Today we’re conquering our fears and making homemade croissants! If you’re about to run away screaming, I understand. I’m not sugarcoating it: croissants aren’t easy. Croissants require time, patience, and a lot of rolling. However, just because this recipe is advanced doesn’t mean that YOU have to be an advanced baker to try it. You can absolutely handle this quintessential baking bucket list recipe. ♥
Let me hold your hand through the whole process. I’m sharing step-by-step photography, a full video tutorial, plenty of tricks based on what I’ve learned, and the croissant recipe. I started working on croissants earlier this year. I studied a couple recipes, tested them, tweaked what I found necessary, and played with this dough for weeks. The croissants are golden brown, extra flaky, crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and unbelievable warm from the oven. One bite of this delicate French pastry will immediately transport you to a quaint French bakery. I’m confident in this homemade croissants recipe and I’m confident in YOU baking them.
The good news! You need zero fancy equipment and zero special ingredients. If you’re looking for a weekend project, know how to read directions, and crave a fresh homemade pastry (don’t we all?), then stick around. You’ll be rewarded with the BEST treat ever!!!
Let’s get right into it. Just like making mille-feuille, making croissants is a labor of love. The long recipe directions and all these step-by-step photographs seem intimidating, but let me walk you through the basic process so you aren’t nervous.
The Process
- Make easy dough from butter, flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and milk.
- Roll out dough into a large rectangle.
- Make the butter layer (I have an easy trick for this!!!).
- Enclose the butter layer inside the dough.
- Roll out the dough into another large rectangle, then fold it back together.
- Roll out the dough again, fold it back together again.
- Roll out the dough one more time, fold it back together.
- Shape the croissants.
- Bake!
There’s resting time between most steps, which means most of the time is hands off. To help us develop all the layers, croissant dough needs to rest in the refrigerator often. That’s why I call making croissants a project. Do it over a couple days with long breaks between the steps.
All that rolling out and folding back together? That’s called LAMINATING.
What is Laminated Dough?
Laminating dough is the process of folding butter into dough many times, which creates multiple alternating layers of butter and dough. When the laminated dough bakes, the butter melts and creates steam. This steam lifts the layers apart, leaving us with dozens of flaky airy buttery layers.
Just like we do when we make a croissant bread loaf, We’re going to laminate the dough 3 times, which will create 81 layers in our croissants. Yes, 81! Let me paint that picture for you.
- Start with dough, butter layer, dough = 3 layers
- Roll it out and fold it into thirds = 9 layers
- Roll that out and fold it into thirds = 27 layers
- Roll that out one last time and fold it into thirds = 81 layers
So we’re only laminating the dough 3 times, but that gives us 81 layers. When the croissants are rolled up and shaped, that’s one 81 layer dough rolled up many times. So when you bite into a croissant, you’re literally biting into hundreds of layers.
Isn’t that SO COOL???
Croissants Video Tutorial
Watch me make croissants in this video. I talk you through the whole video too.
Now let’s see everything come together in step-by-step photographs.
DOUGH
Croissant dough begins with butter, flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and milk. Unlike most yeasted doughs that require warm liquid to activate the yeast, you’re going to use cold milk. The yeast will work its magic later on in the recipe. In the beginning steps of croissants, the dough should always be cold. If, at any point, the dough becomes too warm… stop. Stop what you’re doing and place the dough back in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
The mixer will beat the dough for about 5 minutes. Stand by your mixer as it works the dough. This dough isn’t particularly heavy, but your mixer will still get a workout. Did you see my Instagram story when my mixer FELL OFF MY COUNTER? I walked away at the wrong time and the whole thing danced off the counter. Unplugged itself and everything. Don’t make my mistake!
See my How to Knead Dough video tutorial if you need any extra help with the kneading step.
We made the dough, now we’re going to cover it and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Now let’s roll out the dough into a 14×10-inch rectangle. Use a clean ruler or measuring tape. The ruler or measuring tape, besides your rolling pin, is the most crucial tool when making croissants.
I recommend using a silicone baking mat. While we will still lightly flour it, the mat is nonstick and it’s a handy guide for the exact measurement. You also need to transfer the dough to a baking sheet and the silicone baking mat makes that possible.
