I don’t know about you but there’s nothing I enjoy more than a croissant and coffee in the morning.

Perhaps it was the scene of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s that got me hooked on the romance of it, either way for years it was my go-to European breakfast of choice.

The obvious problem though is, these tasty pastries aren’t exactly kind to your gut if you’re avoiding gluten or celiac.

To make matters worse gluten-free croissants are rare to find, and when you do find it, I guarantee cardboard tastes better. The croissant is hard to master!

Many gluten-free foodies simply give up and sacrifice the pleasurable treat of a croissant.

HOWEVER! Gluten-free dreams do come true. We’ve crafted the ultimate puffy croissant that’s 100% gluten-free.

Get ready to say “Ooh La La” as you bite into these crumbly treats!

Gluten-Free Croissant Recipe

Makes: about 12 medium-sized croissants

Croissants are one of the harder pastries to make in general. Butter is placed between layers of dough, and then the two are rolled out and folded into many, many layers in a process called lamination. Making them gluten free presents an added layer of difficulty. But don’t let that dissuade you–they are a joy to make at home, and with a few tips and tricks it’s entirely possible to craft a gluten free croissant that won’t have you missing the real thing. 

Equipment required: 

• Stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or a large mixing bowl and a whisk and wooden spoon

• Parchment paper

• Rolling pin

• Ruler and pencil or pen

• pastry brush

Ingredients You’ll Need

Dough:

• 445 grams (about 3 ¼ cups) Bloom Healthy Cooking Gluten Free Flour Blend

• 1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder

• 1 tablespoon xanthan gum

• 1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt

• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

• 8 grams (about 2 ½ teaspoons) instant or fast-acting yeast

• 80 grams granulated sugar

• 6 tablespoons (about 56 grams) butter, softened

• 60 ml (60 grams) water

• 200 mils (207 grams) whole milk

• 1 large egg, beaten

Butter Block: 

• 1 cup (226 grams) of unsalted, high fat content or European style butter, at room temperature

• 12 grams (about 4 teaspoons) Bloom Healthy Cooking Gluten Free Flour Blend 

Egg Wash:

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

To Make the Dough: 

• Using a stand mixer with a bowl and paddle attachment, or using a large mixing bowl and a whisk, mix together your dry ingredients until evenly combined: the flour blend, psyllium husk powder, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, yeast, and sugar.

• Next, either in the same stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or simply using your hands in a normal mixing bowl, mix in the butter until it is broken up into tiny pieces and parts of the flour resemble something closer to coarse cornmeal. 

• Next, add in your beaten egg and water into the stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a wooden spoon if you are using a normal mixing bowl.

• Slowly pour in your milk after this with the mixer set to a low speed, or a little bit at a time and mixing the dough partially with the wooden spoon if the dough if mixing by hand.

• Mix in everything but the last ¼ cup, or about 55 grams or milliliters, and test the dough. Does it feel fully hydrated already, with no bits of coarse, dry flour remaining?

• If so, you can stop here. If there are dry bits still present, slowly add in another tablespoon at a time of the milk until you get a dough that is cohesive and hydrated, but not sticky or tacky. It’s possible that you might even need to add a bit of extra milk to bring it all together.

• Continue mixing for another 30 seconds just to make sure everything gets fully combined, and then wrap the dough with plastic wrap and place immediately into the fridge for at least 1 hour.

To Make the Butter Block:

• Place the butter in the fridge just for about 10 to 15 minutes while you make your parchment packer.

  We’re ideally looking for butter that is just under room temperature, so it is chilled slightly but still pliable. 

• Take a large piece of parchment paper, at least 40 cm (about 16 inches) wide, and mark out a 19cm x 19cm (7.5” x 7.5”) square using a ruler and a pencil or pen in the middle of it. Fold the edges of the remaining parchment over to create a square packet with these dimensions.

  What you’re looking for is a 19cm square with a bottom layer of parchment and with the folded remaining parchment creating a top layer, so that the butter can be fully enclosed between the two layers and rolled out into a square of even thickness. 

• Unfold the parchment packet to expose the bottom layer, and sprinkle 2 teaspoons (about 6 grams) of the GF flour blend over the bottom. Cut the butter into square or rectangular pieces, about 1 ¼ cm or ½ inches thick, and place evenly around the bottom layer of parchment.

   

• Sprinkle the remaining 2 teaspoons on top of the butter, and fold over the rest of the parchment to enclose the butter. Using a rolling pin, begin to roll the butter into all corners of the parchment packet, until you have one even layer of butter that covers the extent of the packet.

   

• Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, until once again chilled but still slightly pliable. 

