Cookies croissants recipe. Croissants made from ready-made dough - crispy baked goods without the hassle

A beautiful life is inextricably associated with beautiful food. If we continue the associations, then the sweet life is a world of exquisite sweets, among which croissants will certainly occupy one of the prominent places. At the same time beautiful and tasty, they remind you of boundless happiness: breakfast in the heart of Paris, a table in a cozy cafe, coffee and croissant. True, recently croissants can be tasted far beyond the city of lovers and even simply bought at the grocery store closest to home. But if so, then it’s better to prepare croissants at home: fresh, airy and with your favorite filling. Or without it - like in a real French pastry shop.

What is a croissant? Rules for baking real croissants
Croissants are considered to be a symbol of French pastries, although in fact they were invented in Austria back in the 13th century. The French tried them only at the end of the 18th century, following the example of the beautiful Queen Marie Antoinette, who has since been considered the founder of the classic breakfast with croissants. Parisian bakers could not stay away from such a delicacy and adapted it in the French manner, changing the composition of the dough, the filling and leaving only the shape of a bagel, or crescent (croissant in French - crescent) from the Austrian invention. Since then, the classic croissant recipe has undergone many changes, but if you want to make croissants in French, you will have to use puff pastry, everything else is just a semblance.

French croissants are often made without filling. This bagel is convenient because while eating you choose the filling to your taste, cut the croissant lengthwise, generously spread the bottom half with butter and cover the top half. As a rule, an “empty” croissant is quite large in size, and ham, cheese, and a boiled egg are placed in it - that is, unsweetened additives. This method is good for a leisurely breakfast or tea party, and it is more convenient to have a snack on the run with croissants with filling. They are often smaller in size, the length of the smallest bagels does not exceed 5 cm. Mini-croissants are filled mainly with sweet fillings: croissants with chocolate, croissants with cream, croissants with condensed milk, croissants with jam... There are no strict rules regarding the filling, so even the biggest original can find or make a croissant to his taste with his own hands.

The same cannot be said about croissant dough. To meet the standard, it must be layered, light and airy in the middle, soft and slightly buttery. The crust on its surface is the thinnest, but at the same time golden brown and crispy. To achieve this result, you must strictly adhere to the proportions of all ingredients and not violate the sequence of mixing them. The technology of kneading the dough, the shape of the product, the baking temperature - everything matters. Therefore, we will describe in detail how to prepare real croissants at home, using the example of a traditional recipe for croissants without filling. All other options, with or without filling, will be easy for you if you master the basic recipe for French croissants:

Ingredients: half a kilo of premium wheat flour, 200 grams of butter, 125 grams (half a glass) of milk, 125 grams of water, 50 grams of granulated sugar, 20 grams of yeast, 2 large eggs, 2 teaspoons of salt.
Cool the milk and water. Place a stick of butter in the refrigerator. While the liquids are cooling, take a deep bowl and sift the flour into it. Grind the yeast with your hands and add to the flour, chopping and rubbing with the flour between your fingertips.
Dilute the cooled milk with water, add one egg to the liquid and mix.
Add salt and sugar to the flour with yeast, pour in the milk and egg. Mix with a spatula until the dough reaches a homogeneous consistency.
Then transfer the dough to a counter or cutting board. Knead it with your hands for about 5 more minutes, eventually forming a plump ball. Place the dough in this form back into the bowl, lightly sprinkled with flour.
Using a sharp knife, cut a cross into the top of the dough (like you would on homemade bread loaves). Cover the bowl with cling film. Place it in the refrigerator overnight, that is, for 5-6 hours. As a last resort, if you don’t have much time, keep the bowl of dough in the cold for at least 2 hours.
After this time, the dough, which has increased in volume, is transferred to a table lightly sprinkled with flour. Roll out the dough, moving from the middle of the ball to the edges in four directions.
Remove the butter from the refrigerator and quickly remove it from the packaging without warming it with your hands. Place a block of butter between two layers of cling film or parchment. Use a rolling pin to flatten the piece of butter by pressing and rolling it out. Achieve a thickness of the oil layer of no more than 1 cm.
Without touching the butter with warm hands, transfer it onto the rolled out dough - exactly in the middle of the layer.
Cover the butter with the free edges of the dough so that it is inside a kind of “envelope”.
Roll out this envelope with a rolling pin in one direction. When the thickness of the layer reaches 0.5 cm, fold it in three in the form of a rectangle and cover with film. On a cutting board, place the dough and rolling pin in the refrigerator for half an hour.
Take out the dough and rolling pin. On a table sprinkled with flour, roll out the dough from the short side along the long edge of the layer to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Fold it again and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
Repeat the procedure of rolling out and cooling the dough twice more (a total of 4 such cycles should occur). Each time, roll out the dough along the long side and achieve a thickness of about half a centimeter.
When the dough has chilled for the final, fourth time, take the remaining egg and crack it into a small bowl. Mix the yolk with the white and shake with a fork. Leave for 30-60 minutes until the egg becomes more watery.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on the table. Roll out along the long side with a rolling pin until the thickness of the rectangular layer reaches 4-5 mm.
Using a sharp knife, trim off any irregularities along the edge of the layer so that the dough is a perfectly even rectangle. Divide it with a knife into two longitudinal halves.
Using cross-diagonal cuts, divide each half into equal triangles.
Roll each triangle as follows: grab the base of the triangle on both sides and wrap it towards the third corner. Don't twist too tightly. While twisting, slightly stretch the edges in opposite directions.
Place the croissants on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Leave some space between them so they don't stick together during proofing. Cover with a dry towel (so that the surface of the dough does not dry out) and leave for a maximum of a couple of hours in a warm place.
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Brush the surface of the croissants with egg and bake for 18-20 minutes. When the crust is golden brown, turn off the heat and cool the baked goods on a wire rack.

