Real French croissants step by step recipe. Let's learn from famous pastry chefs: French puff pastry (basic recipe) and Croissants from Pierre Hermé from Nina's blog Niksya. How to form croissants from dough

The most authentic French croissants that you can eat in Paris for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Light and fragile, which you squeeze and feel how air comes out and dozens of thin layers break with a slight rustle. And no filling. Just the taste of melted butter.

Stage 1 ingredients:

Sift flour with yeast, add salt, sugar, milk, mix. Take a mixer with dough attachments (if you don’t have them, well, you’ll have to knead with your hands, it’ll just take a little longer) and knead at the slowest speed for a couple of minutes. If the dough seems a little dry, add a little milk (one tablespoon at a time; more than three tablespoons is usually not needed). Switch the mixer to high speed and knead for another 4 minutes, until it becomes elastic, soft and non-sticky. We wrap the dough first in film, and then again in a plastic bag. Loose and loose, leaving little room for expansion. Let the dough rest for half an hour at room temperature, and then put it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours (overnight).

Stage 2 ingredients:

You also need to work a little on butter to make it convenient to work with in the future. Remove from the refrigerator and chop coarsely. Add flour (it is necessary to absorb moisture). And knead at high speed until soft, a couple of minutes so that the butter softens but remains cold. Feel the mass with your hands - if you feel hard pieces, pass them between your fingers. Work quickly so the butter doesn't start to melt. We scoop the butter into a lump with our hands, form a cake about 16x10 cm, and smack it to release the air. Wrap in film and place in the refrigerator (overnight).

It's time to roll out the dough with butter. In the morning, take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it into a rectangle 6-7 mm thick (the length-width proportions are not particularly important). To keep the dough more or less rectangular in shape, trim the edges with a rolling pin.

We take the butter out of the refrigerator (the dough and butter should be approximately the same temperature, so the dough should also be still cold), place it on the sheet of dough across and in the middle. We cover first with one side, and then with the other, carefully pulling the edges and pressing the ends with our fingers so that we get such a well-sealed “package”.

Now you will have to beat the butter thoroughly. Holding the dough with your hand on one side, beat the butter and dough with a rolling pin on the other. We start from the center and work up to one edge, watching how the butter moves and fills almost the entire dough. Then we work in the same way from the center to the second edge. As a result, we should get a rectangle like this, about 3 cm thick. We roll it a couple of times with a rolling pin so that the oil is better distributed, put it on parchment (or better yet, on a baking sheet/flat dish to eliminate the risk of deformation), wrap it on top with film and put it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

First turn. Place the dough with the long side facing you and roll it out into a rectangle about 6 mm thick, with the long side facing you. Do not forget to thoroughly flour the work surface and the dough itself so that it does not stick. Shake off the excess flour and fold the dough again like an envelope: first one third, then the second, carefully pulling the edges. Roll it lightly with a rolling pin and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Second turn. After 2 hours, repeat step 7 completely (and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours). During the second and third turns, the dough may crack here and there and the oil may come out; no big deal, that's normal, just flour those areas and continue.

Third turn. We take the dough out of the refrigerator, with the long side facing us, and roll it out again into a rectangle about 6 mm thick (both the thickness and length-width are approximately the same throughout steps 7-9). And we fold it like a wallet: first we fold the right and left sides towards the center, leaving a little space between them, and then we close it like a book. Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours (or overnight). Don't forget to cover with film. At this stage, the dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; defrost (still in film) in the refrigerator overnight before cooking.

We take out the dough and place the short side towards us. To make it easier to work, we cut it in half crosswise - and while we work with one half, we keep the other in the refrigerator. Roll out into a rectangle about 50x25, about 4 mm thick, with the long side facing you. Shake off excess flour. And with a sharp knife (or even better, a round pizza knife) we cut triangles for croissants with a base of about 10 cm. We always cut from the base to the top so as not to deform the dough.

Now our blanks need to be stretched a little so that when wrapped in croissants there are more “levels” and everyone can see our layers. To do this, first stretch the base a little to the sides, and then, holding it suspended with one hand, with the other we delicately stretch it along the length - from top to bottom. So that the length approximately doubles. We pinch off a small piece from the remnants of our dough, place it in the middle (to make the croissant a “belly”), wrap it, lightly pinch the edges and continue wrapping - with the backs of our hands. The formed croissant should have at least six “segments”.

