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Video: Making & Baking Classic French Croissants

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Learning and improving to get to that perfect croissant, meanwhile intensely enjoying the eating!

MAKING & BAKING CROISSANTS: THE MOVIE

This video shows us making classic French style croissants. You can find the croissant recipe with detailed description and lots of pictures here.
It also contains a time lapsed oven shot of the baking of the croissants.

You can also keep track of our croissant baking efforts through our Croissant Making Log

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  1. Reminder to set out all, all ingredients..I usually use regular yeast I proof, instant doesn’t require it. Last night I decided to start three batches, the second batch my zero pitcher decided to break at the spigot leaking pure water everywhere, and somehow in the distraction during the third batch I forgot to put the yeast in! The benefit of regular yeast is that you know it’s working for sure, and you can’t forget to put it in..oh well..a reminder lesson!

    Reply

    • Thank you for sharing. At some point we all forget to put in yeast or salt in a certain bake, we are only human and we cannot help making mistakes sometimes. The trick is to get a system in place to make it as ‘foolproof’ as possible. Prepping like you suggest, checking and double checking will help big time to avoid forgetting ingredients. The other important factor in our humble experienced opinion is making sure there are no distractions while baking so you can focus on your bake and enjoy the process!

      Reply

  3. Can you freeze these at some point? Maybe after they’ve been cut and rolled?
    Loved your video! Can’t wait to try.

    Reply

    • Thank you Theron, for letting us know you find them useful. Wish we had more time to do lots more!

      Reply

  5. HI! I found your blog yesterday and it is just precious! Everything super detailed. I took a croissant class two weeks ago, in the class the croissants came out perfect, but I have tried doing them twice with awful results. My class’ recipe is almost the same as yours. What I have noticed is that when Im making the second or third turn , the dough seems to thin and the butter goes outside through small holes. When I proof, this magnifies and when I bake, the butter just leaks out. The croissant ends up with holes 🙁 I do the mixing and kneading of the dough by hand, for how long would you recomend me to do it? I don’t know if I am knsding to short or long?… thank you!

    Reply

    • Hello Dani,
      Thank you for your comment. If your amounts and measurements are correct, your dough should have the right thickness. You need to be really precise and measure regularly. Butter leaking out during baking is usually a sign of underproofing. Also make sure your butter does not get too warm, so use the fridge more regularly if necessary. You can read more tips to help you here:www.weekendbakery.com/posts…questions/
      Maybe try and follow just our recipe with the exact instructions and see how that goes.
      Do not give up, you will get there 🙂

      Happy pastry baking!

      Reply

  7. This is my second Comment about croissant, and every time I see your video I completely realize how much your site is the first site in the baking sites.. Definitely you are No1 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏. HAPPY EASTER TIME DEAR ALL 😘 😘 😘 😘 🌷🌸💐🌺🌻🌹🌼🐝🐝🐝

    Reply

    • Hello Eybee,
      We very much recommend weighing your ingredients. Professional bakers use scales (also in the US) and in Europe home bakers do too. A scale will give you the exact same weight every time. Which is absolutely needed if you consistently want to make good bread and especially good pastry and good croissants, one of the most challenging bakes. You can get a scale for the same price as a few sacks of good flour.
      If this is not an option for you then follow these directions:
      For the dough

      1 lb. 2 oz. (4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling
      5 oz. (1/2cup plus 2 Tbs.) cold water
      5 oz. (1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs.) cold whole milk
      2 oz. (1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs.) granulated sugar
      1-1/2 oz. (3 Tbs.) soft unsalted butter
      1 Tbs. plus scant 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
      2-1/4 tsp. salt

      For the butter layer

      10 oz. (1-1/4 cups) cold unsalted butter

      For the egg wash

      1 egg

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

  10. Hi I made them and they came out wonderful no complaints from me but someone who tasted them said they could use a little more salt.

    Reply

    • Hi Denys,
      The amount of salt a person prefers is very personal and very much linked to what he or she is used to. Because too much salt is not very good for you we have found that it is very easy, especially with the use of good quality ingredients, to (gradually) lower the amount and get get used to this quickly, especially with bread. Salt can also mask other tasted if you use to much. So it is all about finding the balance.
      We actually wrote an article about it which you can find here: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…h-and-why/
      If you or the people you share your bakes with like just a bit more salt, it is no problem to use a little bit more in this recipe, but make sure you do not increase it too much, just 1 or 2 grams will probably already do the trick.

      Reply

  11. Hi,
    Thank you so much for the recipe and the great instructions. I’m going to try it soon.
    Can I halve the recipe?
    What can I use instead of egg wash? whipping cream / milk / water only?
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Hello Dimah,
      Yes you can. If you halve the recipe, the dough square should be 18.4 x 18.4 cm and the butter slab 12 x 12 cm. The same for the laminated dough, you must shorten only one side (otherwise you get a quarter of the original), so you end up with a 20 x 30 rectangle. The size of the final dough, right before cutting, should be 20 x 55 cm.
      You can use milk or cream instead or not use a glaze at all, but do make sure the dough does not dry out during proofing.

      Reply

      • Thank you so much for your reply, appreciate it.
        I’ve a question:
        Αfter shaping the croissants – can I keep them in the fridge to the next day (cover the baking sheet with towel, plastic wrap?) and the next day proof them at room temperature for about (2 hours or more?) then bake them?

