Homemade Croissants

Homemade croissants are a yeasted dough folded around a slab of cold butter, rolled thin, shaped into crescents and baked hot until the layers puff apart into a crisp, shattering crust and an open, honeycombed inside. This croissant recipe makes 14 classic French butter croissants from 500 grams of flour and 280 grams of butter, using three letter folds for 27 layers of butter. It takes two days on the calendar but only about 90 minutes of hands-on work: mix the dough one evening, laminate and shape the next morning, proof, then bake.

Croissants have a reputation for being hard, and most failures come from one thing: temperature. Butter that is too cold cracks into chips, butter that is too warm smears into the dough, and a proof that runs too hot melts the butter out before the croissants reach the oven. Below is the why behind each step (the butter block, the folds, the rests, the proof and the bake), with the numbers that matter, then a fix for every common problem and how to make croissant dough ahead and freeze it. For more pastry and bread projects, browse Baking & Desserts.

What Makes Homemade Croissants Flaky

Homemade croissants turn flaky because the butter between the dough layers holds water, and in a 400°F oven that water turns to steam and pushes the layers apart. By law, butter in the United States has to be at least 80 percent milkfat (the USDA butter grade standard sets that floor), and most of the rest is water. When a croissant goes into the oven, that water heats past its boiling point of 212°F (100°C) and expands into steam between sheets of dough that are sealed with fat, so the layers lift and separate instead of fusing. The yeast adds its own lift at the same time: gas cells already in the dough expand in the heat, which is the oven spring that makes a croissant rise to almost twice its proofed height.

The lift only lasts until the structure sets. The yeast dies at 130°F to 140°F (55°C to 60°C), according to the Exploratorium's baking temperature chart, and the dough's starch and gluten firm into a solid scaffold around 155°F (68°C), locking the separated layers in place. Meanwhile the butter fat fries the surface of each thin sheet, which is why the crust shatters. Then the outside dries out and browns: the Maillard reaction that turns the crust deep golden only starts around 284°F (140°C), a temperature a wet surface can't reach, so browning begins once the outer layers have given up their moisture. That sequence is why croissants need a hot oven. At 350°F the butter melts and leaks before the steam has time to lift the layers, and the result is greasy and flat.

Croissant Dough vs Puff Pastry, Danish and Brioche

Croissant dough is a laminated yeast dough: it has butter folded into it in layers like puff pastry, but it also has yeast and milk, so it rises like bread. That puts a croissant between the two, as the history of the pastry describes it: the crescent shape came from the Austrian kipferl, which an Austrian officer named August Zang sold at his Viennese bakery in Paris from 1838 or 1839, and French bakers later made it from laminated yeast dough. Here is how the four butter-rich doughs compare.

The practical difference is yeast. Puff pastry gets all of its height from steam, so it can take six turns and hundreds of layers; croissant dough also has to make room for gas bubbles, so it stops at three folds. If you have made the puff-pastry apple tarte tatin, the butter block and the folding will feel familiar. If you have made soft yeast rolls like these garlic rosemary dinner rolls, the mixing and proofing will.

The Butter Block: Cold but Bendable

The butter block for croissants has to be cold enough to stay a solid sheet but soft enough to bend, and both the butter and the dough need to be at the same firmness when you fold them together. King Arthur Baking starts its lamination with the butter at 55°F (13°C) and gives a simple test: fold the block over and it should bend, not break. It also calls for butter with at least 83 percent butterfat. European-style butters at 82 to 84 percent butterfat hold less water than standard 80 percent butter, so they stay pliable over a wider range of temperatures and are less likely to crack or turn greasy as you roll.

Make the block by laying cold sticks of butter side by side on parchment, covering them with a second sheet and pounding them flat with a rolling pin, then rolling them into an even 7 1/2-inch square. Folding the parchment into a neat 7 1/2-inch packet around the butter squares the corners and keeps the thickness even, which matters because a thick corner turns into a streak of butter and a thin one into a patch of bare dough. Chill the block for at least an hour, then take it out 10 to 15 minutes before you need it so it bends again.

Watch the two failure points. Butter that is too cold shatters into flakes as you roll; you'll see yellow chips through the dough, and those gaps leave bare spots that bake up dense. Butter that is too warm smears into the dough and the layers merge, so the croissants bake up bready, like a buttery dinner roll. If the dough feels much firmer than the butter or the other way round, give the warmer one 10 minutes in the fridge before you start.

