First off, traditional french butter croissants are a laborious task spanning up to 3 days and not meant for everybody. For those who are not put off by the amount of effort, you should definitely should try it as it is so rewarding and the results taste so good! There is nothing like perfectly baked French croissants for breakfast in the comfort of your own home!
These croissants are made using Poolish, which is used as a substitute or in addition to yeast. Everything you need to know about poolish can be found here. It does add an extra 12-16 hour wait time but it is worth it if u want fluffier croissants with bigger air pockets. It’s a mandatory for this recipe as it allows you to pump the croissants with filling more easily.
This recipe also calls for coloured stripes, which requires a second set of dough to be made simultaneously, which results in a uniquely coloured croissant which is sure to impress :)
For normal croissants, you can follow this recipe and skip any parts that reference poolish, matcha, and colored dough.
This is a really long recipe so bare with me and let’s jump straight in!
Prep time
DAY 1: 5min
DAY 2: 20min
DAY 3: 100min
DAY 4: 60min
Cook time: 35min
Serving: about 12 - 14 medium croissants
INGREDIENTS (30)
POOLISH
• 160g bread flour
• 160g warm water
• 1/8tsp instant yeast
MATCHA DOUGH
• 362g bread flour
• 135g milk
• 148g water
• 67g (1/3 cup) sugar
• 10g (2tsp) salt
• 20g matcha powder
• 3.55g (1tsp+1/8tsp) instant yeast
• 22g butter; softened
• Poolish (created in this recipe)
PANDAN DOUGH (optional)
• 90g bread flour
• 33g milk
• 37g water
• 16g (1/2Tbsp+1/2tsp) sugar
• 2g (1/2tsp) salt
• 1 Tbsp Pandan flavour extract (or any colouring)
• 3g instant yeast
• 5g butter; softened
ROLL-IN BUTTER
• 287g cold butter
EGG WASH
• 1 egg + 1tsp water
MATCHA PASTRY CREAM FILLING (optional)
Yeilds 6 cups
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and seeds scraped
• Pinch of coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons matcha
• 6 large egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
METHOD
DAY 1 - POOLISH
1. Mix very warm water with yeast and let it sit for 3 minutes to activate, then add in flour and mix vigourously. Cover bowl and let sit for 12-16 hours.
DAY 2 - CREATING THE DOUGH
2. For the Matcha dough, mix everything, knead for about 3 minutes until gluten starts to form. The dough should be not very smooth, but not sticky. Pat flat into a disk shape, cover in plastic wrap and put in fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
NOTE: You do not want too much gluten development because you will struggle with the dough fighting back during the laminating stage.
NOTE: Shape the dough like a disc, not a ball, before you refrigerate it, so it will be easier to roll into a square shape in the next step.
3. Just like the matcha dough; mix everything, knead until gluten starts to form, and put in fridge.
4. Lay the roll-in butter onto wax paper and cut into pieces to form a 15 X 15cm square, 1.25cm thick. Cover with another sheet of wax paper and roll the butter into a 19 X 19cm square, trying to get perfectly straight edges. Wrap in paper and put in fridge until you take the matcha dough out.
NOTE: You can trim the edges to create a 13 x 13cm square with straight edges, place the off-cuts on top of the square, and roll it out again if you couldn't achieve it the first time.
DAY 3 - LAMINATING THE DOUGH
5. Roll the dough out into a 26 X 26cm square. Try to get a perfect square. Take the butter out of the fridge and tap the butter until it's roll-able, and the texture is similar to the dough. Lay the butter in the middle of the dough at a 45degree angle and fold a flap of dough over the butter, so the point of the dough reaches the centre of the butter. Do the same with the three other flaps. The edges of the dough flaps should slightly overlap to fully enclose the butter. Pinch & lightly press the seams to seal them.
NOTE: Pay attention to corners and edges, you don't want spots where there's no butter.
6. Roll out into a 20 X 20cm rectangle, then fold.
NOTE: lightly flour your rolling pin and work surface. You want just enough to avoid the dough from sticking, and nothing more.
NOTE: Start rolling from the center of the dough towards the edges, and not from one side to the other. This technique keeps the dough at an even thickness. Aim at lengthening the dough instead of widening and keep all edges as straight as possible.
7. Fold the dough letter style, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
NOTE: To do a letter style fold, fold one third of the dough on top of itself and then fold the other side over it).
8. Put in fridge to rest for 30min. Then take out the dough, rotate it 90degrees and repeat the rolling and folding 2 more times, which gives 3 folds in total.
9. Put in fridge and rest for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
10. Roll out the coloured dough until it is 24 X 64cm. Then let it rest in fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
DAY 4 - ROLLING THE CROISSANTS
11. Take both doughs out, brush the top surface of the matcha dough with water and then carefully place the coloured dough on top of it, lightly press to seal the two doughs together. Trim the excess coloured dough to get clean edges. Roll out to 20 X 110cm.
NOTE: If you don't have counter or fridge space, cut the dough in half.
NOTE: This can be really tough! If your dough is fighting back, let it rest in the fridge for 10 - 20 minutes and keep trying!
NOTE: When your dough has reached its intended shape, carefully lift it a few cm to allow it to naturally shrink back from both sides. This way it will not shrink when you cut it. Your strip of dough should be long enough to allow you to trim the ends to make them straight and still be left with a length of about 100 cm.
12. Cut into triangles, 12.5cm wide at the base, 20cm long. Cut off imperfect edges to achieve a perfect crumb. Fridge and rest the triangle pieces, then very carefully stretch/roll them into be 25cm tall, this will create more layers.
NOTE: Be very gentle at this stage, you don’t want to all the layers to merge under heavy pressure, ruining all your hard work!
NOTE: Don’t waste your off-cuts! After all that hard work it would be a shame to throw out that beautifully layered dough. You can make pain au chocolate and other rolled up creations with you loose pieces of dough.
13 Lay colour side down, cut a slit in the middle of the base of the triangle. Roll up fairly tight at first, stretch out the tip with one hand when you roll the bottom with the other hand. Then bend the croissant into a crescent shape.
BAKE
14. At this point, you can:
a. Proof right away
b. Store in the fridge overnight and proof the next day
c. Freeze (defrost overnight in fridge before proofing).
15. Brush with egg wash, then proof at about 26C until very soft and jiggly. About 2.5 - 3 hours.
NOTE: Don't proof warmer than 26C, the butter might leak otherwise.
NOTE: Don't under proof, otherwise butter will leak during baking.
16. Brush another layer of egg wash and bake at 220C for 10min, then 190C for 15min.
PASTRY CREAM FILLING
17. I used Martha Stewart’s recipe for the pastry cream, which is the best I’ve ever had!
JUST BEFORE SERVING
18. Poke a hole in the bottom of the croissant with a skewer, chopstick or anything similar.
NOTE: We do this just before eating so the filling does not make the inside of the croissant soggy.
NOTE: If using old croissants, pop the croissants in the oven, covered with a sheet of parchment paper and re-bake at 190C for 4 minutes.
NOTE: If using old pastry cream, heat it in a double boiler and keep stirring it while it heats. Don’t let it get too hot or the eggs in the cream will scramble.
19. Fill up a piping bag with the pastry cream. Pipe in as much as you want! A half full croissant will give you the best ratio of light cream and crunchy flakes. Enjoy the spoils of all your hard work!
Recipe adapted from txfarmer.
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