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Check out this amazing recipe step by step for how to make perfect French fresh homemade croissants.

Method

Butter

This is the most important ingredient for making french croissants. While there is a little butter incorporated into the dough (or detrempe), the bulk of the butter will be in the tourrage. Tourrage is the cold butter block that will be encased in the dough.

WHAT IF I CAN’T FIND EUROPEAN BUTTER?

Well, then you’re in the same boat as me! I had such a hard time finding European butter here in Ottawa. After much searching, I finally found two brands. It was a European-style butter, made in Canada, with 82 – 84% butterfat milk.

It doesn’t have as high of a fat content as I would have liked (only 12% fat content), but it did help with the pliability.

Flour

I use all purpose flour (aka plain flour). This has about 11% protein content. You can also use bread flour that has a higher protein content. I have used both and they both work well in this recipe. AP flour is more readily available though.

Yeast

For this recipe (and like all my bread recipes) I use active dry yeast. If you have instant yeast, you can use that instead.

Water + milk

I use a combination of water and milk here, but you can use all milk if you prefer. I also like to use 3% (full fat) or 2% milk in my baking, but you are welcome to use any kind of milk you have at home.

Sugar + honey

While the original recipe called for malt syrup instead of honey, you can use any inverted sugar source available in your kitchen – honey, malt syrup, corn syrup, maple or golden syrup. Yeast feeds on inverted sugar much faster, and that is why a little of this is added to the yeast to help activate it.

HOW TO MAKE FRENCH CROISSANTS – METHOD?

MAKING THE DETREMPE

This is the dough that will be encasing the tourrage (butter block). This dough is meant to be a lean dough. Which means the dough isn’t enriched with lots of butter and eggs, and is smooth. Similar to a pain au lait.

Unlike other types of bread dough, you don’t need to knead this for too long. That is because the folding and rolling of the dough when making French croissants, is going to keep developing the gluten.

Since we are making a small batch of croissants here, you can totally make the detrempe by hand. It’s not that hard. However, if you choose to make a double batch, then I recommend using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, for kneading.

MAKING THE DETREMPE IS EASY

·         First, activate the yeast by dissolving it in the warm liquid and inverted sugar mixture, and let it “come alive”.

·         Next, add the sugar, and melted and cooled butter.

·         Followed by the flour, and finally the salt.

·         Mix the dough to from a scraggly, rough looking dough – this lets the flour hydrate.

·         Knead it for about 3 – 5 minutes until nice and smooth.

If you don’t want to knead by hand, then you can also use a stand mixer.

Activating the yeast

Adding the rest of the ingredients

Bringing the dough together

THE DOUGH WILL NEED TO PROOF NEXT. WHILE IT’S PROOFING, YOU CAN GET THE BUTTER BLOCK READY.

Once proofed, shape the dough into a rectangle (7 x 10 inches), then wrap it and freeze for a few hours, or overnight.

The dough needs to be very cold, but pliable. I usually freeze it overnight, and then let it thaw until it’s the right consistency the following day. DO NOT place it in the fridge as the dough will keep proofing in the fridge and the yeast will remain active.

TIPS TO REMEMBER WHEN ENCLOSING THE BUTTER IN PARCHMENT PAPER

Remove the dough from the freezer and allow it to thaw just enough so that it’s nice and pliable. The temperature of the dough should still be around 40° – 50° F / 4° – 10° C. Make sure the dimensions are 7 x 10.5 inches.

When the dough is pliable, remove the butter from the fridge. The butter should be around the same temperature, BUT it won’t be pliable. So, it’s important to hit the butter with a heavy rolling pin to make it pliable. When you do this, take care not to crack or break the butter, but it should leave a mark.

Then use the rolling pin again to even out the thickness of the butter, and shape the butter into a smooth rectangle that is about 5 x 6.5 inches (half the size of the detrempe), while still on the parchment paper. This makes it easier to place the butter on the detrempe, and move it around if needed.

THE BUTTER SHOULD ALSO BE AROUND 40° – 50° F / 4° – 10° C. BUT WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT IS THAT IT’S COLD AND PLIABLE.

Don’t flour the surface of the detrempe, because the flour will make it harder for the butter block to stick to the detrempe.

Use your hand to gently tap the butter block on the detrempe to help “seal” it to the dough surface. Make sure the butter is not peeking out of the dough.

The butter block is half the size of the dough.

Placing the butter on the dough.

The butter is in place.

Fold the dough over to seal the butter in.

Roll out and fold the dough

Here we will be rolling out and folding the dough twice to create 25 dough and butter layers. Folding the dough is how you laminate it to create the beautiful, flaky layers.

 

Proofing and baking

Make sure you keep enough space between the croissants on the baking tray. I only bake 6 croissants per half sheet pan.

Proof the croissants in a warm place that doesn’t go above 85°F / 29°C. If it’s too warm, the butter layers will melt. Personally, the ideal temperature in my experience is about 77°F / 25°C. It can take 2 – 4 hours to proof depending on the ambient temperature – about 3 hours in the winter, and just under 2 hours in the summer, for me. So check on the croissants from time to time to make sure.

Have a fresh croissant for a wonderful breakfast baking and know how to make perfect French fresh homemade croissants.

 

Check this article “Homemade French croissants”.

Check also this “Spinach for breakfast with spinach mushroom strata”.

Have a wonderful breakfast!