This is how croissants should ideally be baked at home. If you follow all the nuances, you will get bagels no worse than those from a professional bakery. As for the filling, it can be anything you like, but it is better to stick to proven ingredients and their combinations.

How to bake croissants at home
The croissant recipe described in the previous section was borrowed from a professional bakery. But following it at home is quite difficult: long and troublesome. Therefore, you can bake croissants at home using a different, simplified recipe. It does not involve the use of yeast and requires much time for kneading the dough. But the result is no worse than with yeast dough, and at the same time it is suitable for those who are contraindicated in eating yeast. Try making croissants at home from yeast-free puff pastry:

Ingredients: 1 glass of premium wheat flour, approximately 65 grams (one-third of a pack) of butter, one-third of a glass of still water, 1 egg and a pinch of salt.
Cool the butter until solid.
Sift the flour into a deep bowl, add salt and water. Knead the dough.
Transfer the dough to a table dusted with flour and roll out into a rectangle 3-4 mm thick.
Grate the butter and spread the butter shavings evenly over the surface of the dough.
Fold the dough in half and roll out again. Wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
Take out the dough, place it on the table and roll it out. Fold in half and roll out again to a thickness of approximately 3 mm.
Cut the dough into manageable size triangles. Roll the bagels from the wide side to the corner.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the bagels on it at a short distance from each other.
Lightly beat the egg and brush the surface of the croissants with it. Bake for about 20 minutes at 200°C.

This way you can reduce the cooking time of croissants without losing almost any taste. Although, if you want to make croissants at home quickly - so quickly that you are ready to sacrifice the rules - then use puff pastry from the store. Croissants made from ready-made dough, frozen and packaged, are a certain risk. You may be lucky and the store-bought dough will rise normally, and the bagels will turn out soft and airy. But no one can give you a guarantee that croissants made from frozen dough will not turn out dense and heavy, that is, ordinary bagels. All you have to do is follow the directions on the package and follow the test manufacturer's instructions.

As for the contents of the dough, that is, the filling, this is the simplest and most enjoyable stage of baking croissants. If you decide to bake croissants with filling, then place it on the base of each dough triangle before you roll it into a bagel. As a rule, a teaspoon/dessert spoon of filler is enough to make it tasty. More filling may come out during baking. Well, what exactly to put inside the baked goods depends only on your taste and imagination. Off the top of my head I remember these popular filling options for croissants:

Croissants with chocolate. Solid chocolate is used. There is no need to soften it, just break off a piece of the tile and wrap it in a triangle of dough.
Croissants with cheese and/or ham. Hard cheese needs to be grated, white cheese needs to be crumbled. You can use feta, mozzarella, suluguni and even feta cheese. It is better not to bake the cream cheese, but to spread it on a cut empty croissant. Cut the ham into small cubes.
Croissants with fruit. It is better to use hard varieties: apples, pears, peaches, etc., cut into cubes.
Croissants with marmalade. Agar-agar marmalade is preferable to gelatin marmalade: it holds its shape better and is simply healthier.
Croissants with jam. Any jam, marmalade or preserves with a fairly thick consistency is suitable.
Croissants with condensed milk. This refers to boiled condensed milk - regular or with the addition of cocoa.
Croissants with cottage cheese. Choose grainy, fairly dry cottage cheese or curd mass.
Croissants with cinnamon. Mix ground cinnamon with sugar or powdered sugar and apply this mixture to the inner surface of the dough triangle before folding.

As you can see, you can prepare croissants at home in different ways, depending on the availability of time and desire. Homemade croissants with chocolate filling will surely become a favorite treat for your household, and you can feed them heartily at breakfast with croissants with ham and cheese. In general, it’s worth learning how to bake croissants at home, if only to please your loved ones with delicious pastries and to make sure that your homemade pastries are not inferior to the works of French confectioners.

In France, there is not a single coffee shop, bakery or other similar establishment that does not serve soft and fragrant croissants made from puff pastry with filling. You can use absolutely any filling for them, or cook without it at all. Such pastries will come in handy during family tea parties or get-togethers with friends.

Despite the fact that the dish is considered a high-calorie product, French women eat them morning, noon and night and do not have any special problems with weight. So, let's find out how to make delicious puff pastry croissants at home in just half an hour.

Puff pastry croissants with boiled condensed milk

Kitchen appliances and utensils: oven, baking sheet and parchment paper.