        Reply

  13. its just before christmas and i’m going to recommend your recipe to the restaurant my french boss will love your recipe,it just works brilliantly.

    maybelle emmaru grace…

    Reply

    • Thank you so much for both your kind comments Maybelle.
      Wishing you and your boss a very happy Holiday season and an excellent New year!

      Marieke & Ed
      Weekend Bakery

      Reply

  14. hallo i enjoyed the video in all simplicity the illustrations are brilliant..

    best regards

    maybelle grace…

    Reply

  15. Your tutorials are a great visual to understanding how to work with the different doughs and shaping etc.
    Thank you, my bread baking has improved greatly.

    Reply

  17. I’ve been making croissants for like 8 times or more and I always fail during the tourage. During the tourage butter is coming through/out of the dough and rolling the dough becomes harder then. I put the dough with butter at the end of every fold in the fridge for 30 mins. What do I wrong?

    Reply

    • Hello Henk,
      The only things we can suggest without seeing what you are doing is that first of all the dough is not properly sealed (butter not sealed in) and maybe you are pressing to hard on the dough, putting your weight on it while rolling out. The fridge part is good of course. Try to work precise and gently elongate the dough without too much pressure.
      The butter we use is ‘100% biologische roomboter’ (organic dairy butter) that is just the right consistency (Do not know what you use, but there can be a difference maybe, so it might be a good idea to try this butter too).

      Good luck with it.

      Reply

        • Henk, I’ve had that problem in the past. The best advice is that as soon as you start having trouble getting the dough to roll out any further, stop struggling. Put the dough back in the fridge to rest for 15-20 minutes more. You’ll find the dough will roll out much easily. Put it back in the fridge every time it starts to get too hard to roll. The more you force it, the more you’ll damage the dough and break your layers. It just needs the gluten to rest periodically. Good luck!

          Reply

  18. I’m just getting back into baking after many years away from it. Haven’t had time.I followed a recipe to the tee a couple of days ago. It was one that you can hit a button and they send you the ingredients. Even with my limited knowledge I felt that I was being set up for failure at every step. Just watched your video and am about to give it another go with your directions. I was right about the being set up bit (do they think they’ll sell more stuff this way). I feel very confident now. Thanks guys Stone

    Reply

    • Hi Stone,
      No button hitting here! Hope you will have great results with our recipe. Take your time to read the recipe and enjoy the process. Let us know how it goes.
      You can also check our page with Croissant Questions for more helpful info: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…questions/

      Happy pastry baking!

      Reply

  19. Beautifully executed! I was looking for ideas in rolling the butter for croissants. Going to try this.
    Thank you!

    Reply

  20. I made this for the first time, I thought it worked well, except the final result was quite different inside, were yours are airy, mine are flaky layers on the outside, inside was a single doughy layer. I put the dry instant yeast directly in the dough, should I have started the yeast with hot water first? Thank you, and I’m excited to get this perfected!

    Reply

    • Hi Sam,
      It is no problem to put the instant yeast directly in the dough, we do this too. But something went wrong with the building up of the layers. This can have several causes but comes down to things like being new to the process and taking longer to do the steps, pressing too hard on the dough, not working with enough precision, and also the shaping, the proofing and also the baking can all be involved. It is perfectly normal to get such a result the first time. Most people need to make them 3 to 4 times to get the general feeling for the process. There is no substitute for practice and experience. There is no way to hide little mistakes in your technique when making croissants, so work very precise and follow the instructions to the letter. One small mistake is no problem but several small mistakes add up!

      Hope you will give it another try and we are sure you will already see improvement.

      Reply

      • I actually had the same experience as Sam and have made them well in the past (so I don’t think it’s just about experience). I have 2 questions:

        1) Why do you choose to use the square butter block approach as opposed to setting a small rectangle of butter inside a larger rectangle of dough, then doing a tri-fold. In this case, you start out with 3 layers, and with the square approach you start out with 2.

        2) Additionally, since you start out with 2 layers and only fold 3 times you end up with 54 layers. I suspect this is why the layers aren’t as defined for people like me and Sam, because there aren’t as many of them. If you do a tri-fold with the butter block and then do 4 folds instead of 3, you end up with 243 layers. Pretty drastic difference.

        I’d love to hear your thoughts! I bake a lot, but still committed to learning as much as possible.

        Thanks,

        Harrison

        Reply

        • Hi Harrison,
          May we ask if you already made a croissant with this many layers (243) or is it a theoretical question?
          The possible damage to layers increases with the number of layers, so for most people 27 like we do (not 54) should give a good result, as you can hopefully judge from our pictures. For us it is not about the number but the quality of the layers. Of course other methods are valid too, if it gets closer to the result you are aiming for.

          Reply

  21. I’ve just attempted my first go. I took the butter from the fridge and placed into the dough to roll out, however the butter didn’t budge and I ended up with all dough at one end, my butter barely moved. Should I have taken the butter out of the fridge to allow it to soften first? Any tips? I’m pretty sure I have just ruined my first batch LOL.

    Reply

    • Hi Aaron,
      Yes, you are right. The butter needs to be pliable but not too soft, like we point out in the tips above the recipe. We use an organic butter with a low water content. A higher water content tends to make butter hard, which promotes tearing and breaking and ruins the layers. The butter we use has ‘at least 82%’ butterfat’. So find the right butter and make sure it has the right ‘pliability’ before rolling out.

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

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