Warm croissants with a delicate crispy crust and chocolate, cream or cheese filling are a symbol of French cuisine. However, few people know that croissants were invented by Austrian bakers who saved Vienna from Turkish invaders at the end of the 17th century. The fact is that bakers at all times worked at night in order to please the townspeople with fresh bread and rolls in the morning. When the Austrian pastry chefs heard the strange sounds, they immediately reported them to the guards. It turns out that the Turks were digging under the city walls, but their plans were not destined to come true. In honor of the victory, bakers baked bagels in the shape of an Islamic crescent. A hundred years later, Marie-Antoinette tried Viennese buns and brought this idea to Paris, but French chefs adopted only the shape of a bagel, calling it a croissant (crescent). Parisian pastry chefs began to prepare this dish from puff pastry, and until now, real Frenchmen start the morning with a fragrant bagel, dipping it in hot chocolate or coffee. Many housewives are looking for a suitable recipe for making croissants, because homemade cakes are tastier and sometimes you want to surprise your loved ones with a new dessert. Let’s try to find out, how do French pastry chefs prepare Viennese bagels? What is their secret?

How to cook

They say that if a person can read, then he will definitely learn to cook, they say, the main thing is to read the recipe. Maybe it is, but do not forget that any dish must be generously flavored with your love. You may not be so pretentious, just cook in a good mood. Put on your favorite music, put on a fun apron and smile.

Food cooked with a smile will be radically different from the one you cook while out of sorts. Even if the ingredients and recipe are the same. That is why replace the boring word “cooking” in your head with something more positive, maybe with “creating another culinary masterpiece”, believe me, you will be surprised at the result. So, back to the recipe. We will cook, as always, step by step.

How to make croissants: shape and bake

We take out the rested dough from the refrigerator, roll it out again into a rectangle with a thickness of 3 to 5 mm and cut into high triangles. It is convenient to do this by dividing a long rectangle into 2 parts and cutting each part in a zigzag pattern. Some housewives roll out the dough in a circle, and then divide the circle into 6 triangles. In the middle of the base of the triangle we make an incision of 1–2 cm – it is necessary so that the bagel can be easily folded. If we are cooking croissants with filling, spread it on the wide part of the triangle, slightly stepping back from the edge, and then carefully wrap the bagel in a roll. However, you can fill the croissants after baking, cutting them in half – the filling is laid out on the bottom half of the bagel, the croissant is placed in a preheated oven for a few minutes and covered with the other half.

Roll up the croissants, shape them into a crescent and place them on a greased baking sheet at a short distance from each other. We leave the bagels for half an hour, having previously covered with a towel, and when they become lush, grease with egg yolk and put in the oven, preheated to 200 ° C. We bake the bagels for about 25 minutes until golden brown, and then serve with the salted filling as an appetizer, and with the sweet filling as a dessert.

Choosing a filling for croissants

Despite the fact that the classic French croissant is always made without filling, modern bagels are still filled with something tasty. Chocolate filling is very popular, which is made from 100 g of dark chocolate, 30 g of butter, 1 tbsp. l. milk and 1 tsp. cognac. The chocolate is melted in a water bath, the remaining ingredients are added and cooled. Some housewives wrap a piece of milk or dark chocolate in a croissant. Instead of chocolate, you can take boiled condensed milk, berries and fruits, marmalade, marzipan, thick jam, jam or jam. Dried fruits with nuts and cottage cheese filling are good, for which 200 g of cottage cheese is ground with an egg, 4 tbsp. l. sugar and vanilla.

Among unsweetened fillings, ham with cheese is especially popular – the ham should be cut into cubes, and the cheese should be grated. Good for filling chicken, brisket, vegetables, mushrooms, feta cheese, fish and seafood.

Finally, you learned how to cook croissants at home, and the site has many step-by-step recipes with photos. The classic version of cooking with homemade puff pastry is, of course, very time consuming and difficult. However, French pastry chefs believe that making croissant dough with your own hands makes them tastier. However, is it possible to cook differently for your beloved family?

Make the dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough attachment, mix 4 tbsp. unbleached flour, ½ tbsp. 2 tbsp cold water and ½ tbsp. 2 tbsp cold whole milk.
Add ¼ st. 2 tbsp granulated sugar and 3 tbsp. soft butter.
Pour in 1 tbsp. incomplete ½ tsp dry yeast and 2.25 tsp. table salt. Mix on low speed for 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary.
Then knead on medium speed for another 3 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured 25cm baking pan or dinner plate.
Lightly flour the surface of the dough and wrap it well with cling film to keep it dry. Refrigerate overnight.

Making croissants: starting with the dough

Classic croissants are made from yeast puff pastry, for which the best natural products are taken. Of course, you can use a store-bought semi-finished product, but it is better to knead the croissant base yourself. You don’t know how the factory dough was made, and you cannot vouch for the quality of the baked goods.

So, take 350 g of good butter with at least 82% fat, let it thaw slightly so that it remains firm, but not solid. Sprinkle flour on the work surface, put cling film. Put a block of butter on it, cover it with a film on top and beat it off until you get a neat rectangle with an area of 10 × 12.5 cm.Place it in the freezer for ten minutes.

