Easy Homemade Flaky & Fluffy Croissants
Despite all the rollin' and foldin' we do in this recipe, this one was so much fun to make and they turned out to be absolutely delicious. I genuinely cannot believe I made these myself.
What a treat these are! I absolutely love 'em and you can have 'em for breakfast or a midday snack. They are so wonderfully flaky, moist, and fluffy.
Ingredients Overview
*See recipe card for quantities*
Croissant
- warm whole milk
- warm water
- quick rise instant yeast
- all-purpose flour
- salt
- cane sugar
- 3 sticks salted butter
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp water
Substitutions
- Gluten Free - if you want to make this gluten free, try using gluten free all-purpose flour instead of regular all-purpose flour. While a 1:1 substitution ratio is a good starting point for many recipes, it's essential to consider the specific recipe, the type of gluten-free flour blend you're using, and the need for any additional binders or adjustments. Experimentation and practice will help you achieve the best results in gluten-free baking.
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Yeast - if you want to use active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, you'll need to following the same steps I followed with instant yeast but add a pinch of sugar to your yeast mixture to help it rise.
- Once activated, you can add it to your croissant dough as specified in the recipe.
Variations
- Savory or Sweet - if you want to add some savory or sweet filling to the croissants, make sure you place at the base of your triangle before rolling into the croissant shape. For example, if you want to make a cheese croissant, line the base of your dough triangle with the cheese and roll towards the point of the triangle. Make sure it's nice and tight so your cheese is well encased in there!
- Kid friendly - add some chocolate chips to the base of your croissant triangle before rolling them!
Equipment
Your hands and your rolling pin are going to be the main equipment for this one! You will of course need the below as well.
- 2 Small Mixing Bowls
- 1 Large Mixing Bowl
- LOTS of Parchment Paper
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Knife or Carving Utensil
- 1 Baking Sheet
- 1 Basting Brush
Storage
To store homemade croissants and keep them fresh, follow these steps:
- Cool Completely: Allow your homemade croissants to cool completely on a wire rack after baking. This helps prevent moisture buildup inside the storage container.
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Wrap or Cover: Once cooled, you have a few options for storage:
- Plastic Wrap: Individually wrap each croissant tightly in plastic wrap to seal out air and moisture. This method is suitable for short-term storage.
- Airtight Container: Place the wrapped or unwrapped croissants in an airtight container. Make sure the container is the right size to prevent excess air inside.
- Freezer Bags: If you plan to freeze them, place the croissants in a freezer-safe bag and remove as much air as possible before sealing.
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Freezing: If you won't consume the croissants within a few days, freezing is a great option. Frozen croissants can be stored for up to 2-3 months.
- To freeze, follow the same wrapping or bagging methods mentioned above.
- Reheating: When you're ready to enjoy your croissants, you can reheat them in an oven or toaster oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and warm them for 5-10 minutes until they're crispy and heated through.
- Serve: Serve the croissants warm, preferably on the same day you reheat them, for the best taste and texture.
Properly stored, homemade croissants can stay fresh for up to 2-3 days at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Frozen croissants can be reheated from frozen or thawed in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Food safety
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
Homemade Croissants
6
4 hours
20 minutes
All the folding and rolling was well worth the wait for these babies! Oui Oui!
Ingredients
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- 1 cup warm whole milk (about 110°F)
- ½ cup warm water (about 110°F)
- 1 tablespoon quick rise instant yeast I used Red Star
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup cane sugar
- 3 sticks salted butter = 24 tablespoon or 12oz
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- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Directions
In your small mixing bowl, combine warm milk, warm water, and yeast. Stir and set aside for about 5-10 minutes until it becomes frothy.
In your large mixing bowl, add all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, and then pour in your small mixing bowl of yeast (after yeast has risen). Mix together with your hands and massage everything together until dough forms.
Cover with towel rag and set aside on kitchen counter for a few minutes.
In the meantime, we're about to have some fun. Grab parchment paper (about 1-2 ft lengths worth) and your 3 sticks of salted butter. Unwrap your butter and place them side by side on top of the parchment paper. Then grab another sheet of parchment paper (same length) and place on top of the 3 blocks of butter.
Grab a wooden paddle or hard object and wack the butter. You want to pound it until it's a flattened block of butter between two sheets of parchment paper.
Once you've successfully let all your anger out onto those butter sticks, you're going to put the flattened butter and large mixing bowl in the fridge for an hour.
After an hour of chilling, grab the large mixing bowl of dough and remove the towel rag. Flour a flat surface and roll out your dough. It might be a little sticky, but that's alright. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Try to expand the dough as much as possible without making the dough so thin that it looks transparent.
Next, grab your flattened butter block. The butter block should be about half the size of your rolled-out dough rectangle. You can guesstimate the ratio by holding the butter block in the parchment paper over your rectangular dough. If it's slightly smaller, that's alright. If it's significantly smaller, you need to whack the butter some more. The butter block should be about half the size of your rolled-out dough rectangle. If it's larger, try to shape the butter by folding in some of the edges so it becomes approximately half the size of the dough rectangle. Once you get the sizing right, remove the butter block from the parchment paper and place in the center of the dough rectangle.
You're going to take the outer folds of your dough (think of it in thirds like a letter) and fold it onto the butter block, encasing the butter with your dough. Then you're going to roll it out again into a rectangle and repeat the same folding process again.
Wrap it in parchment paper (I used the parchment paper I already had on hand from the butter) and place back in the fridge for 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes, remove the dough from the parchment paper and place back on flat surface and roll it out the to a rectangle same way again. Fold again, into thirds, and roll out again.
For this last fold, after you've folded in your thirds, then take the bottom of the rectangle and fold in, then the top of your rectangle and fold in. Your dough should look like a more condensed folded dough brick now. Once again, wrap in the same parchment paper and put back in the fridge for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, you're going to roll the dough out one more time as wide as possible (again - without it being too thing that it becomes transparent and flimsy) and make it a large rectangular shape. The dough should be about ¼-inch thickness.
Using a knife, you're going to cut triangles, with the base of the triangle being only being a couple inches wide, and the length being the longer sides.
NOTE: If you want to add any filling to your croissants, now would be the time to add it to the base of your triangle before you roll into the croissant shape. Anything meat related or made with egg should be cooked separately before rolling into your croissant.
Roll each triangle into a croissant shape, starting from the wide end and rolling towards the point of the triangle.
Grab your baking sheet and line with parchment paper.
Place each croissant on the baking sheet with about an inch in between each one. Then cover the croissant with a kitchen towel (or another piece of parchment paper) and let them rise for another hour or until they double in size.
Prepare your egg wash and preheat your oven to 375℉.
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In a small mixing bowl, combine egg and water. Whisk together until well combined.
After your croissant rolls have risen, grab your basting brush and brush over them with the egg wash.
Place your croissants in the oven at 375℉ for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and puffy.