The dough isn’t extremely cold after only 30 minutes in the refrigerator, so it will be easy to roll out. Be precise with the 14×10-inch measurement. The dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working the edges with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle. You can see how I do all this in the video below.
Cover the rolled out dough and chill it for 4 hours or overnight. Literally pick up the silicone baking mat, put it on top of your baking sheet, cover the dough, and chill it. I usually chill it for 4 hours because there is one more 4 hour or overnight chill period coming up. That’s when I typically chill it overnight, making this a 2 day recipe.
BUTTER
Many croissant recipes instruct you to shape extremely cold butter into a rectangle or square. Have you ever tried to manipulate cold sticks of butter into another shape? It’s really hard. I learned the following trick from Zoe at Zoe Bakes. Please go follow Zoe, she is the absolute best. ♥
Start with softened butter, beat it with flour so it has some stability, then spread into a rectangle and chill it. It’s 100x easier to shape softened butter than it is to shape cold butter. Thank you, Zoe!
You can use any butter you like best. If you’re going to spend money on European style butter, croissants are when to do it. If I’m being honest, I use store-brand butter and love the croissant’s flavor. It’s butter. It’s going to be good regardless.
The butter rectangle is 7×10 inches, half the length of the dough and the same width, so it fits into the dough. We will chill the butter rectangle right on the silicone baking mat. After it’s chilled, we can peel it right off and place it on the dough to begin lamination.
Make sure you only chill the butter for about 30 minutes. Our goal is to have the croissant dough and butter be the same temperature. It makes lamination possible. Butter solidifies much quicker than a soft dough, so that’s why our dough will chill for 4 hours and our butter will only chill for 30 minutes. Make sense?
Because you shaped the butter into the precise 7×10-inch size, it fits nicely on the 14×10-inch dough. (After the butter rectangle chills, you can always cut sharp edges with a pizza cutter or knife to make it the appropriate size.)
Fold the cold dough over the cold butter. Use your fingers to seal the butter inside.
Now we’re going to laminate the dough 3x with a 30 minute break between the 2nd and 3rd time. Why between the 2nd and 3rd time? Because our dough has been out of the refrigerator for long enough by this point and needs to be chilled again. 30 minutes is plenty.
I do not have step-by-step pictures of the lamination process because it’s time sensitive and the dough just became too warm as I tried to set up the shot. However, you can see me laminate the dough and talk through the process in the video below. (3:20-5:15 minutes) Watching me work through this step is more helpful anyway.
Our dough has been rolled out and folded 3x, now it’s time to rest.
Cover the laminated dough and chill it for 4 hours or overnight. This is when I usually chill it overnight.
Roll out the dough 1 more time. This time you’ll roll it into an 8×20-inch rectangle.
Use your pizza cutter and slice the rectangle down the center to create two 4×20 rectangles. Then slice across 3x to create eight 4×5-inch rectangles.
Look at all these layers!!!!
Now slice each of the 8 rectangles into 2 triangles. Using your fingers or a rolling pin, stretch the triangles to be about 8 inches long. Do this gently as you do not want to flatten the layers. Cut a small slit at the wide end of the triangle, then tightly roll up into a crescent shape making sure the tip is underneath.
Loosely cover the shaped croissants and allow to rest at room temperature (I suggest just keeping them on the counter) for 1 hour, then place in the refrigerator to rest for 1 hour. Unlike a lot of croissant recipes, I prefer the shaped croissants to be cold going into the oven. They won’t spread as much. They will rise and proof for the 1 hour at room temperature and continue to do so in the refrigerator for another hour.
The croissants are ready to bake after that! FINALLY.
Brush them with egg wash (egg + milk).
Bake.
Indulge. Because after making the dough and rolling it out a million times, you completely deserve to. Enjoy them plain or with jam or homemade raspberry sauce. Interested in chocolate croissants? Of course you are!
If you happen to have any leftovers, day old croissants are perfect so soak up flavors in an easy breakfast casserole.
FAQ: Why Are There Are Chunks of Butter in my Dough & Why Did Butter Leak Out of the Croissants?
These are 2 common questions and I’m happy to sum it all up for you. Some butter leakage during the baking process is normal and expected, however if your baking croissants are sitting on pools of butter, your butter layer may have been too cold. It would make sense to give the best temperature for the butter layer, but you’re really looking for texture. You want the dough and sheet of butter to be similar in softness. If the butter layer is too hard, it will crack and split under the dough. Let it sit at room temperature to soften before the laminating process (step 7) OR reduce the chill time in step 6 down from 30 minutes to about 15.