Ingredients

Step by step recipe

Divide the dough sheet into three parts.
Cut triangles from each part.
Place a teaspoon of condensed milk on the wide part of the triangle.
Roll the dough into a bagel. Also twist the ends of the dough so that there is no hole left.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the croissants tail side down to prevent them from unwinding during baking.
Cover the dough with a towel and leave for a couple of hours for the dough to rise. The blanks will increase approximately 2 times.
After this time, beat the egg, brush the top of the dough with it and place in the oven for 15 minutes at 200°C.
Allow to cool and serve.

Video recipe for making puff pastry croissants with boiled condensed milk

If you still have questions after reading the recipe, watch the video, which clearly shows the entire process of creating a delicious dessert in French. You will see how to properly wrap puff pastry croissants so that the filling does not leak out.

This pastry can have absolutely any filling. Nowadays croissants made from puff yeast dough with cheese are very popular. They are best eaten while still warm, when the cheese is melted and makes a nice toffee. I like that you can use absolutely any cheese for this dish. This dish can be a great snack during the school or work day.

You can use yeast or yeast-free puff pastry for them. Nowadays it’s easy to buy it in the store and make croissants from ready-made puff pastry, but when time allows, you can make the dough yourself.

Croissants with puff pastry cheese

Cooking time: 30 minutes.
Number of servings: for 6 people.
Kitchen appliances and utensils: baking sheet, parchment paper, oven.
Calories: 355.2 kcal per 100 g of product.

Ingredients

Step by step recipe

Video recipe for making puff pastry croissants with cheese

Experienced chefs love to share their culinary skills with viewers by filming educational videos on any topic. This video will teach you how to make croissants at home in minutes.

Serving options

This dish will always be relevant with tea or any other favorite drink.
Sweet croissants can be sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with whipped cream and fresh berries.

Cooking options

All cuisines of the world are rich in aromatic and airy baked goods. Now recipes for various dishes are freely available, and we can enjoy dessert, which can be the national dish of any country. Drinking tea with sweets is very popular in any country, which is why skilled chefs still never cease to amaze us with their signature baked goods with delicious fillings for every taste.

Our kitchen is also rich in masterpieces that are difficult to resist. What are they worth? Of course, I try to eat them in the first half of the day, but it’s very difficult for me to resist when the aroma of delicious baked goods is in the house, and it’s already well after 18:00.
It's so easy to make all sorts of delicious things from puff pastry! For example, you can make it with any filling and any shape. We once made them with finger-sized meat. Despite the fact that this is a very painstaking task, they went off with a bang at their mother’s birthday.
I will also share the recipe with you. I recommend eating them freshly baked, when the dough is airy, like cotton wool, and the cottage cheese is very soft and simply melts in your mouth.
I’m probably not the only one who noticed that children love strawberries as a filling. This filler is kind of universal, because baked goods with it retain their taste even on the second day of life. I will share with you a very simple but incredibly tasty recipe. During the season of this berry, they are frequent guests on our table.

Dear cooks, I hope today was useful for you and you took advantage of my simple recipes for delicious croissants. If you have any suggestions or additions, you can leave them in the comments, I will definitely take a look. And now I want to wish you success and bon appetit!

Gourmets love croissants not only for their delicate dough, but also for the abundance of different fillings. They can be sweet, cheese, meat, curd.

Fillings

With cheese

Grate the cheese on a coarse grater, add the egg and soft butter.

You can use mozzarella, feta, and mixtures of cheeses. A croissant with this filling will be very satisfying.

If you add finely chopped ham to coarsely grated cheese, you will get another option for a hearty filling.

With fruit and berry filling

Use fresh or canned fruits, cut into small pieces.

You can also fill croissants with jam or marmalade.

With cottage cheese

If you add an egg, butter and vanillin to the pureed cottage cheese, you will get a delicious cottage cheese filling.

You can also add nuts, fruits or dried fruits to it to taste. Sweet curd mass is also suitable for filling.

Classic condensed milk is also an excellent option for filling croissants. But the main filling option for this type of baking is, of course, chocolate.

Dough

Ingredients:

wheat flour - 310 g
dry instant yeast - 7 g
sugar - 30 g
salt - half a teaspoon
milk - 120 ml
butter - 250 g
chicken egg - 1 pc.

How to make croissant dough:

In the first stage, all ingredients are used except butter. You also need to leave 10 g of flour for the second stage.

First you need to sift the flour and yeast. Add salt, sugar and milk. Mix. Next you will need a mixer with dough attachments. You need to knead the resulting mass at low speed for several minutes. Then increase the speed to maximum and knead until the dough becomes elastic. Usually this takes about 4 minutes. Then the dough must be wrapped in film and left for 30 minutes. Then put it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

At the second stage you will need butter and a little flour. The butter needs to be chopped into large pieces and flour added to it. Using a mixer at high speed, knead the mixture for several minutes. It should become soft and smooth, but the butter should not begin to melt. Form a cake from the resulting mass with your hands, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

At the third stage, you can start rolling out the dough. You need to take it out of the refrigerator and roll it into a rectangle. Recommended thickness is 6-7 mm. Remove the butter from the refrigerator and place it in the middle of the resulting rectangle. It is important that both the butter and the dough are cold. Then cover the butter with dough, first on one side, then on the other. Carefully pull the edges together and press the ends with your fingers. As a result, the oil should end up in a sealed “package”.

