Homemade croissants: 27 layers of butter, three folds, one weekend
Real croissants are made from a yeast dough with a block of butter rolled into it and folded three times, until there are 27 layers of fat separated by dough. In the oven the water in the butter turns to steam and forces those layers apart — that is where the open, honeycomb crumb and the crust that shatters at the first bite come from. It isn't difficult, but it demands one thing: that dough and butter stay at the same cool temperature throughout.
Your own work in that: 1 h 5 min.
- Dough 20 min
- Chilling the dough 90 min
- Three folds 135 min
- Shaping 45 min
- Proofing 120 min
- Baking 36 min
Step by step
0 / 9 doneKnead the dough and chill it
Stir the yeast into the cold milk and water. Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl, pour in the liquid and add the 25 g of soft butter. Knead for only 5 minutes, into a smooth, fairly firm ball. Flatten it into a 20 × 20 cm square, wrap in film and refrigerate 1.5 hours (or overnight).
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 140 ml milk · 140 ml water · 15 g fresh yeast · 55 g sugar · 11 g salt · 25 g butter
TipBriefly, because croissant dough should be extensible, not elastic. Heavily kneaded, with fully developed gluten, it springs back at every roll and tears the butter layers instead of stretching with them.
Five minutes of kneading, a square into the fridgeShape the butter block
Put the cold butter between two sheets of baking paper, pound it flat with a rolling pin and then roll it into an even 18 × 18 cm square. The thickness must be the same everywhere and the corners sharp. Chill 30 minutes, but never in the freezer.
Ingredients: 250 g butter, 82 % fat
TipThe butter must be at least 82 % fat. Cheaper butter, with more water, cracks under the rolling pin and soaks into the dough instead of forming layers.
An 18 × 18 cm square, even thickness, sharp cornersLock the butter into the dough
Roll the dough into a 22 × 36 cm rectangle. Set the butter block in the middle and fold the free ends of dough over it so they meet in the centre. Pinch every edge shut: the butter must be sealed in completely, or it will escape as you roll.
Butter in the middle, edges pinched shutMake three folds
Roll the package in one direction into a 20 × 60 cm rectangle, 8 mm thick. Fold it like a letter: the top third into the middle, the bottom third over it. That is the first fold. Wrap and refrigerate 45 minutes. Repeat twice more, turning the dough 90° before each roll and chilling 45 minutes each time. After the third fold you have 27 layers of butter.
TipRoll lengthways only, never sideways, and always from the centre outwards. If butter starts to break through, dust that spot with flour and put the dough straight back in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Folded like a letter, 45 minutes chilled, three timesWatch the temperature
Before every roll, check the dough: it should be cold but bend under a finger without cracking, roughly like modelling clay from a cool cellar. That is about 13–15 °C. Butter that is too cold shatters into flakes and breaks the layers; too warm and it merges into the dough and the layers stop existing.
TipIn a warm kitchen (above 24 °C) roll faster and extend the chilling to an hour. You can chill the counter too: stand a tray of ice on it for a few minutes and wipe it dry.
Roll out and cut triangles
After the last chill, cut the dough in half; keep the second half in the fridge. Roll each half into a 25 × 55 cm rectangle, 4 mm thick. Rest it 20 minutes in the fridge so the gluten relaxes. From each half cut 8 triangles with a pizza wheel, base 12 cm and height 25 cm, alternating base up and base down: 16 in all.
TipUnrested dough shrinks as soon as it is cut and the triangles turn short, giving squat rolls. Twenty minutes in the fridge is the difference between a croissant and a crescent-shaped bun.
Four millimetres, layers visible at the cut edgeRoll the croissants
Cut a 1 cm notch in the middle of each triangle's base. Hold the tip, stretch the triangle gently by 3–4 cm and roll it up from the base, opening the notch outwards as you go. Set on two lined trays tip underneath, 6 cm apart, curving the ends slightly.
Notch, stretch, roll from the baseProof at 24–26 °C
Cover loosely with film and leave 2 hours at 24–26 °C, no warmer. Ready croissants are clearly half as big again, soft, and a shaken tray makes them wobble like jelly. A finger poke leaves a dent that springs back slowly.
TipAbove 28 °C the butter starts to melt and leaks onto the tray: the croissants fry underneath and stay dense inside. If the kitchen is hot, proof them longer somewhere cooler rather than faster in the warmth.
Half as big again, wobbling when shakenWash and bake
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Beat the egg with the milk and brush the croissants on top only, avoiding the cut layers at the sides. Bake one tray at a time (keep the other somewhere cool meanwhile): 8 minutes at 200 °C, then reduce to 180 °C and bake another 10 minutes, until deep brown. Bring the oven back up to 200 °C before the second tray. Cool on a rack 20 minutes.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp milk
TipEgg wash running down the sides glues the layers together and the croissant cannot open. The dark colour is not incidental: a pale croissant is damp and chewy inside, and only a deep brown means the layers have dried out and turned crisp.
Deep brown, a cross-section full of holes
Before you start
Spread over two days
Make the dough and do all three folds on day one, then leave it in the fridge overnight after the last fold. In the morning roll, shape and proof: breakfast at ten instead of four in the afternoon.
Chocolate and ham
Instead of triangles cut 8 × 14 cm rectangles, lay two batons of dark chocolate on each and roll: pain au chocolat. The savoury version: a slice of ham and a spoon of grated cheese, rolled the same way.
Butter leaked onto the tray
Three possible causes: proofing too warm, badly sealed edges when locking in the block, or rolling dough that was too warm. The croissants will still be edible but dense; next time go back to the fridge at the first sign of soft dough.
