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Home | Culinary | Baking and Pastry | Baking: The Art of Croissant

Baking: The Art of Croissant

By Sarah Jane Udall

The most famous French pastry around the globe, the croissant is a baking sensation. Find out how this flaky crescent is created in patisseries, and how you can bake up a batch at home.

Baking the Best of It: Croissants

Legend has it the croissant was created by the Emperor of Austria's French baker, to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during an attempted siege on Vienna in 1683. The crescent, a symbol of the Ottoman Empire, was literally eaten by the Austrians. Whether this tale is food fact or fiction, it can't be denied that the croissant is a favorite pastry around the world.

This buttery, flaky bakery favorite has come a long way from European battlegrounds. The croissant is a flexible culinary creation, with a shape that can't be mistaken for any other pastry. It can be found in patisseries, restaurants, grocery stores, and even fast-food restaurants. Read on to find out bakers' secrets to croissant success.

Cooking Class Techniques

  • Baking croissants requires laminated, or layered, dough. This means baking with dough that has been folded, rolled, and turned with butter, producing two layers of dough for every one layer of butter.
  • The key to this flaky pastry is the layers of dough and butter. The steam from the baking butter rises to puff up each individual layer of the croissant, resulting in patisserie perfection.
  • Butter is the croissant baker's best friend, and it can't be too warm or too cold prior to baking. Instead, the butter must be warm enough to be rolled smoothly onto the layers of dough, and cool enough that it won't seep out the edges or into the dough.
  • Legendary layers: Once the baker rolls out and folds the croissant into its signature shape, there are 81 alternating layers of butter dough! No wonder croissants are popular at the patisserie.
  • In order to bake a croissant, you must be patient. If you lack the baker's knack for slow, deliberate rolling, you can simply buy frozen croissants that bake up bakery fresh.
  • In the bakery, you'll find croissants that have been baked in a variety of ways, filled with chocolate; almonds; ham and cheese; or spinach and feta.

If you're tired of making trips to the bakery for fresh croissants, check out a culinary academy. Baking classes can polish your patisserie skills, and you could get paid to be in the bakery!