Next, you need to beat the butter with a rolling pin from the center to the edges, first one, then the other. The oil should be evenly distributed inside the dough. You will get a rectangle about 3 cm high. Roll it with a rolling pin a couple of times, place it on a flat baking sheet, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on the table with the long side facing you. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Its height should be about 6 mm. If the dough is sticky, you can sprinkle it with a little flour. Then fold it again from the edges to the center, roll it with a rolling pin and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.

Then repeat the last manipulations again and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Just as before, roll out into a rectangle, fold from the edges to the center, but leave a little space between them. Close the dough like a book and put it in the refrigerator again for several hours.

Take out the prepared dough and cut it crosswise into two parts. When working with one of them, the second one must be kept cold.

How to make filled croissants:

The further process of preparing croissants from dough purchased in a store or kneaded yourself is the same.

Roll out the dough, sprinkled with flour first. Cut it into narrow triangles. Sprinkle each triangle with sugar. You need to start rolling from the wide side. Place the resulting bagels on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a pastry brush, brush the croissants with the beaten egg, which will allow the croissants to crisp up. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees in a preheated oven.

Instead of sugar, you can put any of the fillings you like inside the croissants or pour glaze on top, decorate with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Bagels with a savory, filling filling can be sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds on top.

Croissants are perfect for tea or coffee, and not just for breakfast!

French pastries are easy if you cook according to the proven recipes of pastry chef Alexander Seleznev!

To knead the dough for croissants, you need to combine all the dry ingredients separately (except for sugar) and separately all the liquid ones.

First add 4 kg of flour, 120 g of milk powder, 72 g of salt, 140 g of live yeast into a dough mixer or any other container. You can pre-stir the yeast in warm water and add it in this form, but it is more convenient for us to add it dry. I lightly rub them in my hands to make them more crumbly and throw them into the dough mixer. It’s hard to say which is correct: I checked, the dough turns out good either way.

We use powdered milk to increase the fat content of the dough without adding excess moisture, because it is essentially a fatty powder.

You can mix the ingredients with your hands, or you can leave it like that, it doesn’t matter.

2.

In a separate container, mix 4 eggs, 880 ml of water, 1 liter of milk with 3.2% fat and 400 g of sugar. Mix with a whisk until the yolks break up and pour into the mixer with the dry ingredients. Start kneading the dough.

When all the ingredients are visually mixed and the mass becomes more or less homogeneous, add 160 g of melted butter.

4.

Continue kneading until the dough turns into a smooth, in no way loose and viscous mass without lumps, not sticking to the walls.

If you cut a piece of dough, you will see small bubbles inside. This is the kind of dough we need.

5.

Divide the finished dough into portions weighing approximately 850–860 g, wrap each portion in cling film and leave at room temperature for an hour.

6.

While the dough is resting, you need to prepare the butter.

For one serving (850 g) of dough you will need 250 g of butter. Leave the butter at room temperature for an hour, during which time it will soften. Then put it in cling film and roll it out so that the thickness of the layer reaches 5 mm. To do this, you can first mash it, cut it - in general, flatten it however you like.

I recommend using oil with minimal moisture so as not to add excess water to the dough. We use oil with a fat content of 86%.

The rolled butter must be placed in the freezer so that it sets and becomes a single elastic layer.

7.

After an hour, you can begin rolling out the dough for the first time.

There are two ways to roll out a portion of dough. The first is to stretch the dough with your hands and roll it out a little with a rolling pin.

The second is to cut the dough round crosswise, like this.

8.

Then you need to turn the corners of the dough outward - you get a square.

9.

Stretch it with your hands. Wrap in film and place in the freezer for five minutes to cool slightly.

10.

Roll out the chilled dough into a rectangle 1 cm thick. Place a layer of butter in the center.

11.

Wrap the butter in the dough like in an envelope. Pinch the edges and cut off any excess dough (that extends beyond the butter layer). So we got a dough consisting of two layers separated by a layer of butter.

Wrap it in cling film and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is necessary so that the temperatures of the oil and dough are equal and they become one. Plus, we need the dough to be slightly frozen - but not completely frozen: it must retain its elasticity.

Everyone's freezer is different, so either rely on your feelings or trust experience: the temperature in the freezer should be at -15 degrees.

12.

After half an hour, take out the dough and roll it into a layer 11 mm thick.

Now you need to fold it with a book so that you get 8 layers of dough.

To do this, fold the edges of the dough on each side until it reaches the middle (you put two layers of dough on top of two layers, making four).

13.

Then fold the dough in half again (you get four layers plus four - that is, eight).

Wrap the dough in cling film and put it back in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Then take the dough out again and roll it out into a layer 11 mm thick. Also fold it into a book, wrap it in cling film and put it in the freezer for the same 30 minutes. The dough will already have 32 layers.

Take out the dough again, repeat the procedure, put the dough wrapped in film into the freezer again for 30 minutes.

The dough is ready. It can be frozen and used within two days.

14.