Stage 11 ingredients:

Simple bun croissant, which has become a cult dish, is no longer just food: croissants are both a lifestyle and an entire industry. This is amazing delicious stories bakers specializing in flaky bagels. And the culinary battles of housewives are at their most tender dough for croissants, the most delicious croissant filling and the most perfect croissant shape. How all this inspires you to get involved in the process!

Despite their French “registration”, croissants are actually “Austrian”: they were invented in Austria, and were first baked there too. There is an opinion that initially, although croissants were tasty, they were rather rough products, which were simply a piece rolled into a crescent yeast dough. Modern croissant with its airy lightness, literally permeated with the taste and aroma of butter, is unconditionally France in that special, culinary sense that is understandable to gourmets, while Austria is associated today with.

Croissant dough

A prerequisite for self-cooking croissants - homemade puff pastry. And this is the most difficult moment - some are afraid that the dough will not work out, others do not like to mess around, since it takes a lot of time. Yes, there are certain subtleties in working with puff pastry, mastering which is the only way to get an amazingly tasty croissant, and not mastering... Well, there are options here too: from a lifelong desire to cook French bagels to sports anger: “I’m all I’ll do you anyway!!”

So, a croissant is a product made from puff pastry. Puff pastry for croissants is prepared in several stages, the key point is cooling at each stage of kneading. This technology makes it possible to obtain solid, rather than tearing, layers of dough with butter coming out.

We will need only and exclusively good butter with fat content 82%. Margarine won't work. The taste of a croissant directly depends on the taste of butter, of which there is a lot in the dough, and if you add margarine, then the taste will be “margarine”.

You can also add that puff pastry dough usually has fewer layers than unleavened dough. So, if in fresh dough before baking, about one and a half thousand layers are obtained, then in the yeast version - 24-72, depending on the desired thickness of the layers in the finished croissant.

Basic croissant recipe - no filling. You can add sweet or savory filling at your discretion. The croissant can have a curved crescent shape or a straight one.

Cooking time: about 15 hours, taking into account the time for cooling the dough at each stage of preparation.
Exit: 16 small croissants or 8 large ones.

Ingredients

• butter 200 grams
• flour 2 cups + 2 tbsp. spoons
• milk 1 glass
• sugar 40 grams
• salt 1 heaped teaspoon
• dry fine yeast 7 grams
• egg for greasing products 1 pc.

Preparation

Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance so that it softens slightly.
Start preparing the yeast dough: mix 2 cups of flour and milk.



Mix the dough into a lumpy mass, cover with film and leave to autolyse for 20 minutes. This trick will help you knead a smooth dough faster and make it more elastic.



While the dough is going through the autolysis stage, rub the butter with 2 tbsp. spoons of flour.



From the resulting mass, form a layer measuring 12 by 8 and about 1 cm thick. This is convenient to do on cling film, in which you will then need to wrap the butter and put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.



Now go back to the first dough and add salt, sugar and yeast to it.



Using a mixer fitted with the hook attachment, knead the dough.



Knead until smooth and very elastic.



Wrap the kneaded dough in a bag and place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Then roll out the dough into a layer 8-10 mm thick and place a layer of chilled butter in the center.



Fold the top third first and then the bottom third, as if folding a piece of writing paper in thirds.



Using a gentle but firm beating motion with the rolling pin, flatten the buttered dough until it is about 1cm thick.



Now quickly and carefully roll the dough lightly with a rolling pin to even out the layer and fold it into thirds.



Place the dough in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, covered with film.
Repeat the previous rolling process again, then refrigerate the dough again for 2 hours.
Then roll out the dough into a slightly thinner layer and fold it into quarters this time.



At this point the dough is ready to be shaped. If you cut it, you can see beautiful even layers.



So, cut the dough into 2 parts. Place one part in the refrigerator while you work on the other.
Roll out the dough into a long layer 12-14 cm high and 3-5 mm thick. First cut it into 4 squares and then cut each square diagonally.



Gently pulling with your hands, give the triangles a slightly elongated isosceles shape.



Roll the dough into a bagel shape. By the way, in this form you can freeze ready-made croissants and leave them for 7-8 hours before baking: during this time they will slowly defrost and grow.



Place the future croissants on a baking sheet lined with parchment and brush with beaten egg for the first time.



Place the croissants in the turned off oven for 3-3.5 hours. They will grow well there.



Now brush the croissants with egg again and bake them in an oven preheated to 210 degrees for 15 minutes.

Serve croissants hot or warm. The finished croissants can be cooled, wrapped in a bag and frozen, reheating in the microwave before serving. And don't forget to brew yourself a cup of coffee!