See Your Croissants!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
PrintHow to Make Croissants
- Prep Time: 12 hours, 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 13 hours, 10 minutes
- Yield: 16 croissants
- Category: Pastries
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Description
Buttery, flaky, and perfect homemade croissants!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups (500g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for rolling/shaping
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 Tablespoon active dry or instant yeast
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) cold whole milk
Butter Layer
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons (16g) all-purpose flour
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) whole milk
Instructions
- Preliminary notes: Watch the video below and use the step-by-step photos before you begin. Read the recipe before beginning. Make room in the refrigerator for a baking sheet. In step 6 and again in step 13, you will need room for 2 baking sheets.
- Make the dough: Cut the butter in four 1-Tablespoon pieces and place in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment (or you can use a handheld mixer or no mixer, but a stand mixer is ideal). Add the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Turn the mixer on low-medium speed to gently combine the ingredients for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the milk. Once all of the milk is added, turn the mixer up to medium speed and begin to knead the dough.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rest. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rest. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Remove dough from the bowl and, with floured hands, work it into a ball. Place the dough on a lightly floured silicone baking mat lined, lightly floured parchment paper lined, or lightly floured baking sheet. (I highly recommend a silicone baking mat because you can roll the dough out in the next step directly on top and it won’t slide all over the counter.) Gently flatten the dough out, as I do in the video below, and cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator and allow the covered dough to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Shape the dough: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. I like to keep the dough on the silicone baking mat when I’m rolling it in this step because the mat is nonstick and it’s a handy guide for the exact measurement. Begin flattening out the dough with your hands. You’re rolling it out into a rectangle in this step, so shaping it with your hands first helps the stretchy dough. Roll it into a 14×10-inch rectangle. The dough isn’t extremely cold after only 30 minutes in the refrigerator, so it will feel more like soft play-doh. Be precise with the measurement. The dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working the edges with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle.
- Long rest: Place the rolled out dough back onto the baking sheet (this is why I prefer a silicone baking mat or parchment because you can easily transfer the dough). Cover the rolled out dough with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator and allow the covered dough to rest in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. (Up to 24 hours is ok.)
- Butter layer (begin this 35 minutes before the next step so the butter can chill for 30 minutes): In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and flour together until smooth and combined. Transfer the mixture to a silicone baking mat lined or parchment paper lined baking sheet. (Silicone baking mat is preferred because you can easily peel the butter off in the next step.) Using a spoon or small spatula, smooth out into a 7×10-inch rectangle. Be as precise as you can with this measurement. Place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill the butter layer for 30 minutes. (No need to cover it for only 30 minutes.) You want the butter layer firm, but still pliable. If it gets too firm, let it sit out on the counter for a few minutes to gently soften. The more firm the butter layer is the more difficult it will be to laminate the dough in the next step.
- Laminate the dough: In this next step, you will be rolling out the dough into a large rectangle. Do this on a lightly floured counter instead of rolling out on your silicone baking mat. The counter is typically a little cooler (great for keeping the dough cold) and the silicone baking mat is smaller than the measurement you need. Remove both the dough and butter layers from the refrigerator. Place the butter layer in the center of the dough and fold each end of the dough over it. If the butter wasn’t an exact 7×10-inch rectangle, use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to even out the edges. Seal the dough edges over the butter layer as best you can with your fingers. On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough into a 10×20-inch rectangle. It’s best to roll back and forth with the shorter end of the dough facing you, like I do in the video below. Use your fingers if you need to. The dough is very cold, so it will take a lot of arm muscle to roll. Again, the dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working it with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. This was the 1st turn.
- If the dough is now too warm to work with, place folded dough on the baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before the 2nd turn. I usually don’t have to.
- 2nd turn: Turn the dough so the short end is facing you. Roll the dough out once again into a 10×20-inch rectangle, then fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. The dough must be refrigerated between the 2nd and 3rd turn because it has been worked with a lot by this point. Place the folded dough on the baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before the 3rd turn.
- 3rd turn: Roll the dough out once again into a 10×20-inch rectangle. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter.