At this time, we are doing the test. Dissolve 40 g of fresh or 13 g of dry yeast (it is better to take fresh yeast) in 200 ml of milk. Add about 2 g of baking powder to 500 g of premium flour and sift twice. Drive 2 eggs into the flour, add 30 g of powdered sugar, 30 ml of vegetable oil and 8 g of salt. Pour milk with dissolved yeast into the resulting mixture and quickly knead the dough, trying to keep within 3 minutes. The French believe that prolonged kneading deteriorates the quality of baked goods, since excess oxygen harms the puff pastry.

Important points – butter should be at least a third of the flour mass, and preferably half, although the ideal ratio is 1: 1. All products are cooled before kneading the dough, and a suitable temperature during the work with the dough is about 15-16 ° C.

Technology for making puff pastry for croissants

From the dough, we form a rectangular layer measuring 20 × 12.5 cm, wrap it in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. In this case, it is desirable that the temperature in the refrigerating chamber was approximately 5–6 ° С. We take our layer out of the refrigerator, put it on the table, cover one half with oil, close it on top with the second part of the dough and pinch the edges. In this case, the softness of the dough and butter should be approximately the same. Roll out the dough with a wooden rolling pin, very carefully and carefully, in one direction, so that a new layer about 1 cm thick is obtained. If the rolling pin sticks to the dough, sprinkle it with flour. Fold the resulting rectangle 3 times, hide it in the freezer for 15 minutes, and then leave it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. We repeat the rolling and freezing cycle 6 more times and remove the dough for an hour in the refrigerator, although you can leave it there overnight. In the process of preparing puff pastry, we observe two important rules:

Within one cycle, we move the rolling pin exclusively in one direction.
Next time, roll out the puff pastry in the other direction.

It turns out that the art of making croissants requires a lot of time, effort and, of course, the virtuosity that comes with experience.

Croissants from ready-made yeast dough

Croissants with any fillings, created from ready-made puff yeast dough, will turn out to be tender and fluffy. Such a light breakfast or gourmet dinner can be prepared in a few minutes with the simplest ingredients in the refrigerator.

Ingredients :

dough – 1 kg;
jam or condensed milk (thick) – 300 gr.;
egg (yolk) – 1 pc .;
flour – 1 tbsp. l .;
vanilla.

Roll out the dough to the desired thickness with a rolling pin, cut the layer,

Making triangular pieces of equal size. You can put a thick filling on the wide part of each triangle, after which you can start twisting the tube from the same part.

The baking dish should be covered with a layer of parchment, croissants smeared with egg yolk are laid on it at a distance from each other. Baking time is 10 minutes at 220⁰C.

Important! When rolling out the dough and forming “rolls”, the working surface of the table should be thickly floured to prevent the blanks from sticking.

From yeast-free puff pastry

Yeast-free puff pastry has many advantages – it is plastic, you can wrap any filling in it, and there is practically no fuss with it (especially bought ready-made in a store). It is from this dough that the most delicious and fastest croissants in baking are obtained.

Ingredients :

dough – 50 gr.;
sugar – 2 tbsp. l .;
egg (yolk) – 1 pc.

Defrost the dough, roll out and cut into triangles of equal size. Cut each piece from the wide side, then wrap the divided edges in opposite directions.

Further, the triangles are rolled up towards the sharp edge, then they are given a rounded shape (with “horns” inward) and coated on top with yolk whipped with sugar. The blank is baked on a baking sheet covered with parchment in the oven (preheated to 220⁰C) for 12-17 minutes.

See also: Cottage cheese cake with raisins – 8 recipes

Fragrant croissants with chocolate

The most delicious baking option is tender croissants with chocolate that literally melt in your mouth. The chocolate permeates the thin puff pastry, making the finished dessert juicy and aromatic.

Ingredients :

dough – 400 gr.;
chocolate (bar) – 200 gr.;
egg – 1 pc.

Defrost the dough, then roll it out (less than 5 mm thickness is required) and cut into even triangles. Put 1-2 squares of chocolate on the wide part of each piece, then fold the bagel, tucking the long edges towards the middle.

Correctly rolled blanks should resemble crescents; before sending them to a baking sheet, they are greased with a beaten egg. You need to bake the treat for 5 minutes at 220⁰C and another 10-15 minutes at 180⁰C.

Croissants with jam and dried apricots

Croissants with jam – a sweetness, the excellent taste of which is difficult to overestimate. They are juicy, sweet, with a crispy crust and a delicious filling, and from ready-made puff pastry, which can be bought at any store, such pastries are prepared quickly and deliciously.

Ingredients :

dough – 500 gr.;
jam – 120 gr.;
dried apricots – 5-10 pcs.;
egg (yolk) – 1 pc.

After rolling, cut the defrosted dough into triangular pieces. Pour dried apricots in a bowl with boiling water and leave for 15-20 minutes. Put the jam (the most delicious will be a product with a sour taste – currant or cranberry), put on a wide part of the triangular blank, then wrap a piece, carefully pressing the edges to prevent loss of filling. Each croissant is greased with whipped yolk, and then all future baked goods are sent to the oven (220⁰C, preheat in advance) for 10-13 minutes.

