This basic croissant recipe is perfect if you love croissants for breakfast and love to bake. Not everybody is willing to stand in the kitchen for hours if you can buy them in the next bakery. But if you are one of them who is willing and who enjoys baking and trying out new things, this is a perfect recipe for your first homemade croissants. I suggest you do them on a Friday or Saturday evening. It takes you about 2 hours time in the evening, and another one and a half in the next morning before you can place them in the oven. It’s not just active time, but they need to rise which needs a bit of time. When you leave your croissants to rest, pour yourself a glass of wine and watch an episode of your preferred series. The hour rising time in the morning is perfect for a shower and beauty time before brunch.
They are very delicious and not at all comparable to store-bought ones. Very fluffy and buttery on the inside, and crunchy on the outside. You can make six croissants with this recipe, and some little ones with the leftover dough. If this amount is too much, you can easily freeze them after or before baking. It’s not worth to make all the work just for two croissants, trust me.
Basic Croissant Recipe
This is a basic recipe for homemade croissants.
Ingredients
Croissant Dough
- 20 g fresh yeast
- 60 g sugar
- 250 ml milk warm
- 500 g all-purpose flour
- a pinch of salt
- 250 g butter cold
Croissant Brushing
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp milk
Method
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Warm your milk in a microwave or a pot over your cooking stove. Do NOT cook the milk, just let it warm up -> put a finger into the milk to check the temperature.
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Put the yeast with 5g of the sugar and two tablespoons of the warm milk in a small bowl and let it sit for a few minutes until foaming.
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Meanwhile, mix the rest of the sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl.
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When the yeast mixture is foaming, add it to the rest and knead it in your kitchen machine until you have a well-combined dough.
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Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it rise at room temperature for one hour.
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Place your dough on a well-floured working surface and roll it out into a large rectangle. Only roll in one direction.
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Cut the cold butter into thin pieces and place half of them onto your dough. I prefer to place the butter in the middle of the rectangle and leave about 2cm on each side without butter. Otherwise, it can get a bit messy if you roll it out again.
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Fold the dough from the top down 3 times.
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Repeat step number 7 with the other half of the butter. Fold the dough again from the top down 3 times.
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Place your dough on a large plate, cover with plastic wrap, and leave it in your fridge overnight.
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The next morning, place your dough on a well-floured working surface and roll it out into a rectangle which has about the size of 45 cm x 20 cm. Your dough should be about 1cm thick. Cut away the irregular parts.
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Cut into 6 triangles.
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In the middle of the short side of each triangle, make a cut of about 1cm.
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Roll them up into croissants and place them on a with baking paper lined baking sheet. As your croissants will rise in the oven, it's better to divide them on two baking sheets.
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You probably have to form them a bit with your hands to achieve a pretty croissant shape.
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As I do not like to throw the trimmed dough away, I made little croissant with the dough rest.
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Mix one egg with one tablespoon of milk and brush your croissant with it. Let them rise for one hour at room temperature.
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Preheat your oven to 220°C/430°F conventional.
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Brush them once again before baking.
Now, bake your croissant for 15 minutes in your preheated oven. It's normal that some part of the butter will flow out during baking. Just make sure to use a baking sheet which doesn't allow the butter to flow down to the bottom of your oven. Otherwise, you have to clean for hours (speaking out of experience...).
Bake one baking sheet after the other.
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Let them cool down on a cooling rack and enjoy if they are still slightly warm.
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