Croissants Lab
Croissants: what 114 recipes agree on
Laminated dough: butter, milk, sugar and yeast per 100 g of flour, butter block included.
114 recipes from 82 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
114
from 82 sites
Typical flour
500 g
about 4 cups
Oven
375°F
190°C · median of 93
Bake time
20 min
most 15 to 30 min
5 kinds of croissants
One name, several recipes. Each recipe is typed by what its title calls it; the medians below are per type, in grams per 100 g of flour. Types with only a few recipes are rough.
| Type | Recipes | Butter | Milk or water | Sugar | Salt | Yeast | Egg in the dough |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pain au chocolat | 16 | 60% | 59% | 10% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 2.3% |
| Sourdough | 7 | 67% | 56% | 8.9% | 2.3% | 0% | 0% |
| Whole wheat | 2 | 61% | 61% | 10% | 2.4% | 1.6% | 9% |
| Vegan | 8 | 60% | 61% | 11% | 2.1% | 2.3% | 0% |
| Cornetto | 6 | 56% | 49% | 16% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 14% |
middle half, and the median (the number at right; when most use none, the share that uses any)middle half of every recipesmall number after a name: recipes
Charted: types with at least 5 recipes. The table lists every type.
The typical batch of croissants
The median of all 114 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 500 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 500 gabout 4 cups |
| ButterMost recipes use 250 to 335 g | 300 gabout 1 1/3 cups |
| Milk or waterMost recipes use 250 to 315 g | 290 gabout 1 1/4 cups |
| SugarMost recipes use 40 to 65 g | 50 gabout 1/4 cup |
| SaltMost recipes use 8 to 12 g | 10 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 6 to 11 g | 8 g |
| Egg in the dough50% use none; the rest mostly 45 to 85 g | 8 g |
Bake375°F (190°C) for about 20 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Butter
median 60% · most 50 to 67%
Most of it is the butter block folded into the dough; more butter means more, thinner layers and a shatterier crust, and a dough that is harder to keep cold.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 25 to 110%
Milk or water
median 58% · most 50 to 63%
Enough milk or water for a dough soft enough to roll thin without tearing, but firm enough to hold the butter in layers.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 30 to 80%
Sugar
median 10% · most 8 to 13%
A little sweetness and browning; French viennoiserie runs about 10%.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 2.5 to 24%
Salt
median 2% · most 1.5 to 2.4%
About 2%, as in bread.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0.8 to 3.1%
Yeast
median 1.6% · most 1.2 to 2.2%
Yeast lifts the layers apart during the final proof; sourdough croissants use a levain instead.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 5% · 6% use none
Egg in the dough
median 1.6% · 50% use none
Many recipes use none; some add an egg for richness. The egg wash on top is not counted.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 0 to 30% · those that use some, mostly 8.9 to 17%
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Egg in the dough. 50% of recipes use no egg in the dough; those that do mostly add 8.9 to 17% of the flour weight.
- Yeast. The middle half of recipes use 1.2 to 2.2% of the flour weight in yeast, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.8 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on milk or water and butter: milk or water 50 to 63%, butter 50 to 67% for the middle half.
Around the world
108 of the recipes come in 5 languages with enough of each to compare: English 54, French 22, Italian 12, German 11, Portuguese 9.
- Italian recipes use 71% more sugar than English ones (17% against 10% of the flour weight).
- French recipes use 20% less butter than English ones (52% against 65% of the flour weight).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “homemade” (14) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
The most-reviewed recipes
26 croissant recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 88, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (26)the rest (88)middle half of all
Butterthe most-reviewed recipes 58% vs the rest 61%
Milk or waterthe most-reviewed recipes 55% vs the rest 58%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 10% vs the rest 10%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 2% vs the rest 2%
Yeastthe most-reviewed recipes 1.5% vs the rest 1.7%
Egg in the doughthe most-reviewed recipes 0% vs the rest 3.6%
Most reviewed
- Croissants au thermomix · cookomix.com · French4.7 from 441 ratings
- Cómo hacer croissants caseros, la mejor receta del clásico croasán (y muy fácil) · directoalpaladar.com · Spanish3.4 from 315 ratings
- How to Make Croissants · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.7 from 308 ratings
- Croissants · oetker.de · German4.0 from 269 ratings
- Step by Step Sourdough Croissants · homegrownhappiness.com4.8 from 258 ratings
Oven temperature and time
93 of 114 recipes state an oven temperature, and 32% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The middle half bake at 350 to 400°F. The other 21 do not say.
- 350°F30 recipes
- 400°F25 recipes
- 375°F18 recipes
- 425°F16 recipes
- 450°F2 recipes
- 475°F2 recipes
99 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 20 minutes and the middle half bake 15 to 30 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 15 to 30 minutes, with 18 of the 88 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Croissants - Recette CAP Pâtissier · encoreungateau.combutter 60% · milk or water 57%
- Homemade Croissants Step-by-Step · bakingwithbutter.combutter 58% · milk or water 58%
- Croissants de atum · teleculinaria.ptbutter 50% · milk or water 58%
- Pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) · theflavorbender.combutter 66% · milk or water 58%
- Croissants : la recette facile · cuisine.journaldesfemmes.frbutter 60% · milk or water 50%
Most butter
- Ricetta passo passo dei croissant fatti in casa buoni come al bar · ricettedellanonna.netbutter 110% · milk or water 66%
- Croissants · foodnetwork.combutter 104% · milk or water 59%
- Vegan Croissants · beplantwell.combutter 96% · milk or water 57%
Least butter
- Easy Vegan Croissants · bosh.tvbutter 25% · milk or water 61%
- Croissants · bettybossi.chbutter 25% · milk or water 67%
- Croissant Sourdough Bread · kingarthurbaking.combutter 25% · milk or water 64%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 4comidaereceitas.com.br
- 4cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr
- 3delish.com
- 3melskitchencafe.com
- 3sallysbakingaddiction.com
- 3soniaperonaci.it
- 2alexandracooks.com
- 2amourdecuisine.fr
- 2baketotheroots.de
- 2baking-sense.com
- 2bakingamoment.com
- 2bettybossi.ch
In 7 languages: English 54, French 22, Italian 12, German 11, Portuguese 9, Spanish 3, Dutch 3. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 82 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
97% of the 1,021 ingredient lines got a weight. 64% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 596 were left out: 341 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 219 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (butter 77, milk or water 69, salt 35, sugar 29, yeast 9), 15 too many lines without an amount, 15 with a title that names a different dish, 3 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 2 duplicates of other pages, and 1 made from a boxed mix.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.