How Many Folds Croissant Dough Needs

Croissant dough needs three letter folds, which gives 27 layers of butter. The math is simple multiplication. The butter block starts as one layer sandwiched between two layers of dough. Each letter fold, rolling the dough long and folding it in thirds like a business letter, triples the layers: 3, then 9, then 27 layers of butter. The touching dough layers at each fold merge into one, so the finished dough has 27 butter layers and 28 dough layers, 55 in all.

More is not better here. A fourth fold makes 81 butter layers, and once the dough is rolled thin for shaping, each sheet of butter is only a few hundredths of a millimeter thick. Butter that thin breaks and merges with the dough as it bakes, and the open honeycomb fills in. Puff pastry can go to six turns because it has no yeast to make room for; for a yeasted croissant, three folds is the classic balance between flaky layers and an airy crumb. Some recipes use one book fold (folded in quarters) and one letter fold for 12 butter layers, which gives bigger, crunchier flakes with fewer layers.

Roll with steady, even pressure, from the center outward and always in the same direction, lifting the dough and dusting a little flour underneath when it sticks. Brush off the extra flour before you fold, because flour trapped between layers makes them dry and tough. A long rolling pin, 18 inches or more, makes even sheeting easier because it spans the whole width of the dough, and a handle-free French pin lets you feel through the wood where the dough is thicker.

Why Croissant Dough Rests Between Folds

Croissant dough rests between folds for two reasons: the gluten needs to relax and the butter needs to cool down again. Every time you roll the dough, you stretch its gluten, the protein network that makes dough elastic. Stretched gluten pulls back, so a dough that has just been rolled shrinks as soon as you lift the pin, and forcing it out again tears the layers. Thirty to 45 minutes in the fridge lets the gluten relax so the next roll goes out without fighting you. At the same time the butter, which has warmed and softened from your hands and the counter, firms back up to its bendable range. King Arthur warns against chilling longer than 45 minutes between folds, because the butter gets too hard and starts to crack.

Gordon Ramsay doesn't teach croissants, but his Beef Wellington lesson in his MasterClass uses the same idea for puff pastry: he rolls the pastry thin, wraps the beef, then puts the parcel back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up and relax before it goes into the oven. Pastry that is cold and relaxed holds its shape. The same habit of getting everything ready first applies too: weigh every ingredient, clear the counter, and have the flour, brush and rolling pin within reach before the butter comes out of the fridge, because the dough is warming the whole time it sits.

The longest rest comes first. The dough is mixed the day before and refrigerated for 8 to 12 hours, and that slow, cold fermentation gives the yeast time to build flavor without making much gas. It also gives the flour time for full hydration, as water soaks into the starch and gluten, so the dough comes out of the fridge smooth, firm and cold, at the same firmness as the butter.

How Thick to Roll Croissant Dough for Shaping

Roll croissant dough to about 3/16 inch (4 to 5 mm) thick for shaping. Thicker than 1/4 inch and the croissants bake up heavy and bready inside, because there is too much dough between each layer of butter; thinner than 1/8 inch and the layers tear. For this batch, cut the dough in half and roll one half at a time to a 9 by 20-inch rectangle while the other stays in the fridge. Trim the edges, then cut long triangles about 4 1/2 inches wide at the base and 9 to 10 inches tall, which gives about 7 croissants per half.

Cut with a sharp knife or pizza wheel pressed straight down, not dragged, so the cut edges stay open; a blunt or dragging blade squashes the layers together at the sides. Cut a small 1/2-inch notch in the middle of each base, give the triangle a gentle stretch to lengthen it, then roll it up from the base to the tip without pressing down, and set it on a parchment-lined baking sheet with the tip tucked underneath so it can't unroll. Space them 2 inches apart; they nearly double in the proof and grow again in the oven.

Proofing Croissants Without Melting the Butter

Proof croissants at 75°F to 78°F (24°C to 26°C), never warmer than 80°F, for 2 to 3 hours, until they have roughly doubled. That is deliberately cooler than yeast likes: the Exploratorium puts yeast's best growing range at 80°F to 90°F, but at that temperature the butter in the layers softens, turns greasy and starts to seep out. A slower, cooler proof keeps the butter solid while the yeast fills the dough with gas. The usual warm spot, an oven with only the light on, can climb past 90°F, so check it with a thermometer or proof on the counter of a warm room instead.

Use the dough, not the clock, to decide when they are ready. Proofed croissants look puffy and swollen, the layers show clearly on the sides, and they jiggle slightly when you nudge the pan. King Arthur Baking uses a press test: a gentle fingertip press should leave a dent that stays. Underproofed croissants are dense, tight and tear open along the seams in the oven; overproofed ones collapse and leak butter. A pool of melted butter on the parchment during the proof means the room is too warm: move the pan to the fridge for 20 minutes, then carry on somewhere cooler.

