Here’s something exciting for French Fridays: over the coming months, I’ve committed myself to learning how to make some French classics at home. Oh, sure, I’ve worked my way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table and I’m currently working through her Baking Chez Moi and David Lebovitz’ My Paris Kitchen, but there are a few things I’ve had on my “to make” bucket list for a while. Things like, you know, croissants.
I’ve been in a few classes to learn how to make these (notably at Lenôtre) and swore that I would never make breakfast pastries at home. The “real” way to make croissants and pain au chocolat is with a laminated dough – whereby you fold butter into the dough through a series of “turns” (6 in all for proper croissants, creating over 700 layers of dough!), each requiring chilling time in the fridge (there’s a great laminated dough tutorial over on Joe Pastry), then more proving and resting once you’ve shaped the actual croissants or pastries. It’s not a complicated process, rather, it’s intimidating because of the time commitment. Not something your regular home baker might want to attempt (and certainly not something that’s easy to whip up for a weekend brunch).
A “quick” laminated dough doesn’t require you to fold the butter in a special way and it really is just a little bit of hands-on – you make the dough, chill it, fold and turn and leave it to sit in the fridge overnight… I was flicking through Pâtisserie Made Simple last week and came across the croissant recipe, marked “to make” and figured I had the time to give these a go last weekend. The dough came together really easily…
And the next morning I shaped them. Clearly I need a little more practice…
The hard part with these is the 2-3 hour proving time once you have shaped them. Patience IS a virtue, I hear…
These baked up beautifully!
Not quite “all the layers” you’d get in a proper laminated dough but for taking the intimidation factor out of French food for home bakers, I reckon these are pretty darned fantastic! I will be making these again and tweaking them (I’ve been reading a lot about “quick croissants” – there are a lot of results if you Google that) slightly as well as working on my folding and shaping techniques. But hey, *I* made croissants. That’s pretty impressive in itself!
You can find Edd’s Quick Croissant Recipe here (EDIT: Looks like you have to be a subscriber to access this now s0….) better still, buy the book!
Buy Pâtisserie Made Simple for yourself on Amazon (this should take you to the Amazon store that’s geographically closest to you). Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.
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Please note: The product links from Amazon, Amazon.ca and The Book Depository are affiliate links. If you click on these links and purchase the product I have linked to or any other product, I will receive a small percentage of the sale price.
(Full disclosure: I have been following Edd’s blog for years now, even before he won The Great British Bake Off and wrote three books and I’ve met up with him a couple of times in Paris and London. Edd did not ask me to review or promote the book and I purchased it myself, this was not a review copy. I like to support friends doing amazing things, especially with pastry, and couldn’t recommend Edd’s work more highly. He’s “good people” and he knows his pastry!)
I always think of you as an expert at patisserie, Mardi! This looks highly doable. I’m going to try it once the weather cools down a little. Happy French Friday!
Oh this is SO do-able! And yes, there are many things I have not mastered yet!
I’ve always wanted to make croissants at home but I couldn’t get over the “intimidating” factor. They are among my favorite breakfast items, so now you’ve given me courage to try 🙂 . Thanks for sharing, yours look gorgeous for a first attempt!
These really do make them much more approachable – you should give them a go 🙂
I’m currently experiencing withdrawal from all the croissants I consumed during our recent trip to Europe! I’d love to attempt making these at home! Thanks for the instructions!
Elaine, Edd’s book is full of “do-able” French treats 🙂
I actually really want to give this a shot now! These look gorgeous!
Thank you – and they are really so much easier than they sound!
I have that book. It’s sitting on my shelf. I love to leaf through it, but I have yet to make anything from it.
Your croissants looks great, Mardi! And remember, most of those croissant makers use a laminator machine to quickly/easily roll out the dough and achieve all those layers in seconds. They are cheating, really, if you ask me 😉
Oh Janice, I am sure if you made these they would look amazing. Mine definitely need some work still!
Love your blog! I really wanted to try making the croissants but could not access the recipe. Can you help? I wanted the croissants, of course, and I also wanted to “audition” Edd Kimber’s book. Thanks in advance.
The recipe is linked in the post!
Hi, Mardi,
When I click on the link I am told that I must be a subscriber to the newspaper in order to access the recipe.
I’m not sure what to tell you then. When I was writing the post, I clicked on the link and saw the recipe right away… Looks like their settings have changed. You can google the recipe and it will come up but I won’t link to anything I found on Google because I am not sure those people have the rights to publish the recipe in full (copyright)
…. better still, buy the book? 😉
Thanks. I will try to find the book and “audition” it that way.
Perhaps you can find it in a library? I often trial books that way!
Hi, Mardi. Last post on this. Got the book from the library today and then ordered it from The Book Depository tonight, via the link on your site, and I can’t wait to receive it. I’ve bookmarked almost every page! Thanks for all of your help.
Pam
You are so welcome – it’s a beautiful book with great recipes 🙂 Enjoy!
These look very well executed, and VERY tasty! I’m going to second Janice’s comment – you don’t have a dough-laminator, so this is some pretty phenomenal homemade stuff!
Now with that being said, I’ll admit to being a little hesitant about trying these myself. It’s not that I’m worried about messing up – it’s more like I’m worried about eating 2 dozen croissants by myself. 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂 And you don’t need to worry – the recipe makes 8. So it’s entirely a reasonable amount 😉 (to be honest, I had one of the smaller, misshapen ones and my neighbours got the pretty larger ones!)
These look so decadent! If you hadn’t told us I would have thought they were from a café. I’ve always been quite nervous about making croissants or anything puff pastry related, however your experience may give me the final push that I need.
Thanks so much – I was really pleased with how they came out and am keen to try them again 🙂