Success in preparing airy pastries largely depends on the dough kneading and the skill of the housewife. The entire process can take up to two days. On the first day, the dough is prepared, and on the second, the pastry is baked.

Baked goods are prepared from puff yeast dough, which is best kneaded yourself. This amount of ingredients will make 18 croissants.

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the center.
2. Pour salt and sugar into flour, but not in the center.
3. Crumble the yeast and pour in warm milk.
4. Pour the liquid into the well in the flour and begin mixing.
5. While kneading, add the egg and 60 g of soft butter. Knead for 10-15 minutes.
6. Then cover it with cling film and place in a warm place for 40 minutes.
7. When the mass doubles in size, shape it into a rectangle. Cover again with film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
8. Wrap 300 g chilled butter in cling film and roll it out with a rolling pin into a rectangle 2 cm thick. Place it in the refrigerator.
9. Move on to layering. Roll out the dough into a rectangle 2cm thick and twice as long as the butter sheet. Place the butter in the center of the dough and fold the bottom end over it. Using a rolling pin, roll out the canvas to 15 cm wide and 45 cm long, it should be solid.
10. Cut the dough into isosceles triangles with the base twice as long as the sides. In the center of the base, make a cut 2 cm upward. Fold the triangle towards the pointy end and fold the croissant into a crescent shape.
11. Leave the product for 40 minutes.
12. Brush the surface with egg and bake in the oven at 180˚C for 15 minutes.

This aromatic crispy pastry goes well with your morning coffee. The photo shows an option for serving French croissants with fruit jam. You can also pour melted chocolate over the products.

Secrets of making French croissants

To ensure everything works out for you, follow these recommendations:

1. Butter is taken only above 82% fat content, and by weight - no less than a third of the amount of flour.
2. Flour is chosen of the highest grade.
3. Live yeast is used instead of pressed yeast.
4. Roll out the dough perpendicular to the previous movement, but not diagonally.
5. The dough and butter should be the same consistency when layering.

If you want to make an unforgettable pastry, then add Nutella as a filling.

When preparing French croissants, be patient, as the process is lengthy. You can reduce the cooking time if you buy ready-made puff pastry, but then flour products will not be as soft.

When talking about France, you immediately imagine cheese, baguette and croissant. This “trio” largely determines the culinary tastes of the French. A croissant is not only tasty, but also interesting with its history. And he deserves a whole conversation!

Croissants are soft, delicious crescent-shaped buns. They are baked all over the world, but the tradition of croissants is rooted in France. And they are baked differently all over the world. A good French baker would only sigh sadly after tasting what are called croissants in most countries of the world. Because baking them is truly an art. Even experienced French bakers admit that if you do something just a little wrong, the croissant will not turn out well, that there are dozens of subtleties that must be taken into account in order for the result to please you. Therefore, coming to live in France for permanent residence is the most correct decision for a lover and connoisseur of croissants. This is where you will be served a croissant baked in accordance with all traditions, which you can truly enjoy. And if you make it a rule to enjoy such a product every morning, washing it down with fresh coffee or hot chocolate, then you can rest assured that you have almost become a real Frenchman!

From the history of croissants

Not every dish can boast such a rich history as a real crispy French croissant. This is truly, in all respects, an interesting product. Why are croissants eaten mostly with coffee? Why are they baked in a crescent shape? Why are they made from puff pastry? All these questions can be answered if you familiarize yourself with the history of the croissant. Its history is divided into two stages.

Initially, the croissant was not a French product at all, because it was invented in Vienna. There is a legend that when the Turks were besieging the city, bakers had to work at night to feed everyone, and one night a vigilant baker at his work post noticed the enemy’s advance and thus prevented the capture of Vienna. In memory of this, they began to bake croissants, where the shape of the crescent reminds of repelling the attack of the Turks, professing Islam. Although, perhaps, this is just a legend, and the croissant has a crescent shape because it is an accessible geometric shape, and in this form it is convenient to roll it out and then bake it.

The French do not argue with the fact that croissants are not their invention. The first mention of croissants dates back to 1863, and they were Viennese rolls. However, in 1770, the French queen Marie Antoinette (the same one who was executed in 1793) brought the fashion for croissants to France. The French loved croissants, but on French soil they have undergone significant changes! Namely, they began to bake not from ordinary unleavened dough, but from puff pastry and, moreover, yeast dough. This radically changed the whole essence of croissants and their parameters such as taste and aroma. So those croissants that are now sold almost all over the world are still croissants

French model. All that connects them to the original format invented in Vienna is the form. And since 1850, the croissant has been considered a “French bread”, so it is in this role that the whole world remembers it.

