This is the definitive gluten free croissant – flaky layers of rich, buttery yeasted pastry are formed into crescents and allowed to rise, then coated with an egg wash and baked. These rolls are perfect for breakfast, and they freeze and reheat beautifully.
2 sticks of butter (8 Tablespoons each), frozen
1 package (tbsp) rapid rise or bread machine yeast
1/4 c warm water
1/4 c sugar
2 sticks of butter (8 tbsp each), cold
3/4 c Full Fat Sour Cream
3/4 c Full Fat Ricotta Cheese
1 egg
2 1/2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
AT LEAST 3 cups of Better Batter flour for rolling
2 egg whites, beaten with 1/4 c water, till slightly foamy
Instructions
Place yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set in a warm place to proof for 10 minutes, or until creamy and foamy. (This is important!)
Cream together cold butter, sour cream, ricotta cheese, and egg until whipped, creamy and semi-yellow in color (about 3-4 minutes) – the butter should resemble cottage cheese
Add Better Batter Flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Mix together until the dough comes together – mostly away from the sides and begins to form a ball or lump in the middle of the mixer (about 3-4 minutes). It will still be sort of sticky!
Divide the dough into two portions. Shape each one into a rectangular patty about 4×6x1.5 inches
Place into a Ziploc bag. Refrigerate at least two hours, overnight is preferred, or freeze for an hour.
Meanwhile, grate the frozen butter and put it into a freezer-safe storage container/bag. Return grated butter to the freezer until you are ready to use. You can divide it at this time to make it easier.
Working in a cool place, lay down a parchment paper or Silpat and flour heavily with about a cup of flour.
Remove one of the rectangles of dough from the fridge, and half of the butter from the freezer.
Generously dust the top of the dough rectangle and roll the dough as to about 1/8 inch thickness. You should be able to see through the dough partially, or until the rectangle is about 27″ long and about 15″ wide.
Turn the dough lengthwise. Generously sprinkle the middle 1/3 of the dough with about 2-3 tbsp of the the grated, still-frozen butter. Fold up the bottom third of the pastry over the top of the middle third. Sprinkle two more tbsp or so of the grated, still-frozen butter over the top of the part you just folded on top. Fold down the top third of the dough to cover the center/butter again. If your dough is getting warm, please put it in the fridge for at least an hour
Generously flour the top, sides, and bottom (lift the dough gently to push flour underneath) of the dough. Repeat the rolling out thin and butter sprinkling one more time. You will sprinkle the butter on twice and roll out three times. You’ll need a lot of flour, and you should be able to see the flecks of butter through the dough.
After the round of of butter sprinkling and folding, turn the dough again and roll the dough out for it’s final time,rolling it to about 1/4 inch thick (not thicker!). Work quickly at this point as the dough will be starting to warm up again.
Leave the dough lying flat along the parchment paper and divide into long triangles with the pizza cutter. Each triangle should be the full length of the long end dough – about 15 inches, with a wide end of about 4 inches. You will end up with 8 large triangles for each 1/2 of the dough. At this point you may want to fill your croissants with all kinds of goodies by placing your filling on the wide end of the triangle.
Roll the croissant up from the wide end carefully (as the layers are thin). Seal the end (to keep it together during baking) by brushing the beaten egg white onto top ½ inch before finishing the roll. Shape into a crescent moon shape.
Brush the completed croissants with beaten egg white (this makes them shiny and pretty).
Lay the complete croissants on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and Let rest in a warm place for 30 minutes or so. Repeat steps 7 through 16 with the remaining dough. Bake the croissants at 425F for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
You’ll have blistery, puffy, buttery, yeasty croissants. The real deal.
This sounds just like Gluten Free Gobsmacked. Right down to the words and phrasing. Except she does a quarter at a time where you do half.
