This two-day version of my Classic French Croissant recipe is ideal for starting in the afternoon, to have freshly baked croissants the next morning. This recipe will give you 12 of these iconic French pastries, with a great flakiness, a satisfying bubbly crumb and lovely buttery notes.
In comparison to my One-Day Classic French Croissants recipe, the crumb of these 2-day croissants is more aerated and offers lovely subtle butter notes. The three-day version of this recipe has more depth in taste and texture, but if you only have two days to spare, this recipe is for you (and you’ll achieve a result very, very close to the real deal!).
Before you start this recipe, make sure to read this post: Classic French Croissants 101 Guide, where I am covering all the essentials you need to know before making croissants for the first time (choice of ingredients, yeast, poolish, laminating, proofing, etc…).
Summary of the timeline:
(ie. Start Saturday afternoon and get freshly-baked croissants for Sunday morning)
Day 1: Late Afternoon (4 hours, inc. 2 hours 30 minutes chill time)
Make poolish and dough (30 minutes), refrigerate (1 hour)
Laminate the dough and shape the croissants (2 hours 30 minutes; inc. 1 hour 30 minutes chill time)
Refrigerate until Day 2.
Day 2: Morning (2 hours of proofing and 17 minutes of baking)
Proofing (2 hours), baking (17 min).
Total: 6 hours, over 2 days
The equipment
- Stand Mixer (optional – easier for kneading the dough; but this can be done by hand too)
- Large working surface (ideally, cold marble top)
- Rolling pin
- Ruler or measuring tape (cm or inch)
- Pizza cutter
- Pastry Brush
- Two baking sheets; parchment paper
- Plastic film
- 8×8-inch (20.3×20.3cm) or 9×9-inch (22.9×22.9cm) square pan
- 2 large air-tight containers (able to contain 6 croissants each).
Important note: Making Classic French Croissants is an intermediate to advanced level recipe. It took me several years to get a hang of “laminating” and “proofing”, having several failures along the way. I can’t promise your very first batch of croissants will be a success (mine definitely weren’t). But if you persevere, you will succeed!
Take the butter out of the fridge and place it in the middle of the square at a 45 degree angle. 
Fold a corner side of the dough over the butter, with the tip of the corner in the middle of the butter (corner side should be triangle-shaped, since the butter is 45 degree diagonal). 
Repeat with the other other corner sides of the dough, so they all overlap in the center and the butter is totally encased within the dough.
Once the dough has reached its intended rectangular size (8x24-inches/20.3cmx61cm rectangle), fold it like a letter lenghtwise (one side on top of the other). Wrap in plastic film and chill for 30 minutes.
Use the pizza cutter and a ruler (or straight object) to make diagonal cuts (joining the top and bottom small cut marks), to create triangular cuts along the length of the dough. Discard of the two end pieces.
Once all rolled up, press gently onto the pointy end to seal the croissant.
Take both ends of the rolled up croissants and slightly bend them to create a crescent shape. 
If you try this Two Day Classic French Croissants, let me know! Leave a comment or share a photo on Instagram tagging @pardonyourfrench or using #pardonyourfrench.
34 comments
Do you cook both trays at the same time in a convection oven or should you do one at a time with regular heat?
I cook the trays one at a time with regular heat (rack in the middle). That’s actually a great question, and I should add these notes in the recipe 🙂
Hi Audrey!
I tried your 2-day croissant recipe, and while they tasted delicious, they were more dense than flaky and light. But I’ll keep on trying!
Is the overnight refrigeration part only so that you get fresh croissants for breakfast? Or is it there for a specific purpose? I wondered if I could just leave out that step, and instead rise and bake them immediately after shaping.
Thanks!