Making croissants in France

Among French pastry chefs who are engaged in a difficult and responsible task like preparing croissants, it is often believed that preparing such a seemingly very small bun is an entire art. According to leading experts, making a croissant requires many conditions to be met, so there are no less than 50 parameters that you need to pay attention to if you want your croissant to be truly delicious and truly French. Among them are the quality of all ingredients, including flour and butter, the temperature of the oven, and the type of oven itself. It is also important how the dough rises and at what temperature it rises. In other words, there are so many criteria that it is simply impossible to take them all into account unless you have experience and special culinary acumen, which is developed over the years by people who produce croissants every day. However, “production” is not the right word, because the French chefs themselves say: a croissant is like a living creature, you need to feel it, and then it will turn out delicious. Such advice will not help an amateur in baking a croissant, but this suggests that only a master can bake real croissants. Therefore, come to live in France for permanent residence - perhaps this is your only chance to eat delicious croissants every day and not doubt their quality and loyalty to traditions.

Experts say there are at least two types of croissants. The first is a croissant that is baked in a combi oven. This is modern equipment that makes the croissant more crumbly. However, it should not be too crumbly - this, according to professionals, is just a not very professionally baked croissant. If it is made according to all the rules, then its “crumbiness” will be average. Croissants of this type are considered more tasty and elite.

The second type of croissant is a “bakery” croissant, that is, baked in the same conventional oven in which most baked goods are baked. Such croissants are more prone not to crumbling, but to elasticity, which, of course, is also good in moderation, because overly elastic croissants become “rubbery” and not entirely tasty. If you wish, you can find both options on sale, and if you decide to bake croissants at home, you will most likely get the second variety. However, if the croissant is fresh, then it is almost always tasty, so all these subtleties can be left to gourmets and enjoy fresh pastries with aromatic coffee.

How to bake a croissant at home

Perhaps you would like to bake your own croissants for yourself and your family? There is nothing complicated about this, despite the fact that we just talked about the 50 parameters of a croissant and about the fact that you need to feel it with all your soul in order for you to succeed. One way or another, you will succeed even the first time, and then you can simply improve your skills, that’s all. So, what do we need if we decide to bake a real French croissant?

The ingredients here are as follows:

• approximately 200 grams of flour. Flour must be wheat flour of the highest grade.
• yeast - 5 grams. You can use dry yeast, although it is said that it is more traditional to use live yeast.
• sugar - about 30 grams.
• butter - about 130 grams. It is important that the oil has the highest fat content, at least 80%.
• You will also need very little milk, without a specific volume, because some components will need to be diluted with milk.
• salt, also without exact volume, is added to taste.
• egg yolk - it is used to grease the croissant, so it is advisable to break 1-2 eggs in advance and separate the yolk that we will need.

The preparation of a croissant is carried out in several stages:

1) Yeast is mixed with milk (separately)

2) Salt is mixed with sugar (separately), after which milk is added to dissolve it all. Flour is poured into this mixture and brought to a thick mass with milk. It is better to mix with your hands, because croissants do not like metal objects.

3) Add yeast from the first point, mix again until smooth.

4) The dough is placed in a warm place for about two hours.

5) The dough (which should be approximately in the shape of a rectangle) is cut crosswise and “petals” are formed.

6) Oil is placed in the center, after which the “petals” are connected.

7) Carefully roll out with a rolling pin, trying to get the shape of a rectangle again.

8) Place the dough in the refrigerator for about one hour.

9) The dough taken out of the refrigerator is cut into triangles, which are then wrapped to form croissants.

10) The croissants need to “think” for about an hour before they go into the oven. Brush them with egg yolk and leave them alone.

11) Final stage - the baking sheet is also greased with yolk, the croissants are sent to the oven for 20 minutes. The oven should be preheated to 180 degrees.

After you take the croissants out of the oven, they are almost ready to eat, but you should let them sit for a while. But not for too long - they should never cool down, because the main value of croissants is that they are fresh!