The finished dough has 128 layers, not counting the butter (these are the light layers). The more layers, the denser the dough and the thinner each layer. But at some point the effect of lamination disappears, because the layers will become too thin, the dough will begin to resemble the most ordinary one.

The airiness of the croissants depends on the number of layers. The more layers, the more holes there are - pores. Super puff pastry will produce something like brioche, that is, a pastry with a very large number of small holes, such that you won’t even understand that it’s a puff pastry.

Our task is to find the optimal number of layers so that the croissant is airy and has medium-sized holes.

Different puff pastry baked goods should have different layers. Danishes, for example, have less, croissants have more.

15.

Roll out the finished dough into a rectangle measuring approximately 60 by 35 cm and 6 mm thick. Then take a ruler and make marks on the dough: on the bottom edge, alternate marks every 11.5 cm and 5.2 cm, on the top edge, vice versa. Connect the top and bottom points with a zigzag using a ruler and cut the dough into triangles.

16.

Roll each triangle into a log, starting with the thick edge.

17.

The croissants can again be frozen (and baked within the same two days) - or immediately put into proofing and then baked immediately.

To imitate a proofer at home, you need to put a pan of water in the oven, place croissants on a tray and put them in the oven for a couple of hours. There is no need to turn on the oven; the environment will already be warm and humid. The second option is to leave the croissants for five hours under film at room temperature.

Proofing is needed to get the yeast working. When we leave the kneaded dough at room temperature for an hour, it rises for the first time. The second proofing of already formed croissants is necessary so that bubbles appear in the croissants. When baking, they will give us layering and airiness.

After a certain time, the longer the croissants rise, the more bubbles they will have, and the smaller they will be. The dough after proofing is a very delicate product. If you shake the tray of croissants a little, they will begin to shake slightly - like jelly. And if you lightly press the croissant with your finger, you will feel the tiny bubbles bursting inside. This means that the proofing was successful.

I will explain why it is so important to strictly observe the proofing time. Let’s imagine that yeast is such a thing that in a warm and humid environment begins to work: pump and grow. The more you swing, the more bubbles will form around. And you need to bake croissants at the very peak of their work in order to fix everything in such an ideal state. If we start baking earlier, they won’t have time to do their job and the croissants won’t turn out fluffy enough. We’ll bake it later - our guys will get tired, because they’ve already squeezed everything they can out of them. The dough will be loose and smelling of yeast.

If you froze croissants and took them out, say, the next day, then you first need to defrost them first - leave them at room temperature until they are frozen, and only then put them in proofing. If you proof them frozen, the top layer will proof but the center will remain frozen.

During proofing, the croissants grow two to two and a half times.

18.

Before baking, croissants should be greased with a mixture of egg and water (20 ml of water per 1 egg), this makes greasing easier than with a clean egg.

You need to grease the croissants very carefully, lightly, with a brush - and only along the twist lines, not across, otherwise the structure of the croissant will be disrupted and the layers will move relative to each other. The result will be a tasty product, but ugly, incorrect from the point of view of traditions.

19.

The oven must be preheated to a temperature of 190 degrees. When we open it, the temperature will immediately drop - and we will need to adjust it with the regulator to 180 degrees. This is done so that the croissants immediately reach the desired temperature.

20.

Croissants are baked for approximately 10 minutes at 180 degrees, and then another 10 minutes at 160 degrees.

The first 10 minutes is a rough estimate, it all depends on the parameters of a particular oven. The signal that it is time to switch the temperature is this: the croissant should look as if it is already ready. In fact, it is only ready in appearance, but raw inside, which is why we change the temperature to bring it to readiness. So I don’t recommend leaving croissants in the oven and going out on business, as happens when you make, for example, muffins: croissants need an eye and an eye.

Then the croissants need to be taken out and left to cool, at which time they will continue to cook, like anything hot. Remember the rule: hot bread is raw bread. Strictly speaking, it is not raw, of course, but moist.

Freshly baked croissants last for six hours, then they are no longer as tasty.

21.

If you want to make croissants with cream, jam, chocolate, keep in mind: all this is added to the finished baked croissants. Adding these ingredients before baking and proofing will change the structure of the puff pastry, because this is excess moisture, excess weight - all this will deprive the croissant of its airiness.

To add them to the finished croissant, you need to carefully cut it lengthwise or make a hole in its bottom, and then pump in the filling using a syringe. The dense filling slightly presses the croissant from the inside, the center stretches, and the distribution of holes is no longer uniform.

22.

Look, you can see that one of the turns of the croissant has slipped: this happened because we brushed it with egg across the structure. Nothing terrible in terms of taste - but not pretty.

23.

And here you can see the consequence of the fact that the croissant was left to proof. According to traditional technology, there should be slightly fewer holes.

This croissant was just a little overdone. It is incorrect in terms of standards and traditional recipes, but it is a very cool and tasty croissant.

24.

But this is a perfect croissant from a technological point of view!

Croissants are small confectionery products made from airy puff pastry dough in the shape of a crescent. They are considered the heritage of national French cuisine and are widely known far beyond its borders. Treat yourself and your loved ones with deliciously crispy tender croissants by learning all the most important secrets of their preparation through our recipes with photos.