Hi, Ms. Tex! That’s because this recipe evolved as part of a group effort. The original recipe was posted by Naomi on our website (it is no longer available, as we replaced it with the current recipe) and took the gf internet community by storm. The gals over at Delphi Forums evolved the original recipe a bit. Gluten Free Gobsmacked tweaked the Delphi forum’s recipe. Naomi then took GFG’s recipe and tweaked it again. The result is proof of how much better things can be if we all work together!
See this link for more info: http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger-kate-of-gluten-free-gobsmackeds-gf-croissant-recipe-2440.html
You’ll note that the ingredients (and the proportions of ingredients) are quite different for GFG’s croissant than ours. As for the phrasing… well, you know what they say about great minds!
I not clear on the amount of butter on this recipe, could you please clarify this for me?
The Definitive Gluten Free Croissant recipe lists “2 sticks of butter (8 Tablespoons)”. Do you mean that each stick is 8 Tablespoons, for a total 16 Tablespoons? or 2 small sticks of 4 Tablespoons each, for a total of 8 Tablespoons?
I would appreciate is you can email me or post your response on your website.
Thanks,
MG
Hello, Maria!
We’ve fixed the recipe – it should have read 2 sticks of butter (8 tbsp each)…. so you’ll need a total of 16 tbsp of butter for each measurement of 2 sticks.
Thanks!
How important is the GF flour that is used? I don’t have the Better Batter GF Flour (why don’t you sell it in Wholefoods?) however I do have an alternate GF flour. There are a few differenced, mainly the pectin and potato flour.
Hello, Micall! Well, any requests made to Whole Foods certainly help us in seekign an account with them!! We’re a young company, and just starting to expand into stores. :0) As far as the flour goes – if your flour mix is truly a CFC (cup for cup) flour, then this recipe should work well. We can’t say how it will work for all other flour blends. We encourage you to go ahead and price our flour versus your current brand – you may find it’s as cheap or cheaper to order from us, and we usually ship pretty darn fast! Best of Luck to you, and let us know how the recipe worked with your current brand!
Hi Naomi-
I will let you know how it works. I will definitely buy some for the future, but unfortunately I am baking your croissant recipe for a friends birthday on Thursday! Consider my request submitted to Whole Foods. I’m not a GF person myself, but my best friend is and I hate to see her missing out on all the good stuff in life (mainly breads and pastries), so I do a lot of baking for her. I’m excited to try out your flour and your croissant recipe. I’ll have to make more croissants when I get your flour and compare.
Thanks for getting back to me so fast!
~Micall
Hi Naomi-
Two questions…
1. For the yeast, should it be one package or one tbsp? My package is 2-1/4 teaspoons (1/4 oz.).
2. Should I sift the flour before I add it?
Thanks in advance.
Hi, Micall!
No problem! Anything we can do to help here, we’re happy to try to do.
Naomi
1. Yeast – it should be 1 package, or 2 1/4 tsp yeast. Make sure it is the rapid rise and not the normal active dry yeast – this makes a big difference!
2. For Better Batter Flour there’s no need to sift, but to be on the safe side with your current flour, you may want to do this. The American Institute of Home Baking, Consumer Reports, and Better Homes and Gardens all published reports that whisking flour was as effective as sifting – it takes less time and isn’t as messy, so I’d just run a whisk through the flour and call it a day!
When do I add the activated yeast to the mixture? Should I add it to the dry ingredients and then add that to the butter, ricotta, sour cream mixture?
ok, so if I want/need to freeze the dough, what step is ideal? Before or after the last rising?
thanks so much,
cheryl
HI, Cheryl!
If you prefer to freeze the rolls, we’d suggest doing it after you bake them – freezing the dough reduces the activity of the yeast and alters the dough in a way that will cause your croissants to bake up as little rocks upon thawing. Freezing the cooked rolls allows you to either pop them into the microwave or oven and quickly warms them. They’ll be as good as fresh.
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Can i substitute olive oil for butter as I am lactose intolerant – thanks!
Olive oil would not create the proper consistency. We recommend Earth Balance sticks, vegetable or palm shortening, or dairy free margarine, such as Fleishmanns.
Thanks Naomi, shall try looking for it in my country
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