Croissants and Danishes

By workingmomcooksblog

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We’re officially in Spring and it’s Friday! Unfortunately,
I’m still going to talk about this buttery, flaky and labor-of-love croissants I made during the holidays. I know I’m really slow on blogging. So, why bother? Well, I love croissants! When I was a teenager, I once worked on B&B (hotel with a complimentary breakfast). While I didn’t enjoy the job, I enjoyed eating their breakfast because of the croissants (toasted with cream cheese and jelly… yup that was it). They were just store bought ones but at that time, they were a special treat for me (life is much simpler when you’re kid! ).

I called them labor of love because that’s how I felt the first time I made them (despite with all the holidays spirit at that time). I made them again after holidays but I think I got the hang of it and didn’t feel it was that much labor unlike the first time… seriously (ehh…so called practice makes perfect). This is another fabulous bread recipe from my favorite Mr. Reinhart from his Artisan Breads Every Day cookbook. I just love baking and to learn how to make croissants at home has been my wish list 🙂 .

Alright, time to tie up the hair and get into the real challenge…
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This is the detrempe refrigerated overnight. Flour, salt, sugar, yeast, milk, water, and melted butter.
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The butter block.unsalted butter and 2 a little bit of flour.

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There are long paragraph of instructions to incorporate the butter block into the detrempe and laminating the dough in the book (which is great but could also be overwhelming). But long story short, roll the detrempe big enough to cover the butter. Roll it flat, fold into thirds then chill it. Repeat the 3 steps 2 more times.
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For me, shaping was the real challenge. The butter kept melting on me so, properly chilled dough is important. This dough is also the dough for danish.
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For the danish filling: cream cheese, butter, sugar, egg, lemon zest, flour, poppy seeds and salt. Don’t forget the hot apricot glaze and fondant powdered sugar glaze.
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All puffed and filled…ready to bake!
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Baked until golden brown for 375F. Those flaky layers make me happy.
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Big, buttery, sweet and heavenly!
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Croissant!

Since it’s Friday, I’m now heading to Fiesta Friday @ The Novice Gardener. 🙂

“To be a good cook you have to have a love of the good, a love of hard work, and a love of creating.”
~Julia Child

53 thoughts on “Croissants and Danishes”

  2. wow–I usually think of these pastries as bakery fare only, but you’ve taken it home! Ambitious for sure, but looks like well worth it.Thanks for the inspire 🙂 That filling looks killer.

  6. Pingback: Fiesta Friday #8 | The Novice Gardener

  8. Hi, these are such gorgeous danishes and croissants. They remind me of my travels through Europe many years ago and having a croissant for breakfast or a danish for afternoon snack with a cup of coffee. Quite lovely–thanks for sharing your step-by-step photos.

  10. These look lovely. I live in Copenhagen, so I am literally surrounded by bakeries selling ‘Danishes’ (called wienerbrød here) and yours look as amazing as the ones found here 🙂

  14. Working Mom, you are my favorite baker! Now can I have some of these? Plus a couple of your roast pork steamed buns, too. Love croissants! And steamed buns, of course. Both scary to make at home, no? Does it take all day? Yours are perfection!

    • Thanks for your kind comment. For the steamed buns, I used stand mixer to make the dough instead of hand (original recipe) for a short cut. For the croissants, aside from the detrempe (needs to rest in the fridge overnight), I learned that chilling the dough (during the laminating process) in the freezer cuts some time. Not scary but for sure there’s time involve. 🙂

  16. Wow, these are two items I’m pretty sure I could never do right, even as an avid baker! You make it look so easy though, and look how absolutely perfect they came out. I am terribly impressed and more than a little jealous! But sooo glad they’re at the party!

  17. Wow, your croissants look great! I’m always so impressed by homemade puff pastry, haven’t had the guts to try it out yet, but might just have to soon. Thanks for sharing!

  20. Beautiful work on those breads! Reinhart is one of my favorite bread maker authors. I learned to use pre-ferments from his books and 10 years from now I’ll still be appreciating and understanding something new from him.

    • Thank you so much! I wanted to make something special during the holidays so I thought of these. And glad I did, I became confident on making my own pie crust, puff pastry for galletes, etc…after that. 🙂

  22. I love croissants! They have been in my country’s culinary tradition since forever. We usually eat them for breakfast sipping our cappuccino. Your croissants looks amazing. I must admit that I have never tried to make them home. Too lazy? Too scared? Maybe a little bit of both! Hat off to you! 🙂

    • Thanks Francesca! These are special to make because of the time and butter involved. While I’m not scared anymore of making these, I’ll probably make these only once in a blue moon and will just grab ones on bakery when time is limited. But they are great for home baking experiment.
      🙂

  24. Pingback: Fiesta Friday #9 | The Novice Gardener

  26. These looks great. I am going to be catering my croissants on Saturday’s starting in the next few weeks, and I am always looking for new ideas. I love nutella croissants, as they are a huge hit. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your recipe on Fiesta Friday, and check my stuffed spinach mushroom recipe out at kouzounaskitchen.com. Have a great weekend!!!

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