Low Butter Croissants

These Healthy Croissants are lower in butter than your traditional croissants. They give you your crispy and flaky fix without giving up taste or texture.

Happy National Croissant Day!

Light and fluffy, soft but slightly crisp, made with lots of layered buttery goodness.  

You’re probably looking at the title “low butter croissants” wondering, what the heck is she getting into now?  I bet you thought the whole point of croissants was the layers upon layers of butter. After all, that creates the distinct layered flakiness.

True, very true.

Is It Possible To Make Healthy Croissants?

Croissants are characterized by their flaky texture which is the result of many fine layers of butter and dough created by a folding and rolling technique.

After making my grandma’s croissants, which are oozing in butter and very tasty, I wanted to see if it would be possible to reduce the butter and still have a great croissant.

Our Low Butter Croissants

These croissants are a bit smaller, slightly more dense, and a little less flaky than your typical bakery croissant.  (You can’t expect to give up all that butter at get the EXACT same result. Oh how I wish that was the world we lived in.)

But, they still have a light and airy texture and a crunchy crisp exterior.

In short, they really do look and taste like croissants.

And, as an added bonus, they’re significantly lower in butter.

Better for you and just as tasty, makes these a winner in this house!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe Saved!

4.77 from 21 votes

Low Butter Healthy Croissants

These Healthy Croissants are lower in butter than your traditional croissants. They give you your crispy and flaky fix without giving up taste or texture.

Yield: 12 (4 inch) croissants

Prep Time2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: French

Servings: 12 people

Author: Sarah | Curious Cuisiniere - Recipe adapted from the Doubleday Cookbook

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp water warmed to 105F
• 1 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
• 1 - 1 ¼ c unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp salted butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 2 tsp cold water (to glaze)

Instructions

• Place milk in a small saucepan. Scald the milk by heating over high heat until the milk begins to steam, but remove from the heat before it begins to boil. Stir in sugar and salt to dissolve. Set milk aside to cool.
• Pour warm water into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with yeast and mix to dissolve. Add cooled milk mixture. Slowly add flour, siring well, until a soft dough forms.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
• Place dough into a greased bowl. Cover with a damp towel, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
• When dough has doubled, punch it down and roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 6” x8” rectangle.
• Using a knife, spread 1 Tbsp soft butter gently over the bottom 2/3 of the dough. Fold the dough, letter-style, bringing the top, un-buttered third down first to cover half of the buttered section, then bringing the bottom third up to create an even rectangle. Give the dough a quarter turn and roll with short, even strokes into another 6”x 8” rectangle. Spread the remaining Tbsp of soft butter over the bottom 2/3 of the dough, and fold again. Roll and fold twice more without adding more butter, giving a quarter turn each time.
• Shape dough into a ball and roll into a 15” circle.
• Cut into 12 equal sized wedges.
• Starting at the large end of each wedge, stretch the bottom tips of the dough outward slightly before gently rolling from the bottom to the tip.
• Place each croissant, point down, 1 ½” apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Cover, and let rise until nearly doubled in size, about 40 min.
• Towards the end of rising, preheat the oven to 375°F. Gently, brush each roll with the egg yolk and water glaze. Bake 10-15 min, until well browned.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere

Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com/about/