- Long rest: Place the folded dough on the lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. (Up to 24 hours is ok.)
- At the end of the next step, you’ll need 2 baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. The dough is currently on a lined baking sheet in the refrigerator, so you already have 1 prepared!
- Shape the croissants: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough out into an 8×20-inch rectangle. Use your fingers if you need to. Once again, the dough is very cold, so it will take a lot of arm muscle to roll. The dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working it with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, slice the dough in half vertically. Each skinny rectangle will be 4-inches wide. Then cut 3 even slices horizontally, yielding 8 4×5-inch rectangles. See photo above for a visual. Cut each rectangle diagonally to make 2 triangles. You have 16 triangles now. Work with one triangle at a time. Using your fingers or a rolling pin, stretch the triangle to be about 8 inches long. Do this gently as you do not want to flatten the layers. Cut a small slit at the wide end of the triangle, then tightly roll up into a crescent shape making sure the tip is underneath. Slightly bend the ends in towards each other. Repeat with remaining dough, placing the shaped croissants on 2 lined baking sheets, 8 per sheet. Loosely cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and allow to rest at room temperature (no warmer—I suggest keeping on the counter) for 1 hour, then place in the refrigerator to rest for 1 hour or up to 12 hours. (Or freeze, see freezing instructions.) I prefer the shaped croissants to be cold going into the oven.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Egg wash: Whisk the egg wash ingredients together. Remove the croissants from the refrigerator. Brush each lightly with egg wash.
- Bake the croissants: Bake until croissants are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through baking. If croissants show signs of darkening too quickly, reduce the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Remove croissants from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for a few minutes before serving. They will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Croissants taste best the same day they’re baked. Cover any leftover croissants and store at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can also freeze for up to 3 months, then thaw on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm up to your liking.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Croissants are perfect for getting started ahead of time. The dough can rest for 4 hours or overnight in step 5 and again in step 11. You can also freeze the dough after the 3rd turn in the lamination process (after step 10). Instead of the 4 hour rest in the refrigerator in step 11, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, place in a freezer zipped-top bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and continue with step 12. You can also freeze the shaped croissants after they rest for 1 hour at room temperature in step 13. (Before placing in the refrigerator.) Cover them tightly and freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw completely in the refrigerator, then bake as directed.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer (preferred), Hand Mixer, or Glass Mixing Bowl with Wooden Spoon / Silicone Spatula | Rolling Pin | Pizza Cutter | Pastry Brush | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Baking Sheet | Cooling Rack
- Yeast: I use and recommend Red Star Platinum, an instant yeast. You can use active dry yeast instead if needed. No changes to the recipe or prior proofing required; just mix it in as instructed. (Most modern yeasts are already active!) Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Keep Dough Cold: Make sure the dough is ALWAYS cold. If it warms up too much, stop what you’re doing and place the dough back in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Floured Surface: Lightly flour the work surface, your hands, the dough, and the rolling pin as you work.
- Air Bubbles: Are there air bubbles in your dough as you roll? That’s ok. Pop them with your fingers or a toothpick, then lightly flour where you popped the air bubble.
- Croissants for Brunch: I recommend starting the recipe the day before in the early afternoon. Complete steps 1-10, then let the laminated dough have a long rest in the refrigerator overnight (step 11). Begin step 13 2-3 hours before brunch.
- Dough adapted from Joy of Baking, Food & Wine, and Epicurious
After many years of been too scared to try making croissants I finally gave in during this weird season at home. Let’s just say I thought I followed the recipe correctly, but I think my butter was too hard, as it ended up breaking when I was rolling the dough. When it came to baking the first tray they burnt underneath, so when I baked the second tray, when it was the time for the half way turn, I ended up putting them on a new sheet and that saved the bottoms of those ones from burning which was great. Even though they were toasty then I would have liked, they tasted like croissants which was great! Will attempt it in a few again!
Hi Sally, thanks for the recipe!!
I was laminating the dough and the butter leaks while I was rolling, may I ask if you have any suggestions to prevent this? Otherwise, it tasted really nice even though I didn’t do a good job at laminating. Thanks!
Hi Giselle! So glad you enjoyed these croissants. Cover any exposed butter with flour and continue laminating. Stopping what you’re doing and refrigerating the dough will help solidify that butter so it’s not leaking out of the dough/too soft.
