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Croissants

A rough and vague guide on how I make vegan pastries.

  • 4-5 croissants
  • N/A
  • 20 minutes

Ingredients

Dough

  • 230-250g white bread flour (I use high protein 13% flour)
  • 30g butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 27g brown sugar
  • 5g salt
  • 6g instant yeast (or 10g fresh yeast)
  • 130g plant-based milk (I usually use soy milk); you can also use water, or half:half

Butter Block

  • 128g butter (or, calculate 30% of the final dough)
  • 20-30g bread flour

Wash

  • 5g gum arabic
  • 5g agave nectar
  • 10g water

Directions

Dough Mixing

  1. Measure the temperature where the dough will rest (e.g. room or proofer), and calculate the temperature of your liquid using 26 * 2 - roomTemp.
  2. Heat up your liquid in the microwave till the desired temperature. Combine with the yeast, and let rest for 5 mins. If your room temperature is so cold that the liquid temperature will go beyond 35C, then avoid mixing in the yeast until the next step.
  3. Add all the dough ingredients (liquid first ideally), and mix on low using a stand mixer until combined. You can also do this by hand.
  4. Continue mixing on medium speed until the dough is smooth, slightly tacky and barely passing the window pane test. Time depends on your mixer, so check occassionally.
  5. Form the dough into a ball, and cut a cross using a knife (this will help with rolling later).
  6. Let rise at around 25-26C for an hour until roughly doubled in size.
  7. Note: After this stage, you may let the dough rest overnight or continue if you want to finish in a day.

Dough Prep

  1. On a lightly floured surface, take the dough and gently pull on the 4 corners (from the cross) to create a rough square.
  2. Roll the dough to 15cm x 30cm, keeping an even rectangle as much as possible.
  3. Wrap the dough in cling film, and rest in the freezer for 40 minutes.

Butter Block Prep

  1. In your mixer, combine butter with the flour and mix until the mixture combes together and feels more pliable / plastic.
  2. Do not overdo this as you don’t want the butter to melt. Be conscious of the temperature of the butter and your room temperature.
  3. Envelope the butter in baking paper and roll to shape into 15cm x 15cm square.
  4. Depending on your room temperature, you may leave it out or refrigerate it until your dough is ready.

Butter Lock-in

  1. Take out the dough from the freezer, and slightly to make it a bit more pliable and ensure its in the right rectangular shape
  2. Do the same for the butter square. Ensure that the dough and butter square ‘feel’ the same, texture and pliability wise.
  3. Place the butter in the centre of the dough, and extend the dough flaps on either side to envelope the butter.
  4. Use a knife to slice open the sides of the dough + butter package.

Folding I found using thickness guides to be incredibly useful for consistency. Brush off any excess flour and optionally spray with a bit of water to help stick them together. Trim the ends before folding, and cut open slits to relieve tension after the fold.

  1. Double Book Fold: 4mm thickness.
  2. Three Fold: 5mm-6mm thickness.

Depending on dough/butter temperature, room temperature, dough flexibility – you may do the folds straight after each other. If the dough resists or shrinks, do not continue rolling.

Final Rollout

  1. Roll out to 4mm - 4.5mm thickness.
  2. Trim all the sides to expose the layers.
    • Croissants: 9cm x 30cm
    • Pain au Chocolat: 8cm x 15cm
    • Pain aux Raisin: 3cm x 30cm

Proofing

  1. Proof for 2 - 2.5h at 27C and 80%+ humidity.
  2. The shaped croissants should have significantly puffed, jiggly and depending on how lamination went, you may observe layer separation.

Baking

  1. Wash: Combine the agave and gum arabic (if using). Add the water and whisk until homogeneous.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan-forced.
  3. Prior to baking Brush the croissants using the wash, avoiding the exposed layers.
  4. Bake at 200C for a minute, then reduce temperature to 170C for the remaining 18-19 minutes. Adjust temperatures / times depending on your oven.