To prepare croissants at home from puff pastry with filling according to the classic recipe, you will need time and certain knowledge, skills and abilities. The products are prepared from yeast dough in water, generously layered with butter. This pastry is also delicious made from other types of puff pastry: kefir, yeast-free, shortbread with various sweet (thick jam, fruit, chocolate) and non-sweet (cheese, cottage cheese, fish) fillings.

Classic croissants made from puff pastry with chocolate (recipe with photos)

Preparing delicious croissants according to the classic recipe is a troublesome task, but the result is worth it. Small products made from puff pastry with chocolate, similar to tender buns, but airy and crispy, will become a favorite dessert for tea. So, here is the recipe for chocolate croissants:

Ingredients

For the test
Water - 1 glass (250 ml)
Butter - 250 g.
Dry yeast - 1 tbsp. l.
Sugar - 3 tbsp. l.
Premium or 1st grade flour - 3 cups
Salt - 1 tsp.

For filling

Dark chocolate - 1 bar
Butter - 1 tbsp. l.
Walnuts - ¼ cup

Preparation time: 5 hours, of which 25 minutes - baking, 4 hours - dough resting

Yield: 24 8 cm croissants

Calorie content: 465 kcal per 100 g.

How to make croissants from puff pastry with chocolate

The secret to making soft bagels with an appetizing crispy crust from classic dough is in its kneading and aging. Next, you will learn how to properly bake croissants from puff pastry; a recipe with photos will help you step by step, introducing you to every moment of their preparation.

Dissolve the yeast in water, add sugar and stir until completely dissolved. 1 tablespoon of dry yeast can be replaced with 20 g of wet pressed yeast.

Add melted butter and cooled to room temperature. Mix the ingredients.

Add flour and knead the dough well. Add salt halfway through the kneading process. Cover the bowl with the dough with cling film and place in a warm place for 1 hour to rise.

Advice: In the croissant dough, the recipe calls for adding salt not to taste, but a certain amount - the stratification of the dough during baking depends on this. We need 1 teaspoon of salt.

Roll the risen dough into a ball, place it on cling film, cut it into 4 pieces with a cross, and unfold it. Shape the dough into a square. Wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Prepare the oil for the layer. Warm it in advance at room temperature until it becomes soft plasticine, then wrap it in cling film and beat it into a square the size of a dough square.

Advice: To layer the dough, you need natural butter; margarine will stick the layers together.

Place the chilled dough on a floured table. Stretch the dough or roll it out lightly with a rolling pin. Place cold butter in the center of the dough and fold into a square. Roll it out lengthwise and, mentally dividing it into 3 parts, fold it into a booklet, first turning one edge towards the middle, and then the other.

Wrap the folded dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 15 minutes, then place in the refrigerator for another 15 minutes.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator, put it on a table sprinkled with flour, roll it out along the layers from the center up and down to a thickness of 1 cm. Fold it into 3 layers like a book.

Wrap the folded dough in film, place it back in the freezer for 15 minutes, and then keep it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Repeat this procedure 2 more times. For the 4th time, cool the dough only in the refrigerator for 40 minutes.

Divide the dough into 3 parts, roll each into a circle about 5 mm thick. Cut it with a sharp knife into 8 equal parts as follows: crosswise into 4 parts, and crosswise again, dividing each resulting part in two.

Advice: While you work with one part of the dough, place the others in the refrigerator to stay chilled.

Chocolate filling for croissants is the most common: tasty, healthy, convenient. Baking puff pastry with chocolate in the oven is easy: chocolate hardens at high temperatures and therefore does not leak out, like jam, for example.

Wonderful filling - chocolate with additives (nuts, cookies, raisins). Break it into slices and wrap it in bagels. Dark chocolate in combination with puff pastry will give baked goods a unique aristocratic taste.

Knowing how to roll croissants, you can easily shape them into a moon shape. To do this, cut the wide part of each triangle, lay out the filling and roll it into a bagel. To prevent the filling from creeping out of the baked goods, run wet fingers along the edges of the triangle before twisting.

Place the bagels on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and leave to proof. They should increase 3-4 times in size so that their surface will not crack during baking.

Brush the products with beaten egg. Do not grease the edges, otherwise they will peel poorly.

Before baking, preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 200.

Decoration for croissants - melted chocolate. Dip the edge of the bagel in chocolate and sprinkle chopped nuts on top. Now the truly royal croissant is ready. Serve with hot coffee or chocolate (cocoa).

Preparing the classic dough takes a lot of time. Prepare more of it at once and freeze. If necessary, you can quickly prepare croissants with chocolate from ready-made puff pastry - the recipe with the photo given above will help you roll out, cut and roll bagels, and later in the article you will learn how to prepare frozen dough for baking.

How to make croissants from puff pastry

At any time, without much hassle and time, you can prepare croissants from ready-made puff pastry with chocolate, fruit, condensed milk, bought in a store. But it cannot compare with the one you prepare yourself. Dough made in advance with kefir can be stored in the freezer for a long time; at any time you can use it to prepare a delicious dessert with your favorite filling.

