Brioche croissants (recipe with step by step)

I'm in love with brioche dough. It's sweet, light and soft, and totally easy to make at home. I was dying to find the perfect recipe for making brioche croissants , and I've definitely found it! It's an easier croissant to make than the traditional one, also different in flavor and texture, and delicious.

National Croissant Day is this coming January 30th, and since the croissant has always been one of my favorite snacks (just accompanied by a few ounces of chocolate it's unbeatable), I wanted to pay tribute to it properly.

So after many tests, some disappointments, several successes and a lot of enthusiasm, I have been getting closer to finding this recipe to make delicious Brioche Croissants . I leave you with the step by step with photos to make these croissants and some considerations that I hope will help you enjoy them a lot and in various ways.

In this case I made 6 very large croissants, but I tell you in the recipe how to cut the dough to make 12 medium croissants .

Why make brioche croissants

These past few months I have been finding bakeries and pastry shops with brioche croissants on their counters. Yes, brioche croissants are in fashion : they are so appetizing and have such a delicious dough, I needed to find the recipe to make them, because apart from loving them infinitely , brioche dough is very easy to make. These homemade croissants are among the easiest you can make at home, among the homemade croissants in which you roll the dough yourself.

If there's one thing I love about brioche croissants, it's that, as they're not an excessively sweet dough, they can be used in many ways : they're delicious on their own; if you want to enjoy them for a sweet breakfast, you can serve them with butter, chocolate or jams; and if you want to eat them as a savoury treat, you can fill them with ham, cheese, tuna... They're also ideal for a savoury breakfast.

By making homemade, natural croissants, without additives or preservatives, the croissants will last you two to three days (although believe me, they will fly away on the first one!).

NOTE: If instead of brioche croissants you want to make traditional croissants, you will find the recipe here .

Ingredients

• 70 + 100 ml of whole milk
• 18 gr of fresh yeast
• 500 gr of strong flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 M eggs (140 gr)
• 90 gr of white sugar
• 130 gr of softened butter

Also, have on hand:

• Flour for dusting
• Egg for brushing
• Half a glass of water and 4 tablespoons of white sugar for the final touch of sweetness (or icing sugar to sprinkle)

Preparation

We prepare the dough:

1. Heat the 70 ml of milk slightly, but without burning it.
2. Add the fresh yeast to the milk and stir. Allow to dissolve and set aside.
3. Pour the 500 g of flour, the teaspoon of salt, the eggs and the sugar into the bowl of the KitchenAid mixer and turn on speed 2 with the hook accessory.
4. When the eggs begin to mix with the dough, add the reserved milk with the yeast and the remaining 100 ml of milk.
5. Increase the speed to medium and allow it to form a dough. It will be quite dry and solid. Now it's time to add the butter.
6. Cut the softened butter (not cold or melted) into cubes and add a third of it to the dough. Wait until it is almost incorporated and add the other third. Finally, when it is also incorporated, add the rest.
7. Now it's time to knead, rest and knead. Several times, as the gluten in the dough needs to develop and you'll get a smooth dough: knead for 12 to 15 minutes and let the dough rest for a couple of minutes. Knead again for 5 more minutes and let it rest. Do it again if you need to, until the dough is ready and elastic.
8. When ready, brush the bowl with oil and let the dough rest covered with a cotton cloth in a warm place*, until it doubles in volume (about 1.5 to 2 hours).

*I usually turn the oven on at 40º while I'm preparing the dough, and I turn it off when I'm finished with it. It's a great place to let the dough rest, the heat that the oven retains during that time helps the dough rise quickly.

Wombat Cotton Cloth by Maxwell and Williams

We form the croissants

1. When the dough has doubled in volume, pour it onto a clean, floured surface.
2. We remove the air by pressing with our knuckles and stretch the dough with the help of a rolling pin , forming a rectangle**.
3. Using a bread scraper , cut the dough crosswise several times (as in the photo), thus forming triangles in it.
4. At the base of each triangle, we make a not-too-long cut, which will help us separate the "bañas" when forming the croissant.
5. Now we need to shape the croissant: take the first triangle, slightly separate the ends from the base and start to twist it on itself, rolling the whole triangle up to the tip. Twist the tips if you want to make those "bows" characteristic of the croissant, or leave it untwisted if you want the croissant to be straight.
6. Form croissants with the rest of the dough triangles you have, and place them on a baking tray (I used the Nordic Ware Naturals tray , which is very wide, with the De Buyer perforated silicone mat ).
7. Cover with a cotton cloth and let rest for half an hour, so that the dough relaxes again.

**I have chosen to make large croissants. I made mine really big, I made 6 units only with a very generous amount of dough. I recommend stretching the dough more (making a longer rectangle, so that you can make more triangles), or cutting the rectangle in half lengthwise, so that from each half you can make 6 triangles and thus obtain 12 medium croissants.

We bake the croissants

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
2. Brush the croissants with beaten egg and place them in the oven, with heat from above and below but the tray in the lowest part of the oven.
3. Wait for them to bake. Depending on the size you made the croissants, they will take more or less time, but don't worry, you can have them in 15 or 20 minutes.
4. (Optional) When they start to turn golden, mix 3 or 4 tablespoons of sugar in half a glass of water, and brush the croissants generously with the mixture. This will not only make them shinier, but will also give them that characteristic sweet touch of croissants. If you prefer to leave them without that touch, simply skip this step, and you can present the croissants with icing sugar on top once they are baked, or without anything at all.
5. Allow the croissants to cool on the tray before serving.

How to flavour or fill your croissants

If you want, you can flavor the croissants :

• If you like your brioche with a vanilla touch, add a tablespoon and a half of vanilla extract to the dough when you add the milk;
• If you want to make lemon or orange flavoured croissants, add the zest of these citrus fruits and a couple of tablespoons of their juice to the dough.
• It is also interesting to make these croissants with coconut flavor: add 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and half a cup of grated coconut.

You are probably thinking about making chocolate brioche croissants . In this case, you have several options:

• Add a cup of chocolate chips to the dough (not the best option when making brioche in the form of a croissant, but it is certainly a very convenient option).
• Put one or two ounces of chocolate inside the dough: put it just where the small cut you made in the dough ends, so when you turn the dough over the chocolate will be in the middle. Don't overdo it with chocolate or it will spill out when it melts in the oven.
• You can also add white chocolate, or cocoa and hazelnut spread if that's what you like at home.
• You can make brioche with cocoa dough: add a cup of cocoa powder to the dough when you prepare the dough (in this case, I encourage you to also add a few tablespoons of coconut oil to the dough, which apart from helping to integrate the cocoa, goes wonderfully with the chocolate flavor).

Other things to keep in mind

• Remember what I said about the number of croissants: I recommend making double the number, simply by cutting the rectangular dough in half, and thus obtaining double the number of triangles afterwards.
• Store brioche croissants in a cotton bag or a storage jar. Here are many ideal containers for this.