Pretzel Croissants

Pretzel croissants! A cross between croissants and pretzels. There are cronuts, so why not pretzel croissants?

These pretzel croissants get their "pretzel-ness" because they are prepared with a dough made with beer instead of water, dipped into a baked baking soda wash, and then sprinkled with salt.

How do they taste? Croissants, yes. Pretzels, not so much. Except that they have that beautiful dark burnished look and a sprinkling of salt on the outside.

These pretzel croissants are delicious straight from the oven. Just rip into them and enjoy.

One of my favorite ways to serve these is by slicing them width-wise and make sandwiches, such as chicken salad, ham and cheese, or tuna salad.

Any time I make laminated dough I feel so proud. I"m not sure why I always get intimidated, because the results are magical layers upon layers of flaky and buttery dough.

Making laminated dough requires some patience and planning, especially with the final roll out of the dough. I spread out the steps to make these over two and a half days (mostly inactive time). I made the dough and the butter block on a Friday night and stuck them in the refrigerator. The next day, I completed the 3 lamination "turns" over the course of a few hours, refrigerating the dough between turns. On Sunday, I did the final roll out, shaping, and baking.

The trick is to keep the dough and the butter cold. This is why it takes a couple of days.

More laminated dough recipes:

Croissants

Pain au Chocolate

Strawberry Danish Pastries

Apricot Danish Orange Pastry

Homemade Puff Pastry

Clearly you must be wondering why I am trying a new croissant recipe when I'd just declared that I had found the best laminated dough recipe ever in this post? Because my friend Heather of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen picked this recipe to challenge herself (and me) to make something she loves as well as try a new technique. When Heather says "try this," I'm there.

She originally found this recipe in the book, Pretzel Making at Home.

I am definitely adding this dough and technique to my bread making tool box. I had never heard about toasting baking soda to substitute it for lye for pretzels. I also loved the folding technique to add more layers to the dough.

On special occasions, I love making croissants. They are kind of like making macarons. You sort of hold your breath, turn your oven light on, and park yourself in front of your oven window and silently wish that everything will work out  you had hoped.

It's a lot of work and takes a couple of days, but it's worth it.

Did you know that today is National Pretzel Day? The Dinner Table Group is celebrating by posting recipes of pretzels, recipes with pretzels, or recipes inspired by pretzels.

• Cheddar Garlic Soft Pretzels by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Chocolate Frosted Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Homemade Dijon Mustard by Art of Natural Living
• No Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars by Making Miracles
• Sheet Pan Pretzel Chicken Dinner by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Sourdough Cheddar Soft Pretzels by That Recipe
• Spicy Jalapeno Pretzel Mix by Palatable Pastime

We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you're at it, join our Pinterest board, too!

More traditional pretzel recipes:

Everything bagel soft pretzel knots

Stuffed pretzel bites

Pretzel buns

Ballpark pretzels

Hot buttered soft pretzels


I'm super excited with these pretzel croissants!! Originally posted in 2014 and updated today with a printable recipe card and new information.

Pretzel Croissants

Yield: 12 servings

Author: Karen Kerr

Buttery, flaky croissants meet soft pretzels to form one amazing pastry.

Ingredients:

For the Dough

• 1/2 C lukewarm (110 degrees F) milk
• 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 3 T brown sugar
• 410 grams (3 1/4 C) unbleached all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 T room temperature unsalted butter
• 1/2 C cold pilsner/lager beer (I used Dos Equis)
• A few tablespoons of water if the dough is too dry

For the Butter Block

• 24 T (3 sticks) of cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 T unbleached all purpose flour

For the Baked Baking Soda Wash

• 1/4 C baking soda
• 8 C cold water

For the Egg Wash and Topping

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 T milk
• Coarse sea salt
• Sesame or poppy seeds

Instructions:

To Make the Dough (Day 1)

1. Mix all of the dough ingredients in a bowl with a dough whisk.
2. Knead the dough briefly with your hands to just incorporate all of the ingredients. The dough should be tacky but not sticky. If it is too dry, add water, one tablespoon at a time. My original dough was really dry, but, after an overnight rest in the refrigerator, it behaved amazingly well.
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.

To make the butter block (day 1)

1. Beat the butter and flour in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for about a minute.
2. Place the butter on top of a sheet of plastic wrap and place another sheet on top.
3. Roll the butter out to a 8 by 9 inch rectangle. Use a ruler to make sure the edges are straight and the corners are sharp.
4. Wrap and place the butter block in the refrigerator with the dough to chill.

To bake the baking soda (day 1)

1. Spread the baking soda onto a baking sheet and bake for one hour in a 250 degree oven.
2. Cool and store in an airtight container.

To make the croissants (day 2)

1. Turn the cold dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
2. Roll it into a 10 inch by 15 inch rectangle. Make sure the corners are squared by pulling the dough with your hands. The 15 inch edge of the dough should be facing you.
3. Place the butter block over the right 2/3 of the dough, leaving a one inch border on the outer edges.
4. Fold the left portion of the dough that does not have butter on it over half of the butter block. Fold the right portion of the dough, which has butter on it, over the dough that has just been folded over the dough. You should have a tri-fold that is dough, butter, dough, butter, dough. Squeeze the edges together, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour.
5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface.
6. Roll the dough out into a 10 inch by 20 inch rectangle with the 20 inch side facing you. Mentally divide the dough into fourths and fold each outer fourth into the middle. Then fold the dough over itself so that you have a "book" of four layers. Press the layers together and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface.
8. Roll the dough out into a 10 inch by 15 inch rectangle with the 15 inch side facing you. Do a trifold, folding the left and right sides over each other so that you have three layers of dough. Press the layers together and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours, and up to 24 hours. I let mine rest over night in the refrigerator.

To make the croissants (day 3)

1. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a 15 inch by 18 inch rectangle. I found lightly dusting both sides of the dough with flour, flipping it between rolls, and letting it rest for a few minutes. made this easier. Stretch the dough to make a rectangle with corners.
3. Cut the rectangle in half widthwise, to make two 15 by 9 inch strips. Cut each strip into three equal rectangles.
4. Cut the rectangles diagonally in half to create triangles.
5. Beginning at the bottom of each triangle, roll up the dough, tucking the pointy part under so it doesn't go rogue (this is always something I forget), and place them on the baking sheets.
6. Cover the croissants with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise until very slightly puffy, for about 2 hours.
7. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
8. Mix the baked baking soda with 8 cups of cold water.
9. Dip each croissant into the water, let the excess drip off, and place them back onto the baking sheets.
10. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with the salt and seeds.
11. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets about halfway through. The finished croissants should be a deep golden brown.
12. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes.
13. Leftovers can be warmed in a 350 degree oven for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Calories
396.70

Fat (grams)
25.72

Sat. Fat (grams)
9.65

Carbs (grams)
23.35

Fiber (grams)
0.76

Net carbs
22.59

Sugar (grams)
1.84

Protein (grams)
15.37

Sodium (milligrams)
10369.34

Cholesterol (grams)
883.13

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2014/04/pretzel-croissants.html

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Please visit Heather's post to see photos of the process.