These take about three days to “build” but are easy and the stages aren’t hard. The time it takes to make them is mostly to let the dough rest. Typically I start this at night (day 1), roll out two times during the next day (day 2) and bake in the morning on day 3.

Ingredients –
To make the dough (day 1)
1 cup milk
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Butter addition (day 2)
12 tbsp butter (I use sweet cream)
3 tbsp all-purpose flour

Baste addition (day 3)
2 tbsp milk
1 egg yolk (mixed with 1 tbsp milk)

Day 1 – Make the dough
Heat up 1/4 cup milk to lukewarm. Whisk the active dry yeast and 2 tbsp flour (from the 2 1/4 cups flour) into the 1/4 cup warm milk until no lumps. Cover and let stand at room temperature until doubled (about 20 minutes).

Mix the remaining 2 1/8 cups flour into the sugar and salt in a large electronic mixing bowl with dough hook attachment.

Once the yeast mixture has risen, heat the remaining 3/4 cup milk and add both to the dry ingredient mixing bowl. Start mixing with the dough hook and let mix until the dough is sticky and soft.

Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

Day 2 – Butter addition “Laminating”
Bring the butter to room temperature and work it with the heel of your hand to incorporate 3 tbsp flour. Shape into a rectangle – about 5 1/2″x4″.

Sprinkle a work surface with flour. I roll mine out on a large silpat. Roll the dough out to measure about 6″x15″ rectangle. Add the butter rectangle into the middle of the dough. Fold the dough like a letter, into thirds. Turn the dough counterclockwise, and roll out again to the 6″x15″ rectangle and fold as a letter as before.

Transfer the dough to a baking pan, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 6 hours.

Day 2 – 6 hours later
Roll out the dough 2 more times, wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Day 3 –
About 1 1/2 hours before baking time, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Lay out the silpat again on the counter and sprinkle with flour. Roll out the dough into a 16 inch circle, working as quickly as possible. Use the bench scraper to cut into quarters, and then each quarter into 3 triangles.

With both hands, roll the large base of the triangle to the center. Do not curl the ends. Transfer to a prepared baking sheet with a silpat. Brush with 2 tbsp milk and let stand at room temperature for about 45 minutes, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 400^oF. Add an egg yolk to the remaining milk leftover from brushing the croissants. Brush the croissants with egg yolk/milk mixture and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

There is a variation that I like to add once in a while. To pan chocolate stuffed croissants, add in dark chocolate chips to the triangle of dough before rolling. Then follow the same directions as above.