LaVarenne » How to Identify a Perfect Croissant (2024)

FAQs

LaVarenne » How to Identify a Perfect Croissant? ›

Lightness: if sticky, the croissant is under baked. Aroma: when you break open the croissant can you smell the butter and heady, yeasty dough? Holes: big holes indicate dough that has risen too long before baking. Chewiness: a good baked croissant is chewy without being tough.

A beautiful, perfect croissant is puffy because it is “feuilleté”. This means that the dough has been folded over and over again to create perfect buttery layers with air in between. The perfect croissant is not stiff and lifeless. It is airy, Springy, puffy and full of pizzazz!

A classic French croissant has 55 layers (27 layers of butter), achieved with a French fold followed by 3 letter folds. Less layers will mean a different texture (less tender, more chewy, with more defined layers). Too many layers bring a risk of the butter getting too thin and melting into the dough.

By law, only a croissant made with 100% pure butter can wear a straight shape as a badge of honor. A croissant made with any other fat, such as margarine or (sacrebleu!) oil, must disclose its impurity with a curved shape.

All that aside, a croissant, properly made, has a thin crisp shell surrounding a flaky buttery, multilayered, and soft interior with each layer softer than the one surrounding it.

Flaky and Crumbly

A true, French croissant should cause little crumbles and flakes to fall to your plate when you tear it open. As butter bakes into each layer of the dough, it hardens inside the inner folds. That helps you to know that it is baked properly.

Take a good croissant and slice it in half lengthwise (along the equator). Place the croissant halves, cut-side down on a preheated, lightly buttered griddle or heavy skillet and toast over medium-high heat. When the cut-side is toasted to a light golden brown, turn the croissants over and toast the second side.

High-quality ingredients are half the battle won. “Good ingredients that are properly mixed, shaped, proofed, and baked. Every step affects the taste and texture of the croissant,” adds Chef Paper. “The choice of butter is the most important.

A croissant is typically made of yeast-risen dough. The dough is first layered with butter and then rolled. It is folded many times in a process called lamination. Then the dough is cut into triangles, rolled to form a crescent shape and baked. The lamination process gives croissants its flaky texture and fluffy shape.

Croissants are decadent crescents of flakey, crispy, chewy goodness and in many ways, a work of art. They can be enjoyed savoury or sweet and are made with the most divine French pastry which is so thin and delicate, creating pillows of heaven when made just right!

What is the perfect inside of a croissant? ›

The perfect croissant should smell of creamy butter, with a crisp, flaky golden-brown crust that crackles as you bite into it and inside you'll find soft, light layers without any doughiness. The overwhelming taste should be of butter rather than sugar with just a hint of salt and it should not be at all greasy.

“A real croissant should be straight,” he said. “In France when I was working as a baker's apprentice I learned the cheap croissant should be curved and the straight ones were always made with butter. So the parents would have a straight croissant and the kids would have a curved croissant.”

Towards the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 425°F. Brush each croissant with an egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven's temperature to 350°F and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until deep golden brown and no raw dough is visible where the layers overlap.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven's temperature to 350°F and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until deep golden brown and no raw dough is visible where the layers overlap. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan on a rack for 20 minutes before serving.

If you push the dough with your finger and it springs back right away, it is underproofed. If your dough has not increased by 20-50%, it is underproofed. One more final test is the jiggle test. When you have perfectly proofed dough, it will jiggle and have some liveliness to it when you gently shake the bowl.