Croissant Recipe
Anyone knows a good croissant recipe? I heard they are hard to make but I would love to give it a go...I would really like an authentic receipe that would guarantee that wonderful flaky outside and soft inside stature.
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13 Comments:
This is Julia Child's recipe. Baking with Julia is one of my favorite books and if you don't have it, it's certainly worth the price. Look for it on used book sites.
PLAN ON MAKING A LOT OF IT. This is too long and arduous a procedure to make a dozen croissants. (Think tamales. Make 12 or make a gross of them - almost the same amount of work.) It freezes beautifully and you can do lots of spontaneous things with puff pastry.
Have fun!
therealchiffonade at 12:47PM on 09/08/09
I once made Julia Child's croissants on a wintery weekend. They were fabulous and we gobbled them up. I haven't worked up the ambition since.
They are worth the trouble and as @therealchiffonade says, might as well make a ton of them, while you're at it.
duncan1205 at 1:27PM on 09/08/09
I use the Tartine recipe. I was able to find the recipe online listed here http://www.crumblycookie.net/2009/05/24/croissants-1-tartine/
and here
http://kitchenmusings.com/2007/01/my_attempt_to_m.html
If you make extra dough, which is no biggie if you are already making one recipe, try their morning buns. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.
http://www.recipelink.com/mf/14/27137
Good luck with it! When it gets tough and you're wondering what you are doing, be reassured that it'll be worth it when you are chomping down on your own homemade croissant!
tinat at 1:44PM on 09/08/09
Definitely looks very intimidating i'm going to give it try when i enough time to devote to the pastry...it's just i love them so much and i can't seem to find a shop where i live that does them any justice so thanks to everyone for contributing to my little dilemma.
tenille10 at 3:19PM on 09/08/09
i've got a fat little dough boy, whose stomach i push and then he says, 'hee hee' and magically there is a plate of croissants!
i kid.
actually i use james beard's recipe from his book 'menus for entertaining':
funny aside tho...once i did try to make those stupid doughboy things and couldn't figure out how the hell to open up the package. so i took my can opener and proceeded to try to lop off the top of one end. suddenly, it blew like a shotgun with a loud noise to match. my boyfriend at the time came in, looked around, and told me to grab my purse b/c he was taking me out. ha ha ha. i even have a picture of the explosion's aftermath somewhere.
gastronomeg at 4:48PM on 09/08/09
Something' i've tried with varying success: (*Same recipe, different technique to avoid melting the butter)
Roll out the dough as thin as you can, but having it still pliable from the counter
Spread a layer of butter over all the dough
Fold it over itself several times. Quick;y roll out and store in refriedgerator.
michichan at 4:51PM on 09/08/09
I've just made croissants once, it is not to difficult as it may sound but it is time consuming.
I've used the recipe found on epicurious.com and they came out great.
Go ahead and make them, you won't regret it.
velascomike at 7:42PM on 09/08/09
I can't help on the recipe, as it's my husband who does the baking, but I can offer this little tidbit of advice: make SURE to bake them on a pan with edges. Butter, when melted and dripping onto the bottom of your oven, burns. Smokily. The smoke alarm will blare and your oven will never be the same. (although the croissants were good enough that I forgave him)
AliceBlue at 8:07PM on 09/08/09
They're not difficult as much as time-consuming, but they are so worth it. They are light little things, but they have body to them, as well, and the taste is incredible. I've tried store-bought ones and restaurant ones, but I always detect a cheese-y note, like faint parmesan, instead of a fermented yeasty taste. And sometimes the store-bought ones don't crisp up when heated in the oven, and soggy croissants are not a joy no matter what they're filled with. We make our own once or twice a year when the craving gets too strong to stifle.
Puff pastry, on the other hand, is not something I would try to make again. The recipe, also from Julia, worked, but I didn't think it tasted way better than the frozen Pepperidge Farm sheets. It's nice to be able to say that I did it, though.
betteirene at 12:24AM on 09/09/09
The technique description is lengthy so you understand how to fold and turn, but once you do it and know how to accomplish that's the key - the folding and turning creates all the layers of dough with butter inbetween.
If you make a large batch, you don't have to bake them all the same day.
Freeze the shaped croissants before baking on a cookie sheet, then transfer them to a freezer bag or container until you want to thaw and bake them fresh.
For sure use fresh yeast and unbleached flour.
lurah at 12:46AM on 09/09/09
It's really not that hard, and most of the time involved is letting the dough sit in the fridge so the butter chills and the dough rests. What they usually don't tell you in the recipes is that if you need to let it rest longer, it's fine. They tell you thirty minutes or whatever, but if you have to run an errand you don't need to be speeding back to get the dough out in precisely 30 minutes.
If you want to try a similar dough, but a lot less finicky, pick up a copy of Baking with Julia and check out the Danish Pastry recipe. The result is actually very similar to a croissant dough, but it's a lot easier to work and there aren't as many steps where the dough needs to rest in between. It's a two-day process, but there's not much work on either day, and the first day is pretty effortless. You just have to plan it in advance for when you want it, because the dough rests overnight in the fridge..It's sweeter than a croissant, but not ridiculously sweet. Fine for a breakfast pastry. Anyway, that would be a good introduction to the folding method, and then when you're working the croissant dough, it will make more sense.
I think (but I'n not sure) that the recipes in that book that use the Danish Pastry dough are all for filled pastries, but there's really no reason you couldn't just roll them up into croissant shapes.
Oh, and the recipe calls for unsalted butter, but I found that it was a little dull that way.I think it's better with one stick of salted and one of unsalted.
dbcurrie at 2:46AM on 09/09/09
@tenille10, Please let us know how they turn out. I still have pie crust moments, so I have to live vicariously through you.
NuJoi at 12:59AM on 09/10/09
It's not going to be easy but here is a homemade croissant recipe.
Chew on That at 4:07PM on 09/11/09