Science of the Recipe: Croissants
This food blog is by Isaiah Bañuelos and Caleb Chastain  When we think of croissants, we often think about these amazing bread that is delicious. While that thought is true, the process for croissants is actually quite tedious and labor-intensive. You can use this post as a way to explore not only the process and science of croissants but also scientific predictions when alterations are made to this recipe. See this Recipe at a Glance for visual instructions. You can find the recipe for croissants below in the ingredients/instructions section. This and the Activity and Time Chart will explore whatever step and material that is needed. To find out more on croissants, check out our post Croissant Background Information  To understand the science behind this recipe check out our following post - If you decide to take on this journey, we wish you luck soldier, we hope our post was helpful!  
  • Difficulty: Difficult
Servings: 4 yield(s)
Prep Time: 300 mins
Cook Time: 300 mins
Total Time: 490 mins
Ingredients
    Original Recipe Ingredient List (Prior to Alterations)
  • 3.25 tsp Active Dry Yeast
  • 1.5 cup Lukewarm 2% Milk
  • 0.25 cup Brown Sugar
  • 3.25 cup All purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp Salt
  • 3 stick Unsalted Butter
  • 1 Egg
Instructions
    Bloom the Yeast
  1. In a mixer bowl, add the warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast
  2. Give it a quick stir with a fork and let it sit for 5 - 10 minutes until the yeast foams up well
    3. Make the Dough
  3. Add the flour and salt to the bloomed yeast. Use the dough hook on your mixer and let the dough knead for about 5 minutes on a low speed
  4. The dough should turn out nice, soft, elastic, and slightly sticky. Because of varying environmental conditions, you may need more flour
  5. Add 1 tablespoon at a time. Knead the dough by hand for a few minutes, then add it back to the bowl
  6. Wrap the bowl well with plastic and let the dough sit in the fridge for 1 hour
    7. Prepare the Butter
  7. Arrange the sticks of butter on a sheet of plastic wrap horizontally
  8. Lay another piece of plastic over the sticks, and use a rolling pin to flatten the sticks until you have approximately an 8 x 5-inch rectangle
  9. Put the butter, still wrapped in plastic, in the fridge until the dough is ready
    10. Laminate the Dough
  10. Laminating dough is the process of folding butter into the dough many times, which is what creates all those layers
  11. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a 16 x 10-inch rectangle
  12. Place your butter in the center and fold the edges of the dough rectangle over to cover the butter completely
  13. Roll the dough out so it's back to 16 x 10 inches, then fold it letter-style into thirds. Wrap the dough with plastic and place it in the fridge for an hour. Repeat this process a total of 5 times.
    14. Bake the Croissants
  14. Roll the dough out, one last time, until you have a long rectangle about 1/4" thick
  15. Slice the dough into long triangles, and roll each one starting at the wide end until you have a crescent shape
  16. Brush with a lightly beaten egg, and bake on a parchment paper-lined sheet for 8 - 12 minutes at 400F, then turn the oven down to 375 and bake for another 8 - 12 minutes
Recipe Notes

You can use the following links to check back to any explanation, ideas, or simply want to learn more about croissants. These are the sources we used :D PJ Hamel. How to substitute whole wheat for white flour in baking https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2020/06/22/how-to-substitute-whole-wheat-for-white-flour-in-baking#:~:text=Substituting%20whole%20wheat%20flour%20100%25%20for%20white%20flour%20will%20lower,is%20for%20it%20to%20rise. (accessed Apr 7, 2022). Baking light and flaky croissants - how-to https://www.finecooking.com/article/baking-light-and-flaky-croissants (accessed Apr 7, 2022).  Bradley, Megan. “Food Product Development Club creates products through competitions.” The Daily Illini, 23 October 2017, https://dailyillini.com/life_and_culture-stories/2017/10/23/food-product-development-club-creates-products-competitions/. Accessed 5 May 2022. Cismaru, Joanna. “Homemade Croissants.” Jo Cooks, https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/homemade-croissants/. Accessed 5 May 2022.

Felman, A. Can you really sub-brown sugar for white sugar? the 411 https://greatist.com/eat/can-you-substitute-brown-sugar-for-white-sugar-when-baking (accessed Apr 7, 2022). “Following a Recipe.” JennifersKitchen, https://jenniferskitchen.com/cooking-tips/following-a-recipe. Accessed 5 May 2022. Karla Walsh Headshot By Karla Walsh Updated October 26, 2020. How to substitute brown sugar for white sugar (because we all run out sometimes!) https://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/bake/how-to-substitute-brown-sugar-for-white-sugar/ (accessed Apr 7, 2022). Redoute, Pierre. “3,516 Food Scientist Illustrations & Clip Art.” iStock, https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/food-scientist. Accessed 5 May 2022. Rodriguez, B. M.; Marangoni, A. G. The fat in a perfect croissant https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/PT.3.3828 (accessed Apr 7, 2022).  Souza, E.J., Guttieri, M. and Sneller, C. (2011), Nutritional Profile of Whole-Grain Soft Wheat Flour. Cereal Chemistry, 88: 473-479. https://doi.org/10.1094/CCHEM-05-11-0066