Recipe from the TV channel “Food”:

• Homemade croissants with chocolate spread from Nastya Latova

How the French eat croissants

This tasty product is mainly consumed for breakfast. It is important here that the croissant is really fresh, because it is in this form that it is most appetizing. Some French people are not even lazy to go to the bakery early in the morning to buy croissants “piping hot.” By the way, in France many stores have a very narrow specialization, so one store may sell bread, another - donuts, a third - croissants, and a fourth - baguettes. But each store offers something of its own, something special, they do not compete, and at a certain time a queue of lovers of exactly what is sold there lines up at each store. It’s quite funny to watch how a girl rushes in the morning to buy fresh croissants, and a man walks towards her, who also got up early to buy a freshly baked baguette. This is what the French are all about - they won’t drink coffee with yesterday’s baguette, they’d rather give up everything altogether than allow something to be imperfect. But real French coffee with a real fresh French croissant is truly pure perfection, and if you come to live in France or Monaco , then you may also find that you get up half an hour earlier in order to catch the next delicious bun. However, with the development of today's level of service, it is quite possible to order a croissant at home, and it will be delivered to you exactly at the time when your coffee is brewed. This allows you to fully enjoy life without extra effort!

A true French croissant does not have a filling, but you will of course find many variations of croissants that have something inside. This, in principle, is also a great addition to morning coffee, although it is a slight departure from tradition.

Since the French love coffee more than anything else, this is almost always passed on to those who come to live in France . However, in general, a croissant goes well with almost any drink, so choose your favorite combinations and enjoy this delicious invention of French civilization at least every day!

The article was prepared with the participation of Cofrance company

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Cooking instructions

1 hour Print

1. Dissolve the yeast in 150 ml of warm water, let stand for 10 minutes, then stir. Crib How to prepare yeast

2. Sift the flour and pour into a deep bowl. Knead 30 g of butter with your hands and grind with flour. Add 1 egg, sugar, 0.5 teaspoons of salt, yeast and knead into a smooth elastic dough (knead for 10-15 minutes). Flour seeder tool Flour must be sifted even if you grind it yourself and guarantee the absence of lumps and pellets. Waking up through the sieve, the flour is loosened, saturated with oxygen, the dough rises better and then has a better texture. You can sift using any fine sieve or, for example, a special OXO seeder, which works on the principle of a meditative rocking chair.

3. Sprinkle the table with flour, roll out the dough into a rectangle measuring 50x20 cm. Mash the remaining butter and divide into 3 parts. Spread 1/3 of the butter onto 2/3 of the surface of the dough using the back of a tablespoon, leaving 2-3 cm from the edges of the dough (the butter should not completely melt, but consist of small lumps). Rolling pin tool To roll out a large sheet of dough, the rolling pin must be long. It will also be more convenient to perform a trick that allows you to make the thickness of the sheet uniform: hang the dough on a rolling pin and rotate it around it in the air. “Afisha-Eda” arranged a revision of rolling pins; the most maneuverable one turned out to be the beech one from the Bérard brand.

4. Fold the ungreased surface over half of the greased surface and cover with the remaining greased surface. You will get a three-layer rectangle measuring approximately 17x20 cm. Seal the edges of the dough well with your hands so that the butter does not come out when rolling out the dough further. Tool Silicone brush It is convenient to coat with hot glaze using a silicone brush - for example, Mario Batali. Silicone bristles do not stick together, and besides, silicone, unlike ordinary bristles, does not come out of the brush along with the glaze.

5. Turn the dough 90 degrees to the right and roll it out again into a rectangle measuring 50x20 cm. Carefully transfer the dough onto a sheet of parchment (or tracing paper), cover with a second sheet, fold in half, cover with a towel and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. After the specified time has passed, transfer the dough to a floured table.

6. Completely repeat the previous procedure 2 more times. Repeat the previous procedure 3 more times, but without oil. Put the dough in the refrigerator only after the third repetition.

7. Roll out the dough into a rectangle measuring 52x30 cm, cover with a towel and leave for 10 minutes. Then cut the dough in half lengthwise, cutting each layer into 8 triangles with a base of 13 cm.

8. Roll croissants out of triangles, place tip down on greased vegetable oil pan, giving them a crescent shape. The distance between croissants is at least 5 cm.
Tool Baking paper Open pies and quiches for even baking, it is better to place them in the oven on a wire rack, and to prevent the sauce boiling from the heat from dripping between the rods, baking paper will help. For example, the Finns produce a good one - it is quite dense and is already divided into sheets that are easy to get out of the box. And nothing more is required from paper.

9. Brush the croissants with egg and leave for 40 minutes to rise (preferably in a cupboard or cold oven so that there is no air flow, otherwise the croissants will dry out).

10. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Bake croissants for 15–20 minutes. Tool Oven thermometer How the oven actually heats up, even if you set a specific temperature, can only be understood with experience. It is better to have a small thermometer on hand that is placed in the oven or simply hung on the grill. And it is better that it shows degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit simultaneously and accurately - like a Swiss watch. A thermometer is important when you need to strictly observe the temperature regime: for example, in the case of baking.