Hi! The overnight refrigeration allows for a slower fermentation (fermentation is meant for improving the taste of the croissants) and is also a great way to have freshly baked croissants in the morning. If your croissants ended up too dense, I suspect they didn’t proof properly (not long enough, or the temperature is your room was too cool). If you wish to skip the overnight refrigeration step, you can try my One-Day Croissant Recipe (https://www.pardonyourfrench.com/one-day-classic-french-croissants/) which calls for a 3-hour rise right after shaping, and just before baking (no overnight refrigeration). I hope this helps! 🙂
I’ve made these a few times now. While I love the flavor, my first two batches were pretty dense, even after letting them rise for quite a while. I am at high altitude (5000 ft), and the air here is very dry, so sometimes I have to adjust recipes a bit to get them to work! This last time, I changed a couple of things: I added a bit more liquid to the dough, and I let the dough rise for about an hour before I refrigerated it, to ensure the yeast was fully activated. Then, once I completed my turns, I put the block of fully laminated dough in the fridge to rise overnight (instead of the shaped croissants). The next morning, I rolled it out & shaped them, then let them rise for about 2 hours. This combination of things gave me beautifully light and fluffy croissants, and the flavor is incredible!
Hi Jen, thanks so much for sharing your feedback on this recipe! Making croissants does need some practice and yes, tweaks are sometimes necessary depending on where you live (altitude, air moisture, etc), because the proofing stage is so sensitive. I am so glad you found a way that works out for you, and that you shared it on the blog as well, so that it could help other readers as well 🙂
Might I suggest that you add to use a baking sheet with sides? I just made these and the butter dripped off my pans and caused a fire in my oven LOL. I bake all the time and have never done that before! Had to pull the pans out a few minutes early so they were not quite done, But that the parts that were cooked through were delicious . Will try again soon. 🙂
Waw! I never would have thought to mention that, but that’s a very good point, especially because these are so buttery. I am so glad everything okay, and that the parts you were able to eat turned out delicious!
Hello, if I had to double my recipe will the procedure be the same. What about the measurements while laminating. Thank you
Hi Alvine, Unfortunately I don’t recommend doubling the quantities for this recipe. The proofing time and measurements for laminating would be very different. I have never doubled this recipe, so can’t give you any indications… sorry I couldn’t help!
It’s okay, thank you. So I ended up doing it in two batches that way I didn’t have to doubble the recipe and it turned out great. I can’t wait to try out your sables recipe
Amazing, thanks for your feedback!
Hi!
I just took the croissants from the oven! All the process went really well, but i didn’t get these pockets of air inside. It was quite dense 🙁
I don’t know what i did wrong. And also it tasted a little bit yeast-y.. I used active dry yeast instead of instant, so i looked up for the quantity adjustment and used 3 TBsp. Do you think it was too much?
Overall, I love the process and you explain everything wonderfully. Thank you! I’ll try the 3 day version!
Hi Joana! Thank you for your great feedback! Instant yeast is often labeled as quick rise yeast because it is more concentrated than active dry yeast. Even tough this recipe uses instant yeast as if it was active dry east (re-hydrating the yeast prior to including it to the dry ingredients – something you usually don’t do with instant yeast) – I still think switching the yeast can affect the texture (too dense) and taste (tasting more yeasty). I worked on developing this recipe using instant yeast, I recommend you try this recipe again using instant yeast. I hope this helps!
Can we leave this dough in the freezer/fridge and for how long and in which step we stop?
Thank you!
Emiliano
Hi Emiliano. This recipe requires to place the shaped croissants in the fridge overnight. If you ever wanted to freeze them (so you can enjoy them at another time), I recommend you do it right after shaping them too (definitely before baking). Freeze them directly after shaping, on a sheet tray, and then place them in a ziploc bag when they are frozen all the way through. For thawing, place them on a cooling rack (so the air circulates all around the croissants) and let them proof as they defrost at room temperature overnight. You can bake them the next morning. I hope this helps, and if you do happen to freeze some, let me know, I’d be curious to know how it turned out. Thanks!
I tried to make this recipe and had a really hard time with the poolish. With 1/2 cup water + 2 tsp, and 1 cup flour, it was dough. I couldn’t get the consistency the same as the image in the recipe. Any ideas?
Hi Jennifer. A poolish is one-part-flour-to-one-part-water ratio by weight. This recipe’s poolish has actually slightly more water (in weight), so it shouldn’t be doughy but rather soft. If you have a scale at home, I do recommend you use it! There could be a large margin of error when using cup measurements. I hope this helps!
Hi Audrey! I’m really excited to try this recipe this weekend while we’re all social distancing at home and I have time to devote to croissants, but it looks like we were only able to get salted butter at our grocery store since supplies were limited. Do you recommend reducing the salt in the dough at all to compensate?