Remove the finished dough from the freezer and defrost it so that not only the top, but also the inner layers are soft. This can be done in advance - in the evening, put the dough in the refrigerator on the warmest shelf. You can defrost faster at room temperature or in the microwave.

Roll out the thawed puff pastry with a rolling pin along the layers on a floured table. Cut into 3-4 parts (depending on the amount of dough) and.

Bagels made from yeast dough need 30 - 40 minutes to rise in a warm place. They will increase in volume by 2-3 times. Brush the surface with egg and place in an oven preheated to 200 degrees. The fastest croissants are made from yeast-free dough, since it only needs to be defrosted first.

A little about croissants

Appetizing croissants made from airy dough are considered an original French traditional pastry. One can argue with this statement.

Translated from French, croissant (fr. croissant) means crescent. But the history of the croissant goes back to the 7th century in Vienna. The baker received the exclusive right to produce bakery products in the shape of a crescent (the symbol of Islam) as a reward for saving the city besieged by the Turks. While working at night, he heard the noise made by the enemies who were digging a tunnel to get into the city underground, and reported it.

How to eat croissants according to etiquette? These are small, as they say “one bite”, products that are taken by hand. Jam, preserves, condensed milk, fruits that may be offered with them are placed on an individual plate next to the pastries.

Filling for croissants

More often, croissants are prepared with a sweet filling and served as a dessert with tea, coffee, cocoa, but unsweetened fillings will give the baked goods a unique taste, which, in combination with puff pastry, will make them the center of special attention even at the festive table.

The requirements for all fillings are the same - it should not be liquid, because during baking the dough will rise and displace the filling.

The most popular fillings for croissants:

Chocolate
Sweet fruits (apples, bananas, apricots, pears, peaches, citrus fruits)
Berries (cherries, currants, gooseberries, chokeberries)
Berries and fruits from jam
Thick jam, jam
Marmalade
Cinnamon mixed with sugar
Dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, prunes)
Any nuts
Cottage cheese
Salty fish
Sausages, ham

Other recipes for croissants filled with puff pastry

Microwave puff pastry croissants with peaches

Well-baked croissants with an appetizing beautiful surface will be obtained in the microwave with convection. Having placed the items for baking, you don’t have to worry about whether they will bake or burn. The oven will notify you when the products are ready with a loud signal.

For the filling you will need 2 medium sized peaches and sugar for sprinkling. Peaches should be sweet, with firm flesh. Wash the fruits, peel them, cut the pulp into oblong slices so that when laid out for 1 product - 1 fruit slice. Lightly sprinkle the peach with sugar (just a little).

You can also make croissants with any other fruit.

Calorie content: 406 kcal per 100 g.

Croissants with salted fish made from puff pastry made with beer

Using beer when preparing shortcrust pastry for croissants will give the products additional fluffiness, tenderness and crumbliness. The dough is prepared according to the shortbread puff pastry recipe, only beer is added instead of water.

The salty filling of fish croissants will pleasantly surprise and even stun the invited guests with its original taste. Any fish filling will be delicious, but salmon is special.

For the filling you will need 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 raw egg, 50 g salmon, 20 g cheese, green onions. Finely chop the greens and boiled eggs. Grate the cheese on a medium grater. Mix prepared ingredients with raw egg. Remove the dark part from the salmon fillet and cut into small pieces. Place a spoonful of filling on the dough and a piece of salmon on top.

Almond croissant made from puff pastry with kefir

You can use any nuts for the filling - peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts and even pine nuts. Each will add its own unique taste and aroma and will always remain inside the baked goods. They can be used whole, broken into pieces, crushed, mixed with egg or chocolate.

Let's prepare croissants with almonds: mix 1 cup of almonds in a blender with 1 egg and 1 tbsp. l. Sahara. Prepare yeast dough using kefir.

After baking, pour melted chocolate over the surface of the bagels and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Calorie content: 410 kcal per 100 g.

Croissants with prunes from ready-made puff pastry

Raisins, dried apricots, prunes, dried ground bird cherry - the easiest to prepare and convenient for baking filling for croissants. It will never leak and preparation work is minimal: rinse, dry, cut.

Prunes are famous not only for their special pleasant taste, but also for their great benefits for the body. Dried prunes - ready-made filling: tasty, moderately sweet, with a slight sourness. Wash dried fruits and dry with a cotton towel. Cut into slices widthwise. And the filling is ready.

Calorie content of croissants with marmalade: 410 kcal per 100 g.

Lenten croissants with chocolate puff pastry

Those with a sweet tooth who are fasting can indulge in the pleasure of eating delicious pastries and making lenten croissants with chocolate. The recipe for their preparation differs in that butter is replaced with high-quality vegetable oil (sunflower, olive), and dark chocolate (without dairy products) is used for the filling.

Calorie content: 390 kcal per 100 g.

Croissants with Nutella puff pastry

Small croissants with milk chocolate and nut filling, such as Nutella chocolate spread, will pleasantly diversify your breakfast and delight your beloved household members. Puff tender bagels can be prepared very quickly, spending only 30 - 35 minutes, of which 10 minutes are preparing the products and 20-25 minutes are baking in the oven. For 250 g of puff pastry you will need 0.5 cups of Nutella and 1 egg for greasing the products.

