White Chocolate Dipped Croissants
This is a quick way to make croissants. They turn out just as tasty but leave you with extra time to smother them in white chocolate!
Ingredients
Quick Croissant Dough
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp good quality butter (cold)
- 2 tsp yeast (quick rising works best here)
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
White Chocolate Dipped Croissants
- croissant dough
- all purpose flour for dusting
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp heavy cream (or half and half)
- 10 oz white chocolate melting wafers
- 2 tbsp butter
- optional: food coloring, freeze dried raspberries, dried rose petals for decorating
Instructions
- Start by making the dough. Mix the flour, water, milk, sugar, 2 tbsp butter, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix until incorporated. The dough should be soft and sticky. No need to overwork as it will be worked during the folding process. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, this will work just as well if you mix by hand or in a food processor)
- Gather up all of the dough on to a flat surface and roll it out into a square. About 8 in all the way around. Wrap with plastic wrap so the dough doesn’t dry out and place in the refrigerator while you create your butter block.
- Take the rest of your butter (1 cup) and bring it to room temperature. Lay a piece of parchment paper on a work surface and draw an 8 in square on top, then flip the parchment over so the drawn on side is facing down. Next spread your butter on top of the parchment into an 8 inch square trying to line up the edges as much as possible. Once you have your square, let the butter block rest in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Next fold the butter into the dough. Take both the butter block and the dough out of the fridge and place the butter in the center of the dough so that it is in a diamond shape and the corners do not line up with the dough corners. Then fold one dough corner towards the center of the butter sealing it so that there are no air pockets, then repeat with the rest of the dough corners until the butter is completely covered by the dough. Pinch together the seams tightly so butter can’t escape.
- Laminate the dough and fold. I like to do this next part on my marble pastry board so that the dough and butter stay cold and don’t get over worked. First start by flipping the dough over so that it is seam side down. Then roll it out into a long 18 x 10 inch rectangle. If at any point the butter starts oozing out (it shouldn’t unless your kitchen is really warm), sprinkle a little bit of flour over the area to seal it. After the dough has been rolled out, with the longest end perpendicular to you, fold into thirds like a business letter. Folding the left side in towards the center, then the right side on top. Rotate the dough, roll it out into another 18x10 inch rectangle and repeat two more times. If at any point your dough gets too warm, place it in the fridge for 15 minutes to get it back to a cool temperature before working with it again.
- After you’ve laminated the dough 3 times, refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes before cutting.
- Cut the dough into croissants. Remove the laminated dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured work surface, cut the dough in half so you have two portions of croissant dough. Leave on of them, and put the other in the refrigerator while you work with the first half. Then roll the dough into an 12 x 8 inch rectangle for the last time (eureka!). Using a pizza cutter or a knife, Make ticks at one end of the dough every 3 1/2 inches. Then repeat on the other side. Using a ruler or any flat straight utensil, begin to connect the top and bottom notches with diagonal lines, making 8 triangles. Cut a 1 inch vertical notch at the triangle base.
- Roll the croissants by starting at the base and stretching it so that it is about 5 inches wide, then holding at the base, stretch the triangle from its tip until its about 10 inches long. Then start to roll the base toward the center and wrap the tip around forming the classic croissant twist. Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper and place the croissant seam side down. Repeat with the rest of the dough until you have 16 croissants, spacing them well apart on the sheet pan.
- Cover and rest the croissants for an hour in a warm area of your kitchen before baking.
- Meanwhile, make the egg wash by whisking the egg yolk with the heavy cream until the surface is nice and foamy.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- When ready to bake. Brush the tops of the croissants lightly with the egg wash. Then bake until golden brown and flaky, about 20 minutes. I like to switch the pans from the top to bottom as well as rotate them 180 degrees halfway through baking to guarantee an equal bake.
- Make the glaze by melting the white chocolate wafers with 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. I put mine in for a minute and stir every 20 seconds until melted.
- When the croissants are bake, let them cool until room temperature before glazing. Then dip or drizzle with the glaze and sprinkle on the toppings of your liking.