How we make our croissants

We start by making our own preferment from scratch. We mix it ahead of the final dough and give it time to slowly ferment, developing flavor and complexity before we begin making the croissants.

The preferment becomes the foundation of our croissant dough.

We make the dough with browned butter, which adds a deeper, slightly toasted flavor before the lamination process even begins.

Once mixed in our 80qt spiral mixer, the dough is given time to ferment and develop. This builds flavor, but it also develops the strength and structure the dough will need for everything that comes next.

For lamination, we use Isigny butter from Normandy, France, a butter known for its flavor, richness and quality.

We form the butter into a thin, even sheet, place it inside the dough and completely enclose it. This is called the lock-in.

From this point on, temperature becomes incredibly important. The butter needs to stay cool enough to remain a distinct layer, but soft and flexible enough to move with the dough as we roll it.

This is where most of the work happens, and where a croissant really becomes a croissant.

We run the dough through our sheeter, gradually rolling it thinner and longer. We fold it back onto itself, which multiplies the alternating layers of dough and French butter inside.

Then we chill it and give the dough time to rest.

Then we sheet it again.

This process of sheeting, folding, chilling and resting continues as we build more and more incredibly thin layers of dough and butter.

It’s a balance of time, temperature and feel. The dough is still fermenting and changing throughout the process. If the butter gets too cold, it can crack instead of rolling smoothly. If it gets too warm, it can soften and disappear into the dough. If the dough is pushed too quickly through the sheeter, the layers we’ve spent all that time creating can be damaged.

The goal is to keep every one of those layers thin, even and distinct.

Those layers are what eventually give a great croissant its crisp, flaky exterior and open, airy interior.

There isn’t really a shortcut for this part.

After the final lamination and rest, we sheet the dough one last time to its finished thickness.

The dough is cut into individual pieces, and every croissant is shaped by hand before being placed onto trays.

At this point, you can already see the layers running through the dough, but there’s still a lot of work happening inside.

The shaped croissants are given several more hours to proof.

During this time, the yeast continues to ferment the dough and the croissants slowly grow. The dough becomes lighter and more delicate while the layers of butter we’ve built throughout the lamination process remain intact.

Knowing exactly when they’re ready for the oven is another important part of the process. Too early and they won’t fully open. Too late and the structure we’ve worked to create can begin to weaken.

Then they go into the oven.

As the croissants bake, the water in the dough and butter turns to steam. That steam expands between all of those thin layers, pushing them apart and creating the structure inside the finished croissant.

The exterior becomes deeply golden, crisp and flaky. Inside, the layers open into the light, airy honeycomb we’re looking for.

Once they’re baked, our croissants are packed up and delivered fresh to our cafes.

By the time one reaches the pastry case, we’ve spent several days making the preferment, mixing and fermenting the dough, locking in French butter, sheeting and folding, chilling, resting, shaping, proofing and finally baking it.