As you know I love experimenting with ingredients and various types of flour. But when it comes to croissants, I was scared to even think of using whole wheat flour, considering the fact that it acts absolutely different, comparing to regular flour, it is heavier, thirstier and less stretchy.
But I was committed to try, and ready to start.
Flour selection played a very important role in my research. To achieve results you want, you have to use flour, that is suitable for whole wheat croissants (stone ground, sifted and fine milled).
The brand I trust is Janie’s Mill, their flours always helped me achieve best results and exceeded all of my expectations.
For this whole wheat croissant experiment, I had to test a few things, and now I am very happy to share my findings and results with you.
Croissants came out very light, with a beautiful color and unbelievable flavor.
Note: If you never made croissants before, I suggest you to start with a smaller batch(1/2 batch), (smaller dough is so much easier to roll, laminate and work with).
Ingredients
Dough (for 12 croissants)
- 500g Janie’s Mill Organic Sifted Artisan Bread Flour (100%)
- 235g lukewarm milk (47%)
- 85g lukewarm water (17%)
- 55g sugar (11%)
- 25g soft butter for the dough (5%)
- 10g salt (2%)
- 5g dry instant yeast (1%)
- 300g rolling butter (60%)( find the good quality European butter with fat content 82% or more)
Note: if you are looking for deeper flavor, substitute 100g of Janie’s Mill Organic Sifted Artisan Bread Flour with 50g Janie’s Mill Turkey Red flour and 50g Janie’s Mill Organic Black Emmer flour.
Directions
Night before
- Add lukewarm milk and water to a bowl.
- Dissolve yeast in liquid mixture, add sugar, salt all flour and butter (for the dough). Mix by hand, or on a slow speed of your mixing machine. No need to develop gluten. Dough can remain little lumpy. Gluten will develop by itself overnight.
- Cover in plastic wrap, put in the fridge until next morning.
Next day
- Prepare butter for rolling. Butter has to be playable, not too soft,(temperature about 16-18C / 60-64F). Use parchment paper to roll it into a block, about 20cm/ 7.8 inches each side), transfer it to chill in the fridge for 5 minutes before rolling.
Please note, the butter shouldn’t be too cold, or too warm: If it’s too cold, then during lamination, it will start to break into pieces. if it’s too warm it will melt in between the layers.
- Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll it as a rectangle, big enough to place the butter block inside. (About 20cm x 40cm / 7.8 inches x 15.8 inches)
- Place butter block inside the dough, the way it showed on the picture.
- Seal the edges, to let butter stay inside.
- Start rolling by pushing the butter from 1 side to another (lengthwise).
- Cut the edges. Place on top of the dough. It will release the tension during rolling.
- Fold the dough as a book. (See the picture)
- Turn the dough 90 degrees, and continue rolling lengthwise. Cut the edges, put them aside, fold the dough as a letter. (See the picture)
Note: work fast, and try not to touch the dough too much, to avoid overheating
- Cover the dough , transfer it to the fridge for 1 hour.
- Remove the dough from the fridge.
- Roll it as a rectangle with a narrow side about 26-28 cm / 10-11 inches
- Roll until the dough will become 5mm /0.1 inch thick.
- Trim all uneven edges.
- Cut the dough (the base of croissant has to be 8cm). See the picture
- Shape croissants and cover.
Note: at this point you can transfer covered shaped croissants to refrigerator until 9-10pm, then you can take them out and let them proof overnight at 68-72C/20-22C. This way you’ll be able to bake fresh croissants for breakfast.
Or
- Cover croissants and let them proof for about 4-5 hours at 74-78C / 24-26C until they double in volume and become jiggly.
- Egg-wash (mix one egg with 2 tbs of water).
- Brush croissants with egg mixture.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Bake croissants for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Enjoy!
good job keep going👌🏻
Looks great 👍
Did they crisp up?
Can we substitute yeast with sourdough starter ?
Yes, but the final fermentation will take more than 12 hours
It’s new idea and invention , let’s try this way too, moreover, afraid if crossiant turns harder after taking out from the oven because of wheate…. Flour?
With flour from Janie’s mill, croissants were soft as a cloud.
Hi Natalya, I’m in love with your work. This is my first time with croissant so I might mess it up: do you think I could use half doses? If I do, should I also halve the size of the butter block, the dough when I roll it as a rectangle, and the final triangles? (eg. 20cm -> 10cm; 8 cm -> 4 cm)
thank you!
Hi!
It will take some practice, but I’m sure you can do it.
For butter block do 10X10. And good luck 🙏
Hi Natasha,
I would like to try this recipe by making half the measurements first.
Rolling measurement of dough and the butter lamination measurement will also be halved right?
Thanks in advance. Looking forward to your reply.
Regards,
Hamsini
Hi Natalya, I made them with some regular Serbian whole wheat flour and they turned out perfect! Thank you so much!
Do you think I can try the same recipe with only rye and oat flour? Maybe different percentage of water and yeast?
Hi, Ivana !
Thank you!
Rye and oat flour doesn’t contain much of a gluten, so it will be very challenging to make croissants.
Hi any replacement for eggwash? May be milk?
I made this with half ingredients and it went perfect. Then I tried twice with the original measurements and both times the butter melted out of the layers unfortunately. I’m not sure why, the first time I tried overnight proofing and it melted and became a puddle when baking, the second time it melted while proofing in the oven. I have a convection oven and I didn’t cover the tray. But there was no such problem the first time.
There are only two things different the first time and the subsequent tries, other than half measurements. First, I tried a different brand of butter, could it affect the outcome? The second is I folded the dough one more time than instructed the first time.
A great recipe and each time regardless of butter puddles it turned out delicious and healthy! Thanks!
Hello Natalya! Unfortunately I do not have access to the brand of flour that you used. What approach should use when looking for substitute? Or maybe you can recommend flour type that I may try to use?
Thanks in advance)
Hi Natasha,
I would like to try this recipe by making half the measurements first.
Rolling measurement of dough and the butter lamination measurement will also be halved right?
Thanks in advance. Looking forward to your reply.
Regards,
Hamsini
I thought Whole Wheat and Bread flour are different …
Hey girl, I’m absolutely obsessed with all of your work. I love everything you make I am wondering if this is the same process you would use for regular French croissants with white flour? Would you use a bread flour to do this? I couldn’t find your recipe for just regular French croissants and I’m wondering if everything is the same except for the flour? Thank you!
Where does the integral come in?
Hi natasha,
I’ve tried the croissants but ended up with the butter leaking while baking.Since I live in a place where the temperature is typically between 29-30 degree celsius during winter months,I lowered the proofing time to 2hrs.Would that be the reason for the butter leak?