We LOVE croissants in our family and hadn’t been able to get them at the bakery for a few months now. I was always afraid to make them but seeing this step by step recipe AND the video gave me the confidence to try. Made a batch last weekend and it was not nearly as difficult as I had imagined, and I love the trick with the butter. I, too, used store brand butter (and salted, because it was all I had on hand) and they turned out so amazing. My oven is inconsistent and runs hot so I had to watch them pretty closely– the first batch got a little more brown than I had intended but still tasted delicious. Thank you so much for taking the time to make the step by step video!
Hi Sally, thank you for the recipe. It was delicious!!!! My croissants opened up while baking though. What did I do wrong?
I was so scared of making croissants! I made them over 2 days and they are perfect. I am leaving some out for dinner tonight and then freezing the rest to try and preserve that fresh-baked taste next time I want them. I would have never even thought to tackle this recipe if it wasn’t for Sally. Thank you!
This is an excellent tutorial which leads to delicious croissants! Just as good as you could get in any bakery! I’ve also used this dough to make Morning Buns! Perfect and delicious!
I live in Singapore and with strict social distancing restrictions in place due to COVID-19, my husband and I couldn’t go out to celebrate his birthday with croissants at our favorite morning bakery. I’ve tried making croissants in the past and failed – buttery doughy messes. I decided to give your recipe a go. Since there’s only the two of us, I made half the recipe and the croissants were DELICIOUS! My husband loved his birthday treat! Thank you!
I made this last weekend and they were perfect except that they completely burnt on the bottoms. They cooked perfectly on the tops, though. The rack is closer to the top in my oven and I baked them on 400ºF. Any advice on how to bake them evenly? Thanks 🙂
Hi Kristen! So glad you tried these homemade croissants. If you decide to try them again, make a couple adjustments in the oven. First, lower the oven temp by 25F. Lower the oven rack, too. Both will help the croissants bake more evenly. You can also tent them loosely with aluminum foil which will prevent the outsides/bottoms from burning.
I’ve been wanting to make croissants for years since American store bought ones just aren’t that good. Excellent flavor, recipe easy to follow even if you don’t watch the video beforehand. My only issue was in shaping the croissants since they seemed decent before going in the oven but then expanded and started to unravel while they baked (still deliciously buttery and flakey though!)
I’ve made this recipe twice (once with chocolate, once with cheese) and both times they turned out brilliantly! Absolutely well-written recipe. I followed it to the letter with mouth-watering results.
I’m looking forward to using this method to attempt danishes next! #covidbaking
Made these this weekend. First time ever trying croissants and your recipe was very helpful. Especially the video. I use bread flour instead of all purpose they came out perfectly.
My daughter and I made our first homemade croissants following this recipe and they turned out very nice – thank you Sally! I had one question. The croissants were very nice but very rich in taste. Do you think the amount of butter can be reduced down from 3 sticks to make the croissants a little lighter? If so how much would you recommend? Or can some of the butter be replaced with something else?
I tried these over the weekend and OMG!!! They turned out so good that my husband swears he’s not going back to store-bought croissants. The instructions are very clear + with the video it’s easy to follow. The only downside being there’s a lot of chill time involved so it’s definitely a 2-day project. Next time I would probably cut down on some time by measuring out the dough only on the last roll.
Dear Sally, Thank you for your wonderful receipt and the step by step way of showing how to make a perfect croissant. It was my second time and we enjoyed the taste and texture of sally’s croissant.
wish you the best and today I am going to try your homemade artisan bread. with tour receipt I am going to be a home made bread addict.
Kindest regards from Iran
Coby
Dear Sally, thanks to your perfect recipe my first croissants turned out just like the recipe – perfect, the best ever. I will try your other recipes, too. Lots of greetings from the Czech Republic and best wishes to you. Klara
Hi Sally! Very excited to try this recipe. I halved the recipe but when I tried to knead the dough in the mixer it stayed sticky even after being kneaded for 7 – 10 minutes. Wondering what might have gone wrong? (Maybe I overkneaded, etc.?)
I made these and the results were excellent! The steps are very clear if following the tutorial and recipe. Only variations: I used 1.5 teaspoons salt in the dough and the results were salted enough for me. I also followed the advice on one of the comments below and baked the croissants at a lower temperature. Lastly, I didn’t keep measuring the dough throughout the steps, only for the last step before cutting the triangles, and in my opinion the results were great.