Egg Wash and Baking Croissants at 400°F

Bake croissants at 400°F (200°C) for 18 to 22 minutes, until they are a deep golden brown all over, including in the creases. Brush them with egg wash twice, once lightly before the proof and again just before baking, and keep it off the cut, layered sides so it doesn't glue the layers together. The egg wash browns faster than bare dough because it adds protein and a little sugar to the surface, the two things the Maillard reaction needs, and it dries to a thin, shiny skin. A pinch of salt in the egg loosens it so it brushes on thin and even.

Pale croissants are the most common home mistake, and they are usually underbaked rather than undercooked-looking by choice. The same Exploratorium chart gives 300°F to 400°F as the surface temperature of a browning crust; a croissant pulled when it is light gold has a soft, doughy center where the layers overlap and collapses as it cools. King Arthur's recipe uses the same cue: bake until there is no raw-looking dough where the layers meet. Home ovens often run hot or cool by 25°F or more, so an oven thermometer is worth checking before a bake this long in the making. Swap and rotate the pans halfway through, and if the bottoms brown too fast on a thin pan, slide a second baking sheet underneath.

Let them cool on the pan for 15 minutes, then on a rack. Cut one open once it has cooled a little and you should see the honeycomb: large, irregular air cells divided by thin, glossy sheets of dough that spiral around the center. A tight, even crumb like sandwich bread means the butter merged into the dough during lamination; big holes with greasy walls usually mean the proof ran warm.

Troubleshooting Homemade Croissants

Most homemade croissant problems come back to temperature: butter that got too warm, butter that got too cold, a proof that ran hot or a bake that stopped too soon. Here are the common ones and the fix for each.

• Butter leaking in the oven: the croissants were overproofed or proofed too warm, or the oven was not fully heated. Proof below 80°F, bake as soon as the press test passes, and heat the oven for a full 30 minutes.
• Bready, tight interior with no honeycomb: the butter softened and smeared into the dough, the dough was rolled too thick, or it had too many folds. Keep the butter at about 55°F, stop at three folds and shape at 3/16 inch.
• Butter breaking through as you roll: the butter was colder and harder than the dough. Let the dough rest in the fridge while the butter sits out for 5 to 10 minutes, then roll again with lighter pressure.
• Dough shrinks back and won't roll out: the gluten is tight. Wrap it and give it 15 to 20 more minutes in the fridge.
• Pale, soft croissants: underbaked. Bake to a deep golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes at 400°F, and check the oven with a thermometer.
• Flat croissants that spread: underproofed, or shaped too loosely without the tip tucked under. Proof until they jiggle and roughly double.
• Dry, tough layers: too much flour was rolled into the dough. Dust lightly and brush off the excess before every fold.

Can You Make Croissant Dough Ahead or Freeze Homemade Croissants?

Yes, croissant dough is built to be made ahead. The plain dough keeps in the fridge for up to 24 hours before you laminate it, and the finished, folded dough can be wrapped and refrigerated overnight after the third fold. For longer, freeze the shaped, unproofed croissants on a tray, then bag them for up to a month. To bake from frozen, set them on a lined sheet in the fridge overnight to thaw, then proof them at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours and bake as usual. Never taste raw croissant dough: the FDA warns that raw flour and raw eggs can carry harmful bacteria, and only baking makes them safe.

Baked croissants are best the day they are made. Store leftovers airtight at room temperature for a day or two, never in the fridge: the starch in the crumb recrystallizes as it cools (retrogradation), and that staling runs fastest at refrigerator temperatures. Baked croissants also freeze well for up to a month. Reheat thawed or day-old croissants at 350°F for 5 to 8 minutes, which melts the butter in the layers and dries the crust so it crackles again.

How to Serve Homemade Croissants

Serve homemade croissants warm or at room temperature, plain or with salted butter and jam, the way they are most often eaten in France. They make a weekend breakfast with soft Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs, and split croissants filled with ham and Gruyère and warmed in the oven make a quick lunch. Day-old croissants soak up custard better than fresh ones, which makes them the best base for French toast bread pudding.

Make homemade croissants once and the rules stick: a cold, bendable butter block, three letter folds with a rest between each, a sheet rolled to 3/16 inch, a cool proof below 80°F and a hot 400°F oven until they are deep golden. Get those temperatures right and this croissant recipe gives you flaky, honeycombed French butter croissants from your own kitchen.

