Croissants are a French pastry made with puff pastry, traditionally shaped into crescents. They can be filled with sweet or savory ingredients and are best when freshly baked. Making croissants requires patience and pastry skills, but frozen dough is an option. To make croissants, prepare the dough, make a block of butter, and fold the dough several times to create layers. Chill the dough, cut it into triangles, shape them into crescents, and bake until golden brown.
A croissant is a type of pastry, classically made with puff pastry so that it’s light, flaky, and extremely buttery. Traditionally, croissants are formed into crescent shapes, which is probably where the name originated, as croissant means “crescent” in French. The pastries are extremely popular in France and other nations and are usually eaten for breakfast. In some cases, croissants can also be filled with sweet or savory ingredients, or used as bread to make croissant sandwiches.
Making croissants requires patience, several days of time, and pastry skills. Many cooks prefer to buy frozen puff pastry or ready-to-bake croissants for this reason, as frozen doughs are easy to work with and usually taste perfectly passable. Purchasing frozen dough or croissants also allows bakers to cook only a few if needed, as croissants taste best when freshly baked.
For bakers looking to try their hand at making croissants, start by heating a cup and a half of milk until it’s hot, but not boiling hot. Pour the milk into a large bowl and sprinkle in one and a half tablespoons of the yeast, along with three tablespoons of the sugar. Some bakers also like to add vanilla or almond extract, in which case no more than two tablespoons should be added. In another mixing bowl, sift three cups of the flour with one-and-a-half teaspoons of salt, then slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Cover and chill overnight, allowing it to double in size.
Once the dough has been prepared, make a block of butter by mixing one and a half cups of butter with three tablespoons of flour until the mixture is smooth, then shape the block into a firm wedge before chilling. The block of butter will be used in the next step, making the puff pastry.
Start by turning the dough out onto a well-floured surface and roughly shaping it into a square. Stretch the corners, turning the square into a frayed X, then place the block of butter in the middle. Fold the dough to form an envelope and seal it tightly before rolling out the dough into a rectangle. Next, bring the two sides of the rectangle together to meet in the center, then rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat the process, overlapping the sides a bit in this case. Lightly flatten the dough with a roller and chill it for 30 minutes before taking it out of the refrigerator, allowing it to warm for 15 minutes and repeating the folding process.
You should plan on three complete cycles of folding the dough, although some bakers fold the dough four or five times. Each fold creates new layers of dough folded into the butter, and these layers will turn flaky and golden brown when baked into a croissant or other puff pastry of your choice.
After completing the folding cycles, chill the dough for another half hour before rolling it out, cutting triangular shapes into the dough and then rolling them into the classic crescent shape of croissants. Let the croissants rest for at least two hours before baking them in a 350-degree Fahrenheit (177-degree Celsius) oven until golden brown and crispy. Lightly brush each croissant with egg before baking for a more glossy look and serve warm.
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