Calorie content: 460 kcal per 100 g.

How to decorate croissants

Fragrant and rosy croissants look beautiful without decoration, but you can decorate them to give them a more impressive look. We offer several ideas on how to decorate puff pastry croissants, but only your imagination will give the products an original and unique look.

The easiest way is to lightly dust the finished bagels with powdered sugar.
Drizzle honey, caramel and syrup over hot baked goods.
Dip the not yet cooled products into caramel or thick syrup, and then into sugar or chopped nuts or coconut flakes. Those who like a bright citrus taste can use ready-made orange water for dipping.
The most spectacular decoration for croissants is melted chocolate. You can use both dark and light chocolate, or both types at the same time.

Using a thin stream from a pastry bag, apply a simple pattern in the form of a lattice, mesh, zigzag to the surface of the products, and if time allows and your imagination runs wild, apply a more complex and beautiful pattern not only on the baked goods, but also on the plate in which the croissants are served.

An easier way is to dip one end of the bagel in chocolate and let the chocolate cool. If the edges are dipped in chocolate of different colors, this will give them additional originality.

When serving in portions, you can additionally decorate the croissants with fresh berries (cherries, strawberries, sprigs of red or black currant), fruit, sprigs of mint, which will add brightness and attractiveness to the dish.

Secrets of making puff pastry croissants

How to achieve a good rise in yeast dough for croissants

The yeast must be fresh (meaning not expired). Dissolve them in water whose temperature is no more than 50 degrees. The optimal dissolution temperature is 40 degrees (slightly warm to the touch). Melted butter should also be no higher than this temperature. If the temperature of the water and oil is even a little higher, the yeast will cook and the dough will not rise; at a low temperature, the dough will take a long time to rise, which will affect the taste of the croissants.

How to Shape Dough into a Square

Roll the dough into a ball, make 2 deep cuts in a cross with a sharp knife and turn the corners of the cuts from the center outward. Stretch the dough to form a square.

How to prepare butter for layering dough

Heat butter (natural, without additives) at room temperature until it becomes soft plasticine. Wrap it in cling film or put it in a plastic bag of a suitable size and beat it or roll it out with a rolling pin. Then put it in the refrigerator.

How to distribute the oil evenly throughout the dough

In order for the oil to be evenly distributed throughout the dough and the dough to layer well, you need to work with chilled oil and dough. Place the butter on a square of dough. After stretching the edges of the dough, fold it into an envelope so that the butter is completely covered. Roll out the dough with butter, giving it the shape of a narrow rectangle. Fold it into 3 layers like a book or 4 layers (fold the edges towards the middle, then fold it in half) and roll it out along the layers. Repeat this 2-3 more times, rolling out the dough each time only along the layers from the center to the edges. Do not apply much effort, roll out gently, gradually increasing the length of the rectangle.

How much salt should you put in croissant dough?

You need to put a certain amount of salt in the croissant dough, not to taste. The quality of the separation depends on this: for 3 two-hundred gram glasses of flour you need 1 teaspoon of salt. If there is too much salt, the dough will be over-salted; if there is too little, the layers will spread.

How thick should croissant dough be?

Roll out the dough 1 cm thick at the preparation stage, at the last stage (for filling) 3-5 mm thick: if the dough is thinner, the baked goods will not rise; if it is thicker, it will not bake.

How to cut croissant dough

Roll the dough into a ball and then roll out into a circle 5mm thick. Cut the circle into 8 equal parts as follows: crosswise from top to bottom into 4 parts, then make 2 more cuts, dividing each resulting part in two.

Another way. Roll out the dough into a long rectangle, cut it into squares, and cut them into triangles.

How to wrap croissants

To make the products easily take the shape of bagels, cut the wide part of each triangle and lay out the filling, roll it into a bagel. The cut will allow you to easily shape the bagels into a moon shape.

The best way to cut croissant dough

The croissant knife should be very sharp - evenly cut edges of the products will flake better.

What to do to prevent croissants from cracking when baking

To prevent the surface of the croissants from cracking during baking, you need to let them rise well - they should increase in volume by 3-4 times.

How to get airy and tender croissants

One simple secret will help make your baked goods tender and airy: before putting the risen bagels in the oven, sprinkle them with water - wet your hands with water and shake it onto the bagels. This will create a humid environment in the oven during baking, which will have a positive effect on the taste of the products.

Why are croissants made from puff pastry soggy inside and not baked?

There are several reasons why croissants made from ready-made dough did not rise and were not baked - the dough did not warm up to the inner layers and did not have time to rise (rise) or was defrosted several times.

When baking, monitor the temperature. At temperatures below 180, baked goods will be tough and may not bake through. At temperatures above 200, the surface of the products will quickly brown, but the inside will remain raw. Before baking, you need to preheat the oven to 220-240 degrees, put the croissants in the oven, change the position of the regulator to 180 - 200. The heat of the heated oven will give the baked goods a quick rise.

See other step-by-step recipes with photos

Buns with poppy seeds - recipe with photos step by step using kefir
Beef khashlama with potatoes. Recipe with photo in kefir marinade