Crisp, Flaky, Bad Boys (aka Vegan Croissants) | Oregonian Recipes (2024)

I know, who wants to make their own croissants? They can seem like a tough thing to pull off but they really aren’t that hard. The key is jump right in, tackle the recipe, and get your first batch under your belt and you’ll be a pro.

Traditional croissants involve laminating the dough with a layer of butter in the middle then rolling it out and folding it and repeating the process a gazillion times. While my method requires a little bit of that process, it is ultimately much easier because the butter is already mixed in the dough.

The dough will need to rest a day before you can bake these guys and eat them up, but come to terms with that little detail and I promise it will be worth the wait.

Prepare the dough: In a large bowl mix the flours, sugar, salt and yeast. Set aside.

Using a small spoon, dollop the coconut oil onto a plate and place it in the freezer with the cubed butter for 15 minutes. (The butter cubes should be twice the size of the coconut oil dollops).

Place about 2-1/2 cups of the flour mixture in a food processor and add the frozen butter and oil. Pulse about five times until the chunks are slightly larger than pea size. Add the contents of the food processor to the rest of the flour then fold in the almond milk with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until a dough forms. (Do not over mix or the butter will melt.) Wrap the bowl well with plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight and up to 48 hours.

Roll the croissants: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Plop the sticky dough onto a well-floured flat surface. Dust the dough with flour generously and roll it into a large rectangle somewhere around 10 by 30 inches, dusting often to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface or rolling pin.

Fold the dough in thirds by folding the short end up and past the midpoint of the dough then fold the opposite side up over the top like a business letter. Give the dough a quarter turn and roll it out again into about a 10 by 30-inch rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds again then cover it and let it rest 15 to 30 minutes in the fridge.

While the dough is in the fridge line two 13 by 18-inch baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out one last time into an exact 10 by 30-inch rectangle. Trim away any excess dough and save it to make an extra croissant or two.

Using a ruler, mark both long sides of the dough every 5 inches with a paring knife. Mark the short side in half, and using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough in half lengthwise. You should now have two 5 by 30-inch strips of dough. Using a ruler, score both newly cut long sides of the dough every 5 inches. Now cut the dough into triangles by starting at one corner and following your cut marks. You should have twenty-two triangles in all.

Gently stretch the base of each triangle then pull the tip of the triangle to make it less of a right triangle and more like an isosceles triangle. (It should look like a slice of pizza). Dust off as much flour from the triangle as possible. Secure the tip to the counter with an object or your finger while gently pulling the base toward yourself as you roll the croissant from the base to the tip.

Place each croissant on the baking sheet with the tips of the triangle tucked underneath. Pull the croissant ends and pull them inward to create the crescent shape.

Proof and bake: Loosely cover the croissants with plastic wrap and let them rise at room temperature for 2-1/2 hours; after 2 hours preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the croissants for about 30 minutes, stopping halfway through the baking process to rotate the trays and switch their positions.

Let the croissants rest 30 minutes (if you can) before eating. You can freeze the freshly baked croissants as soon as they are completely cool. The best way to defrost the croissants is to let them sit out until they are room temp then bake or toast them until crisp.

Note: Coconut sugar comes from the sap of blossoms of the coconut tree. It can be found at Asian grocery stores, in the baking section of well-stocked natural foods grocery stores, and you may be able to find it in the bulk foods section. Lightly packed light brown sugar works as a substitution.