How to make yourself croissants from puff pastry with cheese

Croissants can be cooked not only with sweet fillings. Salty products with cheese are no less tasty. You should definitely take note of this simple recipe for delicious homemade pastries. They are crispy, flaky and very cheesy! I love those. And it turns out to be easy to cook them. You can also wrap sausages or mushrooms inside.

Ingredients for the dough:

kefir – 180 ml
egg – 2 pcs.
sugar – 1 tsp
salt – ½ tsp.
flour – 450 gr.
vegetable oil – 50 ml.
dry yeast – 6 gr.

For filling:

hard cheese – 250 gr.
butter – 40 g
water for lubrication
sesame

Cooking.

Pour a little warmed-up kefir into a container, add vegetable oil, eggs, salt and sugar. Mix everything.

Pour flour into a separate bowl, sift through a sieve and add yeast, mix. Mix with the resulting liquid mass and mix everything well.

Take out the dough and stir on a silicone mat until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

Put the dough back into the container and cover with cling film. Leave for 60-90 minutes in a warm place until the dough rises.

Now you can proceed to the preparation of the filling. Grate hard cheese on a fine grater.

When the dough rises, you need to divide it into 3 equal pieces. Roll out each piece with a diameter of 30 cm. Lubricate the first circle with soft oil.

Sprinkle with half of the cheese on top.

Put the second layer on top, grease with oil and pour out the remaining half of the cheese. Put the last layer and crush slightly.

Divide the dough into 8 triangles, each wrapped in a croissant.

Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil and put the workpieces on it.

Cover with a towel for 25-35 minutes so that the dough comes up a little.

Then grease each product with water or sprinkle with sesame seeds with an egg and can be sent to the oven, heated to 180 degrees.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Delicious croissants with a rich cheese flavor are obtained.

Unusual recipe for tender croissant dough

Croissants are made from puff pastry. Usually they buy it in the supermarket, and, we must pay tribute to the manufacturers, baked goods from it often turn out to be delicious, but the most delicious croissants are obtained from homemade puff yeast dough.
I have recorded a detailed video recipe on how to make croissants based on homemade puff yeast dough, welcome to my You Tube, enjoy watching!

But today a recipe for an unusual puff pastry has appeared in our arsenal, with which no semi-finished product from the store can be compared. Prepare the food you need.

500 g flour;
200 ml. milk;
100 ml vegetable oil (the recipe involves the use of sunflower or olive oil, the main thing is odorless);
1 egg;
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of sugar;
50 ml. melted butter.

You can stuff puff croissants with berries, pieces of chocolate, boiled condensed milk cream. For the filling you will need:

150 g cherry jam;
50 g of chocolate.

For greater beauty, you can sprinkle baked goods with poppy seeds or sesame seeds.

Homemade croissants stuffed with ready-made yeast puff pastry in the oven

Crispy delicious croissants made from yeast ready-made puff pastry can be easily prepared at home, the main thing is to follow the recipe correctly and you will succeed.

For cooking you will need:

puff pastry – 1000 g
filling (jam, condensed milk, cherries, custard, nutella or other)
egg – 1 pc.
sugar – 1 tsp

Cooking.

Leave the puff pastry to defrost at room temperature. In the package, the dough will defrost for about an hour and another half an hour unpacked.

Unfold the dough, sprinkle with flour and roll out a little in width and length.

Trim the edges exactly. You can use a ruler.

Divide the dough into equal triangles with a base 8-9 cm.

Wrap the triangles in croissants. Some can be made with filling, some without. We spread the cherry on a wide edge and fold it into a snail. We will fill the empty ones with the filling after baking.

Put the resulting blanks on a baking sheet with parchment paper and leave for 40-60 minutes, until they rise slightly.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Brush each croissant with beaten egg yolk mixed with sugar. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown appears.

Fill unfilled products with a regular syringe without a needle with custard.

These are such delicious cutaways.

Croissants stuffed with ready-made yeast puff pastry in the oven.

Delicate dessert with cottage cheese

The ideal pastries for the best breakfast are, without a doubt, croissants with cottage cheese. Delicate, juicy, exquisite – such delicacies are not intended to satisfy hunger, but to enjoy life with a cup of aromatic coffee. Ingredients:

dough – 500 gr.;
cottage cheese – 400 gr.;
sugar – 2 tbsp. l .;
egg (yolk) – 1 pc .;
flour – 1 tbsp. l.

Roll out a sheet of finished dough, cut into equal triangles. Put a portion of cottage cheese on the flat side of each piece and roll the roll towards the spicy end. The surface of the prepared croissants is smeared with whipped yolk, after which they are laid out on a baking sheet lined with parchment or oiled and baked at 220⁰C for 15-20 minutes.

How to roll croissants from ready-made puff pastry with boiled condensed milk

Lush croissants with condensed milk will not leave anyone indifferent. These favorite baked goods can be easily made at home using ready-made dough from the store. The main thing is to defrost it well and let it come up.