You certainly could, but my recommendation is to freeze after step 11, thaw then continue with the recipe.
I made these today for the first time. I had my oven at 400 and then at 375. I baked them for 18 minutes. The tops were golden brown but the bottoms were starting to burn because of all the butter that seeped out. The inside was still slightly doughy. Any ideas on why they turned out this way?
Hi Lorraine! It could be the oven not heating properly or perhaps having hot spots. This is an easy fix if you decide to try the recipe again. First, lower the oven temps by 25F. Lower the oven rack, too. Both will help the croissants bake more evenly. You can also tent them loosely with aluminum foil which will prevent the outsides/bottoms from burning before the centers can cook.
This is an excellent recipe and produced fantastic results. A few comments, not to knock Sally in any way; these are just *my* experiences doing this process.
Laminating the dough… be careful not to chill the dough+butter too much. I get that it can go wrong and sloppy if not cool enough, but if you chill your dough so much that your butter won’t spread, but “shatters” instead, you won’t get good lamination. It’s a tricky balance. Might require some practice. However, know that even “shattered” dough produces very tasty baked results!
Baking temperature. I found 400 deg definitely burned the #^&$%% out of my dough. Came out black. Tried 350, and that was perfect. My oven does run 15 degrees warm but I still think lower is better. Try it yourself and see.
Cool things to make. How about: shave or grind up some bittersweet chocolate so you have small nibs instead of “morsels” or “chips”. Then roll out dough strips, fairly thin, about 2 inches by 8 inches. Cover liberally with the chocolate, then T-W-I-S-T the dough carefully so you have a spiral-rolled tube of doughy chocolatey goodness. Do the egg-wash thing, then bake as directed (about 15-20 minutes) and you will not believe the incredible flavor explosion your mouth will feel trying these little goodies!
Thank you for these comments! My butter stayed in chunks – “shattered”. They still tasted great and I will definitely try these again!
Loved this recipe! The video was very helpful. I used the leftover croissants to make almond croissants which turned out amazing!
I used this recipe to make Croissants for the first time. The recipe was really good, and the video and photo description at the top were very useful. I halved the recipe (I didn’t have a big enough mixing bowl) and they turned out amazing. I made some pain au chocolat (use a variety of different chocolates and I found White chocolate and hazelnut the best) and adapted the recipe to make salted caramel croissants.
Thank you!
I was able to get my hands on AP flour and made them last weekend. They turned out amazing! Flaky buttery goodness. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for this recipe! I tried making croissants for the first time using it and we loved how they turned out.
I’m interested is making fruit filled croissants (specifically blueberry). What do you recommend would be the best way to incorporate them? Like you incorporate the chocolate in your other recipe?
Thank you!
I used this recipe a few weeks ago for my first time making croissants and they turned out amazing! In the process of making a second batch & will give the Pain au Chocolat a go with some of them! Can’t thank you enough this recipe is perfect x
Hi Sally,
Quick question: I don’t have silicone baking mats and I have run out of parchment paper. What would be the best way to bake the croissants? Is it possible to use aluminum foil with cooking spray?
Thanks for this great recipe!
If your pan is nonstick, that should be sufficient! Otherwise, a light mist of nonstick spray should be fine.
I’m sure this is a good recipe if you know what you’re doing, but if you’re just some random moron who’s never laminated dough before (like me), you might want to watch some more videos about it first. It turns out you need to make sure the butter and the dough are the same consistency, not the same temperature. I left my butter in the fridge for a couple minutes short of 30, and while it was somewhat pliable, the butter still broke apart into little chunks and ruined the lamination completely. Again, not the recipe’s fault, but it could have been clearer about what kind of consistency the butter needs to be at.
Thank you Sally!! I tried the recipe today and my croissants came out amazing!!
I have always been intimidated by croissants but Sally made them look do-able! They are so worth the wait, these turned out great! My family and friends were very impressed!
Hi Sally! Is it possible to shape the croissants and refrigerate them over night to be baked fresh and warm on Easter morning? Or if I store them already baked, can they be reheated?
Hi Jessi! When I want fresh croissants in the morning I let them rest in the refrigerator for the full 12 hours in step 13.