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Homemade Butter Croissants

📍 France
⏱️Prep: 240 min
🔥Cook: 20 min
Total: 260 min
🍽️8 servings
Difficulty: Hard

Homemade croissants are one of the most rewarding challenges in baking: laminated dough with 27 layers of butter achieved through three folds and plenty of patience. The result — shatteringly crisp layers, an open crumb, and that unmistakable butter aroma — bears no resemblance to shop-bought. The recipe takes time, but each step is technically straightforward.

🛒 Ingredients

8 servings
  • 500g strong flour
  • 280ml warm milk
  • 10g salt
  • 50g sugar
  • 7g dry yeast
  • 250g cold butter for laminating
  • 1 egg yolk + 2 tablespoons milk, for brushing

👨‍🍳 Step-by-step instructions

  1. Knead flour, milk, salt, sugar, and yeast for 10 minutes. Form into a ball and refrigerate for 1 hour.

  2. Roll cold butter between baking paper into a 20cm square.

  3. Enclose the butter inside the dough and perform 3 single folds, chilling for 30 minutes between each fold.

  4. Roll dough to 4mm thickness and cut into triangles with an 8cm base. Roll up from the base to the tip.

  5. Proof for 2 hours at room temperature. Brush with egg yolk and bake at 180°C for 18–20 minutes.

💡 Chef's tip

The laminating butter should be around 15°C: cold enough to hold its shape but flexible enough to bend without breaking. Too hard and it shatters the dough; too soft and it merges with it.

📝 Our take

Homemade croissants are a weekend project that requires patience, not special skill. The butter lamination is what creates the layers — it needs to be cold but pliable, not frozen or soft. The result is worth every hour: a croissant with honeycombed layers, a shell that shatters, and an aroma of browned butter that nothing can replicate.

🍷 Wine & food pairing

Café au lait or a strong flat white. For a savoury version, hand-carved Iberian ham or smoked salmon with dill.

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