Hi! I know, grocery shopping can be a bit tricky these days 🙂 If you are using salted butter, you could use just 2 tsp of salt for the dough. I wouldn’t recommend using less as the salt plays an important part here. Salt helps the gluten from the flour hold more water and carbon dioxide, creating air and layers! I hope this helps, and happy baking!
Hi,
Thank you for the recipe and photos that explain literally every single step!
I’m just curious, may I substitute instant yeast with the fresh one and if yes, how much would I need?
Hi Alexandra, thank you for your message! I have never made this recipe using fresh yeast, but it is definitely possible to use it here. Fresh yeast is great for a 2-day or 3-day croissant recipe as it requires a long, slow fermentation and rise. To use fresh yeast instead of instant dry yeast, multiply the fresh quantity by 3 and break it into small pieces.
Hi Audrey. Thank you for sharing this magnificent recipe. This past weekend I followed a different recipe to make croissants but taking into account some of the things you mention in your 101 guide, plus applying some of the 2-day recipe principles as well. They turned out great in flavour and texture, although not as airyas yours. I think one of the reasons was that my fridge wasn’t cooling the dough enough in between the laminating intervals and the dough was too warm and therefore it fermented and puffed up slightly while laminating it. So, next time I will lower the temperature of the fridge beforehand and then leave the dough i there for a bit longer (or do it in the freezer instead).
There’s however, another question I wanted to ask you, since I would now like to try your recipe in full. Would it be possible to substitute the milk for water in this recipe? We don’t drink milk and the other recipe, which in ingredients and quantities was very similar to yours, they only use water.
Thanks, Marco
Hi Marco! Thank you for your comment. I wouldn’t recommend using water instead of milk for my recipe; this will alter the texture and flavor of the croissants. Regarding cooling down the dough – it is a good idea to lower the temp. of your fridge. In the Spring/Summer when it is warmer, I also find it more difficult to control the temperature of my dough – a good thing to keep in mind 🙂
Thanks, Audrey. I’ll see what other option I can think of, as neither my wife nor I consume cow’s milk.
I just finished making these for my husband’s birthday. I’ve never made croissants from scratch before and I have to say — I feel like a true baker after making these! Thank you for going to such lengths to chronicle each detail here and in the overview post. Every time I felt I was going astray I was able to course correct quickly because of it. Oh and these are SO yummy! Cheers 🙂
Amazing, thanks so much Ashley!
I made these over the weekend. They were absolutely perfect. It’s the first time I’ve successfully made croissants. I’ve tried other recipes. Yours is by far the best. Thank you so much
Amazing, thank you!
[…] your croissant is frozen, you will want to heat it for about 30 seconds. And if you are reheating multiple croissants, you will want to increase the heating time by 30 seconds for each croissant. So, how long do you […]
Seriously delicious! Made half plain and half with chocolate. Family loved them! Also used left over plain ones to male hot ham and cheese croissants. You will not regret making these! Have a batch going in tomorrow. Thank you for this recipe.
Thank you so much for the kind words! Chocolate croissants sound like heaven… Great choice! If by chance you have leftover croissants, you should give my Croissant Casserole a try… Click here.
Enjoy and thanks!
I just finished making these and they were SO good!
I started off using volume measurements then switched to weight after double checking weights for flour and yeast – I found when just using volume, the amounts were either over or under the recommended weights.
Something I did somehow accidentally do was double the butter needed so I had some trouble rolling the dough out to the proper length without some butter coming through the dough (and the whole time I was wondering why that was happening but now I know!) and overall thickness when it was time to shape them. However, they still turned out delicious, flaky, and pretty light considering the butter mishap! Referencing your croissants 101 guide and comments here were very very helpful as well.
Thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait to try it again and the 3-day recipe!
Amazing, Molly! I am so happy to hear they turned out for you, even with the butter “mishap”… but goes to show you that perhaps there is never too much butter in croissants 🙂
If you’re going to attempt the 3 day croissants, I think they should turn out amazing now that you have the hang of the process and can learn from any past errors you may have made along the way. Would love to her what you think of them, and in the end which you preferred. Good luck!