The Two Main Types of Croissant: Boulanger and Patisserie

• Croissants de boulanger and croissants de patisserie refer to two different styles of preparation and ingredients used for making croissants. The former is the baker's croissant; the latter is the pastry chef croissant. The baker's croissant is essentially a puff pastry croissant with yeast. For this style of croissant, the butter to flour ratio is roughly 1:1.5 by weight in grams. To make the baker's croissant, you first prepare a simple bread dough: flour, eggs, water and yeast. Similar to puff pastry, you enclose the butter within a "package" or "envelope" of dough. You roll the package out into a rectangular sheet and refold it into an envelope or tri-fold shape, rather like folding a business letter; this is called a complete "turn". At this stage, chefs will often make a dimple in one end of the envelope with their fingertip to indicate the number of turns completed. After each turn, you chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. You should perform three or four complete turns, beginning the rolling-out process from the envelope shape, creating another sheet, folding another envelope and then indenting one side of the envelope as many times as you have completed turns. These turns give croissants their layers and texture. Baker's croissants also receive an egg and water wash before going into the oven.

Croissants de Patisserie or Pastry Chef Croissants

• Rich and buttery, pastry chef croissants are typically eaten plain. Their delicacy does not support fruit or savory fillings well; more pliable baker's croissants are reserved for such inventions. Pastry chef croissants do not contain yeast, and their butter to flour ratio is 1:2 by weight in grams. These croissants are simply alternating layers of butter and a dough consisting of flour, salt, some butter and cold water. Because puff pastry croissants do not contain yeast, creating their fine layers of butter and dough -- the essence of the "puff"-- is of the utmost. Cooking butter releases steam, in turn causing the layers of dough to expand. To make puff pastry, begin by mixing cold butter with flour until you achieve the texture of lumpy cornmeal. Add the salt to the water and this solution to the flour and butter mixture -- very gradually. Eventually, you roll the dough into a sheet and enclose more butter within a dough envelope. You perform the same turns as when making baker's croissants, only you perform at least six turns per classic puff pastry-making technique.

Ingredient Spotlight: Butter and Flour

• Because butter and flour are the main ingredients in croissants de patisserie, using specific kinds of each is recommended. When considering butter for making croissants, or for baking in general, you might want to select a European or European-style butter. European and European-style butters have a higher fat content than the average store-bought variety, usually 82 to 83 percent versus 80 to 80.5 percent respectively. Aside from the obvious benefit -- more flavor -- butter with a higher fat content is creamier and more pliable. This pliability is necessary when making pastry chef croissants because they require you to pound and roll out cold, rock-hard butter. If the butter softens or begins to melt, then the pastry is useless for your intents and purposes. Butter with a high fat content withstands such pounding and rolling and does not break apart nor randomly clump. This quality makes for velvety smooth layers of butter between each layer of dough.

All-Purpose Isn't Necessarily for All Purposes

• Croissants are known for their buttery flavor as much as for their airy texture. Flour contributes the protein matrix within which all the ingredients congeal, and that protein is gluten. When you knead or work with dough, you develop the gluten present within it. The more gluten you develop the more resilient and chewy your dough will become. The protein content of a given flour indicates how much gluten you can form using that particular flour. Because croissant dough entails lots of working, using a flour whose gluten content is lower makes all the difference since you'll develop this gluten the more you work the dough. Pastry flour has a gluten content of 9 percent. All-purpose flour has a gluten content of 14 to 16 percent. The differences seem minimal in theory, but in reality they are as far apart as a dense loaf of whole grain bread and a feathery croissant. If all you have on hand is all-purpose flour, you can simulate pastry flour by mixing two tablespoons of cornstarch to a cup of all-purpose flour.