Croissant recipe from scratch that is so easy to follow! The steps are broken up over 3 days, so you can start on a Friday and have fresh, homemade croissants on Sunday. Small batch croissant recipe makes 4 croissants.
I just finished reading ‘French Women Don’t Get Fat.’ I know, I’m 6 years behind the times. Please tell me I'm not the only one that read books WAY after they are popular!
I just finished The Hunger Games recently, also way behind the times.
Anyway, I have no idea why I read this book. I’m not looking to shed any weight.
Maybe I was looking for an excuse to drink wine at lunch AND dinner. Maybe I’m going through a Francophile phase? And then I must thank another friend for being such an enabler. She convinced me at brunch this weekend that there are, in fact, pills big enough to make someone like me conquer their fear of flying over the ocean to visit France.
My point being that I read a book about how to manage your weight, and all I came away with was a recipe for croissants from a real French woman.
These are not diet croissants, even though they come from a diet book. They are croissants for the woman who’s been good all week and looks forward to her weekly reward of a croissant on Sunday morning.
I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and say that if you’ve been good all week, you probably can’t be trusted around a dozen croissants. Is that just me?
I just came off another sugar detox, and I went straight to my favorite chocolate shop. I spent so much time in there that my hair smelled like chocolate-dipped sea salt caramels the rest of the day (success!). So, this recipe makes 4 good-sized croissants.
You can absolutely stretch it to 6 croissants, though they will be smaller.
I made a lot of changes to Mireille's recipe, mainly to eliminate any wishy-washy instructions (there were lots). I need clear, concise instructions for baking; a French chef, I am not.
I also changed some things that were blantantly wrong with her recipe: do not put flour in the butter layer. I don't know where she came up with that, but my sweet cousin Stephanie who is a pastry chef said that was absolutely not the way to make croissants. When I put flour in the butter layer, I ended up with crescent rolls, not croissants. Still delicious, but not my goal.
My cousin Stephanie calmed my fears about croissants by boiling it down to this: it's a yeast dough with a butter layer that is folded four times. When you think of it that way, it suddenly becomes more approachable.
Croissant Recipe--a few modifications allowed:
Mireille divided her recipe into the course of 3 days for ease. This way, you can start Friday night and eat croissants Sunday morning.
If you want to alter the recipe and replace all overnight instructions with 4 hours and try to make these in one day, go ahead. I haven't tried that, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. But as always, if you have any questions, just leave me a comment, and I will get back to you. I will post answers to questions on the site so that everyone can see them.
Homemade croissant recipe--modifications not allowed:
-unbleached flour. Please use unbleached flour, as that is what Mireille used, and that is how I developed this recipe.
-kosher salt. I normally use sea salt for baking, but Mireille used kosher. I copied her exactly because I listen to what a French woman says about baking.
Once you've mastered this small batch of croissants, be sure to make my other version: CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS!:
Homemade Croissants
Skip the bakery and make your own croissants at home.
Ingredients
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon 2% milk, divided use
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, divided use
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons high-quality butter (European style)
- 1 large egg yolk, beaten
Instructions
DAY ONE:
- Heat ½ cup of the milk to 115-degrees Fahrenheit, and stir in the yeast until dissolved. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the flour. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, remaining 1 cup + 1 tablespoon of the flour, and salt. Add the foamy yeast to the mixture, and knead until smooth with a wooden spoon, about 3-4 minutes. The dough will be sticky, but it will stick to itself and not the edges of the bowl. Refrigerate overnight.
DAY TWO:
- Let the butter come to room temperature.
- Remove the dough from the fridge (it should have risen some and seem bubbly). Flour a surface, and roll the dough out into a 6 x 10" rectangle. The 6" side should be closest to you.
- Spread all 6 tablespoons of the butter evenly over the rectangle, but leave about 1cm of a border on all edges.
- Fold the dough like a letter: fold the top one-third to the middle. Fold the bottom third up to the middle also. Roll the dough back into a 6 x 10" rectangle. Cover and refrigerate the rectangle of dough for 2 hours.
- Remove the dough from the fridge after 2 hours, fold it like a letter again, and then roll back out to a 6 x 10" rectangle. Place it back in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Repeat this two more times for a total of 4 folds, refrigerating for 2 hours between each fold and roll. After the last roll out, refrigerate the dough overnight.
DAY THREE:
- Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll it on a floured surface into a 10 x 10" square.
- Using a knife, cut the rectangle into 4 evenly-sized triangles. Roll the rectangles up, starting at the wide end. Roll towards the skinny tip.
- Place the rolls on a baking sheet lined with a nonstick mat, and brush with the remaining tablespoon of milk.
- Let the rolls rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. If your kitchen is cold, let them rise for longer--they really need to double in size before baking.
- Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
- Brush the egg yolk generously over the croissants. Be sure to get it in the nooks and crannies of the dough.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, until very golden brown. Start checking on the rolls at 10 minutes, and shield them with foil if the edges threaten to burn. You just spent 3 days making rolls, keep an eye on them in the oven so they don't burn!
- Let cool 20 minutes, and serve.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 142Total Fat: 1gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 508mgCarbohydrates: 29gSugar: 13gProtein: 5g
ALEXANDRA @ CONFESSIONS OF A BRIGHT-EYED BAKER says
Apparently I'm even more behind the times than you, because I've never even heard of that book. (I'm also completely lost as to why a book about not getting fat would include a recipe for croissants, but hey - they look amazing regardless!) Small batch of buttery croissants? YES! :)
Sarah says
Those look amazing! I have always been intimidated by making croissants - this made me want to tackle them!
I have been wanting to read that book for a while now. Is it a worthwhile read?
Christina Lane says
Thanks, Sarah! I liked it. I read her other books, too. I agree with her mindset, but her work can be repetitive. But perhaps we need to be told that we won't weigh less by eating more over and over again? :)
wendyb964 says
My mum was born in London and raised in the south of France. She was never overweight, used real butter, heav cream on her berries, and ate dessert daily. Never ate seconds, never snacked. Gee, maybe I should have learned then, lol.
Fortunate to study art history in Paris for a summer in my 30's, I saw how they ate, savored, and enjoyed good quality, decent portions, full meals, no snacks, no seconds.Most plat du jours were meat (often roast chicken), salad, and dessert (goblet of fresh berries.) It was rare to see anyone walking while eating or drinking. Occasionally they would stop at a sandwich stand or crepe stand and eat while there, but it's so different. Every day I'd buy one treat: a croque monsieur for dinner, or a small exquisite pastry, and lost 10# in a month which I needed to do anyway.
OK, according to one report, they DO walk 10km a day even with the Metro, but it's that growing up with common sense habits that keep them from obsessing over super-size fries, carting around S***bucks, and buying the gallon of popcorn.
Now in my advancing age (O M G, did I just say that?) I've picked up many of those habits, am at my lowest weight ever, and love wee desserts. Love your recipes: fav is the gooey pumpkin bars to which I add ground pecans to the crust, Today I made the dough for the double chocolate chunk cookies. If you get back to northern CA for a book signing, I'll be there.
suzie says
Christina, would you please clarify your final rolling out of the dough to make the croissants themselves. In the directions you say to roll the dough into a 10 by 10 square and then you say to cut the rectangle into four triangles. I know this is a little thing, but I have had trouble in the past with croissants and I want to make sure I am doing everything the way I should.
I love you blog! It is only my husband and me now and your blog allows me to still enjoy the treats I used to make for the whole family without having to eat an entire large batch myself.
Suzie
Christina Lane says
Hi Suzie,
Sorry for the confusion. A 10x10 is, in fact, a square not a rectangle. Geometry was never my strong suit ;) Cut an 'x' in the square to get 4 triangles from the square. Does that make sense?
Best of luck! I hope you have success. Croissants can be finicky, but I think they're worth it :) Thanks for the kind words, too!
Happy baking,
Christina
J says
I followed the instructions yet each time I had to fold the dough always stuck to my granite slab after dusting it well.... somehow managed till 4 triangle n since they stuck I had to pull n managed not so visible croissants and plain rolls... why were the so sticky,? Hope they double up before I bake(brushed with milk)
Christina Lane says
Hi J,
Thanks for writing! So, you are totally allowed to add as much flour as you need to prevent the dough from sticking. The type of flour and the humidity in your kitchen are different from mine. You can't add too much flour. I mean, you can, but you would know it. Add as much to make the dough work-able and try again. It must have been a humid day when I developed the recipe and I didn't call for as much flour. If you live in a drier climate, you will need more flour. It's the nature of the beast when it comes to dough and homemade pastry. Let me know how it goes :)
Dee says
Is it okay if I use salted butter or must I specifically use unsalted butter? Most recipes call for unsalted but all I have is salted so I wasn't sure if it'd be fine to use salted and still have the same results.
Christina Lane says
Try it, but leave out the salt. I didn't try it like that, but I'm sure it's fine.....
Gitta says
13. Preheat the oven to 200-degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????
Christina Lane says
Um, it definitely says 400.
Lil C. says
Oh my, how I LOVE croissants and have no self control around them! I don't eat a lot of bread so I guess you have to pick your poison, and mine is a fresh croissant! This is a great recipe because only making 4 will be so worth the hard work and it will really be a treat. I've always wanted to learn to make them so starting with a small recipe is perfect. Thank you!
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious says
I could NOT be trusted around 4 of these. I wouldn't even be furtive about it.
Megan @ MegUnprocessed.com says
They look so good! I want to eat that picture!