurt, sears them hard and slices them thin, with oven fries. It contains milk, egg (in the mayonnaise) and wheat. Chef's tip: slice the meat thinly across the grain after resting; thick chunks don't feel like a grec.
Basque burnt cheesecake
This crustless cheesecake was created in the early 1990s at La Viña, a pintxos bar in the old town of San Sebastián (Donostia) in the Basque Country, and is now famous around the world. It's baked very hot so the top caramelises almost black and the sides rise and crack, while the middle stays soft and creamy, almost runny. There's no base and no water bath, and the rough, rustic look is the point: it's lined with crumpled baking paper. La Viña uses a spoonful of wheat flour; cornflour does the same job and keeps it gluten free. Chef's tip: take it out of the oven while the centre still wobbles like a soft set custard; it firms up as it cools, and if it looks set in the oven, the middle will be dry instead of creamy.
Spanish
BourrideFish stew with garlic sauce
Bourride is the fish stew of Sète and the Provençal coast, a quieter, creamier cousin of bouillabaisse eaten for Friday lunch and summer dinners by the sea. Firm white fish poaches in a broth of fennel, leek, orange peel and thyme, then the broth is thickened with a rich garlic aïoli until it turns silky and pale gold. It is high in protein and suitable as part of a balanced diet; skip the traditional bread or keep it to one thin slice, and serve with steamed greens. About 400 kcal and 8 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is letting the broth boil after the aïoli goes in, which splits it like scrambled egg. Chef's tip: use pasteurised egg yolks, and stir the broth over a low heat until it coats a spoon and reaches about 72 °C.