Homemade French Butter Croissants

Classic French butter croissants from scratch: an overnight yeasted dough laminated with a cold European-style butter block in three letter folds (27 butter layers), rolled to 3/16 inch, shaped into crescents, proofed below 80°F and baked at 400°F until deep golden brown and flaky. Makes 14; times below are for bake day, plus an overnight rest for the dough.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 330 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Breakfast

Servings 14 croissants

Calories 320 kcal

Ingredients

  

Croissant dough

• 500 g unbleached all-purpose flour (about 4 1/4 cups), plus more for dusting
• 55 g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
• 10 g fine sea salt (1 3/4 tsp)
• 7 g instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp, 1 packet)
• 140 g cold whole milk (1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp)
• 140 g cold water (1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp)
• 40 g unsalted butter, softened (3 tbsp)

Butter block

• 280 g cold unsalted European-style butter, 82% butterfat or higher (2 1/2 sticks)

Egg wash

• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp whole milk
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

 

• The day before: whisk the flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cold milk, cold water and softened butter and mix on low with the dough hook for 3 minutes, until no dry flour remains, then on medium-low for 4 to 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and firm but not sticky.
• Shape the dough into a ball, cover and leave it at room temperature for 1 hour, until slightly puffy. Press it into a rectangle about 6 by 8 inches and 1 inch thick, wrap it tightly and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours (up to 24).
• Make the butter block: lay the cold butter sticks side by side on a sheet of parchment, cover with a second sheet and pound with a rolling pin to flatten. Roll into an even 7 1/2-inch square, folding the parchment around it into a neat 7 1/2-inch packet to square the edges. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Take the butter block out of the fridge 10 to 15 minutes before laminating, so it bends without cracking (about 55°F). On a lightly floured counter, roll the cold dough into an 8 by 16-inch rectangle. Unwrap the butter, set it on one half of the dough, fold the other half over and pinch the edges to seal the butter in.
• First fold: roll the dough out to about 8 by 24 inches, rolling in one direction with even pressure and dusting lightly underneath if it sticks. Brush off the excess flour and fold it in thirds like a letter. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes.
• Second and third folds: turn the dough so the open seam faces you, roll it again to 8 by 24 inches and fold it in thirds. Chill for 30 to 45 minutes, then repeat once more for the third and final fold. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
• Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Cut the dough in half crosswise and return one half to the fridge. Roll the other half into a 9 by 20-inch rectangle about 3/16 inch thick. Trim the edges and cut long triangles about 4 1/2 inches wide at the base (about 7 per half).
• Cut a 1/2-inch notch in the center of each base. Gently stretch each triangle a little longer, then roll it up from the base to the tip without pressing down. Set the croissants on the baking sheets, tips tucked underneath, 2 inches apart. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
• Beat the egg with the milk and a pinch of salt and brush a thin coat over the tops of the croissants, keeping it off the cut sides. Cover loosely and proof at 75°F to 78°F (no warmer than 80°F) for 2 to 3 hours, until about doubled, puffy, jiggly when the pan is nudged, and a gentle press leaves a dent that stays.
• About 30 minutes before baking, heat the oven to 400°F (200°C) with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Brush the croissants with a second thin coat of egg wash.
• Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, swapping and rotating the pans halfway through, until the croissants are deep golden brown all over, including in the creases where the layers overlap.
• Cool on the pans for 15 minutes, then on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature the same day.

Notes

Temperature is everything: butter block about 55°F and bendable, dough cold and firm, a 30 to 45 minute chill between folds, and a proof below 80°F so the butter does not melt out. European-style butter (82% butterfat or more) stays pliable longer than standard butter. Make ahead: freeze shaped, unproofed croissants on a tray, then bag them for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the fridge, proof 2 to 3 hours and bake. Store baked croissants airtight at room temperature for 1 to 2 days (not in the fridge) or freeze up to 1 month; re-crisp at 350°F for 5 to 8 minutes. Do not taste the raw dough.

More pastry and bread to bake: Gordon Ramsay apple tarte tatin (puff pastry), Gordon Ramsay Beef Wellington, garlic rosemary dinner rolls and French toast bread pudding for leftover croissants. Check your oven first: oven thermometer guide. Browse every bake in Baking & Desserts.

Homemade Croissants FAQs

The questions that come up most: how long homemade croissants take, whether they are hard to make, what temperature to bake them at, how many folds croissant dough needs, whether croissant dough is the same as puff pastry, why butter leaks out, and whether you can make croissant dough ahead or freeze croissants.