Locking in the Butter Block: 

• Both the dough and the butter should be slightly chilled, but somewhere in between room temperature and the temperature of your refrigerator.

• The next task is to enclose the butter into the dough. Because the butter is 19cm x 19cm (7.5” x 7.5”), you need to roll the dough to twice that size, 38cm x 38cm (15” x 15”).

• To do this, use a bit of flour on a flat surface and roll the dough until it reaches this size; err on the side of rolling it even larger, as it will often shrink slightly afterward. If you don’t make a perfect square, don’t worry: there is room for some error here.

• Once the dough is rolled out to a square twice the size of the butter, unfold the parchment packet and place the butter in the middle of the dough square, so that the corners of the butter hit the centers of each side of the square.

• Then, take the four flaps of dough and stretch them toward the center of the butter, so they meet in the middle and cover its entirety. Pat them together to seal in the butter.

 Lamination: 

• Once the butter is locked in, press down lightly on all parts of the top of the square with your rolling pin to seal the butter to the dough.

• Next, starting from the bottom, roll the dough and butter together upward, so the square starts to expand into a rectangle.

  If the butter and dough are at the right temperature, they should move together. If the butter is too cold, it will break instead of rolling, in which case you should leave it out at room temperature for another 10 minutes before trying to roll it again.

  If the butter is too soft, it will ooze out the sides or top of the mix, or even begin to melt with the friction. If this happens, place the dough block into the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes before rolling.

  Anytime the top or bottom of the dough is sticking, sprinkle gluten free flour on the surface or on the dough itself.

• If it’s ready to roll, roll vertically until it is about 56cm (22”) tall, and still 19cm (7.5”) wide. Perform a letter fold, which is a way of increasing the amount of layers of butter and dough.

  To do so, think of the dough block in 3 sections, with horizontal lines cutting across the vertically tall dough and butter block. Take the top ⅓ and fold down over the middle third, and follow that by taking the bottom layer and folding it over the other two layers in the middle.

  This should stack the butter and dough on top of itself so that there are 3 layers of butter.

  This is called a letter fold. Wrap this dough and place in the fridge for at least 40 minutes, for the dough and butter to chill back down. 

• For the second fold, repeat the same process, but make sure to rotate the dough 90 degrees from the position it finished at after the first fold, so that the sides where the layers are exposed are on the top and bottom, vertically.

• Roll out again to 56cm (22”) tall by 19cm (7.5”) wide and repeat the same folding process, folding the top third down over the middle, and then the bottom third up over both.

• If any sides are uneven or dough is hanging over the edge, use a sharp knife to trim a centimeter or two off until the dough block is more even. Wrap and chill once again for at least 40 minutes. 

• Rotate 90 degrees and perform one final letter fold, trim any excess, and wrap and place in the fridge once more for at least 1 hour. 

Shaping:

• Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap, and place on a floured surface. Do not rotate 90 degrees. Roll horizontally this time, expanding the dough on both the left and right sides until they are 22” wide.

• Then, roll upwards and downwards just slightly, so the vertical length of the dough expands to around a total of 26 to 28cm (10.5” to 11”). Trim each side by a couple centimeters until everything is an even rectangle, then, along the bottom and top sides of the dough, use a knife to lightly indent every 9cm (3.5 inches). 

• Using a sharp knife and a ruler, cut vertically from indent to indent, so you are making even, vertical rectangles in the dough. You should be able to get 6 rectangles.

• Next, place the ruler so its straight edge starts at the top left corner of a rectangle and continues diagonally downward to the bottom right corner.

• Cut along this line, dividing each rectangle into two long triangles, and repeat this process for all 6 rectangles. This gives you 12 croissants. 

• Cut a small slit in the base (the small edge of the long triangle) of each one, then grab this side and spread each part outward slightly to widen.

• Roll them up starting from this same base, and lightly press the top tip into the dough upon completion to seal the croissant. Repeat for all 12. 

Proofing and baking:

• Place the shaped croissants on a sheet tray or two lined with parchment paper. Each should be a few inches apart from one another and the sides, to allow them room to expand.

• Let them proof at room temperature for at least 2 ½ hours, sometimes closer to 4 hours, until they’ve visibly expanded and indent slightly to the touch. It is far more common to underproof croissants than to overproof them, so when in doubt, give them more time. 

• When the croissants are close to ready, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the croissants lightly with the egg wash, being careful not to deflate them.

• Place the sheet tray in the oven when it’s preheated, and as soon as you do so drop the heat to 425 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes, then drop the heat to 400 degrees and continue to bake for 10 to 15 more minutes until well-browned all over. 

Let cool for at least 30 minutes before enjoying!

This recipe is more advanced than some of our others! Give it a go and let us know your feedback HERE.