Comments on: Mission Impossible?: Whole Wheat Croissants

By: JB

JB — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:17:32 +0000

I learned how to make “French” croissant while living in Holland of all places. I now live in Germany and visit France often. While there, I was surprised to learn from one of my baker friends that close to half the “fresh” croissant served in Paris are from frozen or refrigerator dough delivered to the oven location and stored for several days before use. Of course, most places that serve croissant don’t bake their own anyway–though they may come from a nearby baker. I have never seen a whole wheat or bran croissant, though in America I see endless varieties of what I call crescent rolls (essentially Wonder bread-like products rolled into cresecent shapes), these are often made from a variety of flours. I believe that there is no way to make what we all know as the light, flaky, buttery, French croissant using anything other than white (all purpose) flour. I think if you use anything else, you have devitated from the traditional French recipe too far for it to be called croissant. And while it might still be tasty, it isn’t croissant. I can make French croissant easily now at home, but have never made anything with whole wheat or bran that has true lightness, or flakiness–even pie crust or strudel suffers in this one area when you use the brown flours. I do prefer wheat/bran flours over all purpose–but not for croissant.

By: I Drink Salads, Spiders Drink Blood | Paula Tiberius

I Drink Salads, Spiders Drink Blood | Paula Tiberius — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:59:16 +0000

[...] croissant recipe?’ Probably not, but I have. The first thing I came across was this hilarious blog in which she calls her creation “crisp, rich, yet ultimately disappointing.” Indeed. Sometimes [...]

By: jhus

jhus — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:37:03 +0000

I am on the same path, for years now. Every time I get closer. But am not there yet.
following Dr. Schnitzer, I grind freshly (seconds before mixing the dough) flour from wheat grains.
Freshly ground whole flour makes it more difficult, but has all nutrients,
* I use very cold butter sliced to 0.5mm slices with
zirconia blade mandoline. Lay the butter flakes to cover the dough without gaps and fold.
Fold with minimum pressing. This will create layers.
* Everything else is standard recipe, only I try to work fast and keep the dough cold.

Once! they came out right, and they were better then
any I ate anywhere. So it is possible.

By: Dushenka

Dushenka — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:21:38 +0000

My husband decided to make me whole wheat croisants without any training and they were delicious! and tasted like croisants! We used to use whole wheat pastry flour for everything until we discovered I was allergic to wheat though not gluten. we now use organic whole grain kamut flour which is *amazing* and reminds me of the texture of white flour or spelt flour which is admittedly as difficult to work with as whole wheat flour because of it’s sharper grain, but has a delightfully subtle flavor I haven’t seen repeated anywhere else. Spelt flour is a type of wheat flour, btw.

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:16:07 +0000

Did you use a recipe formulated for whole grains? I know there’s a whole grain croissant recipe in the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book. If you want to try the experiment again, you might take the book out of the library and take a peek at the recipe.

By: healthy pizza

healthy pizza — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:16:49 +0000

Way to go! what an awesome challenge to give yourself and everybody else. I’m sure this really makes you appreciate the food that you make and serve to people.

By: She

She — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:15:42 +0000

Hey I just came across your blog today and I know you said these were a mistake but they look like they were amazing to me. Can you post the recipe? Thanks

By: Ecoalex

Ecoalex — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:47:09 +0000

Wheat is planted either in the Fall, or the Spring.Pastry flour is made from Spring wheat, and is lower in protein, so is lighter. Spring White is a variety of wheat grain. Like there is pasta wheat;Durum,Semolina, there are bread wheats; usually hard red winter variety.In the East, soft red winter wheat is grown.The humidity in growing areas, and temperatures, determine the qualities of wheat, also their genetics.

By: Anna

Anna — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:28:50 +0000

Whole Foods sells whole wheat croissants.

By: Chad

Chad — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:21:36 +0000

Not to be a negative nelly, but if you have time to create this well done blog, you have time to really study making croissants. If you don’t have a rolling pin use a wine bottle. If you don’t have a lot of butter go out and find some. If you don’t have a lot of muscle to laminate the dough then make some! Whole wheat do will provide a more dense croissant, but you are still able, if you’re careful, to create incredible layers of fatty carb goodness that when tasted warm, allow to you believe in goodness once again.