Homemade Croissants in under an hour
Croissants can be an intimidating dough to master in the kitchen, it consists of counting layers and chilling dough between every roll out – as well as working quickly to prevent the butter from melting.
Here at Taste Buds Kitchen, our clients – young and old – love Fresh Baked Croissants so we had to come up with a simple fool-proof method that can be done in less than 1 hr. It can be done!
We love our Croissant Dough recipe plain, or filled with Chocolate to make a decadent Pain Au Chocolat. Kids and Teenagers love counting folds and rolling out this dough in our Summer Camps, and our Adult chefs are surely impressed as well!
Croissant Dough Instructions
-
- There are two parts to a Croissant Dough – the Levain and the Beurrage. The Levain is the yeast dough that needs to be kneaded and let to rise in a warm spot for at least 20 minutes. This dough’s consistency is similar to a Pizza Dough or Cinnamon Roll Dough. While the Levain is resting, prepare your beurrage (a combination of butter and flour that is flattened into a disk). The Beurrage must be made quickly in order to prevent the butter from getting too soft and melting. Roll the butter between two pieces of parchment, adding flour as it begins to stick until a flat disk is formed.
- Once the Levain (yeast dough) has risen, and the beurrage is properly chilled, its time to combine the two. Roll out the Levain to be slightly larger than that of the beurrage. Place the beurrage into the center of dough on an angle.
- Fold each corner of the Levain dough over the beurrage towards the center.
- Make sure Levain dough overlaps and completely covers your beurrage.
- Pinch all of the edges to seal dough into place. Once dough is completely sealed, chill in freezer for 5-7 minutes in order to harden the beurrage again.
- Once dough has chilled, bring back to floured surface and begin rolling out into a long sheet. Work quickly beginning from the middle of the dough and rolling up, then beginning again from the middle of the dough and rolling down, so that butter does not melt.
- Fold rolled out dough into 3 layers and chill in freezer for another 5-7 minutes.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 four more times in order to create significant layers of butter in your dough. Roll dough out once more and cut into triangle shapes.
- Starting at widest end of triangle roll dough into point, curl into a “C” shape. Place finished croissants on parchment lined baking sheet. Once all croissants are complete, brush with egg wash and bake.
- Finished croissants are delicious fresh on their own, or accompanied by jams and preserves. You can also choose to sneak in a few chocolate chips into your dough before rolling!