One of those things everyone loves to eat for breakfast once in a while but gets scared off by the idea of making puff pastry to do so.
I’m here to tell you to not be scared of puff pastry. It’s time consuming for sure, but it’s actually not hard to make. I made it many times throughout my time in culinary school and I like to think I’m pretty good at it.
I used this recipe from Izy Hossack of Top with Cinnamon to make these croissants for my family for Christmas and again this past weekend for a Sunday brunch with my friends. I adapted it slightly to fit what I needed and have posted my tweaks in the recipe below.
You should check out the post on Izy’s blog though because she has a step-by-step .gif guide so you can see what you’re doing in each step. So helpful!
Originally I was going to post my own recipe this week but we had to put our beloved Golden Retriever, Sydney, down and I haven’t had the heart to get into the kitchen and experiment yet. I’ll be getting back to that soon, though.
In the meantime, enjoy these croissants. They’re a labour of love but are so, so worth it!
Croissants
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold milk
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 tbsp. active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, frozen, then left at room temp for 20 minutes
Directions
- Step 1 Pour milk and water into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast and sugar and leave for 5 minutes until mixture becomes frothy. {If it doesn’t become frothy your yeast is dead and you won’t get a good rise to your croissants}.
- Step 2 Add flour and salt and combine to make a shaggy ball, this is easiest to do with your hands.
- Step 3 Tip the dough onto a clean work surface and knead until all the flour is incorporated into a ball. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove your butter from the freezer.
- Step 4 After 20-30 minutes, take your now room temp. butter and grate onto a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten into a compact rectangle (about 8″ x 5″) and fold up in the plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Step 5 After your dough has been in the fridge for 1 hour, remove and roll out into a rectangle measuring about 16″ x 10″.
- Step 6 Take your butter block out of the fridge, unwrap and place in the middle of your dough rectangle. Fold the dough over the butter in thirds, like a business letter, and pinch the sides together to form seam.
- Step 7 Rotate the dough 90° and make regular indentations in the dough using a rolling pin.
- Step 8 Roll into a 15″ x 10″ rectangle.
- Step 9 Fold into thirds like a business letter, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Step 10 Remove the dough from the fridge and repeat steps 8 & 9 to complete 1 “turn” of the dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for another hour.
- Step 11 Repeat step 10 twice more so you have completed four total “turns”.
- Step 12 Cut the dough into quarters and tightly wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 8-12 hours (or freeze up to 3 months – if freezing you’ll need to place in refrigerator overnight before shaping). Each quarter will give you 6 large or 12 small croissants.
- Step 13 Remove one piece of dough from the fridge. Roll out into a rectangle and cut into thirds. Cut each third in half diagonally, forming 6 triangles.
- Step 14 Taking one triangle at a time, pull on the corners of the shortest edge to even up the triangle and stretch out a little. Roll the dough into a croissant shape and place tip side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining triangles.
- Step 15 Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave to rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
- Step 16 Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 400°F. Beat an egg and brush onto your croissants. Bake for 15 minutes, until a nice golden brown colour. Let cool on a wire rack.
