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A croissant formula that laminates cleanly in a bakery has two fixed points: a strong, refined flour and a roll-in butter at 82 percent fat. Grands Moulins de Paris Gruau Rouge T45 supplies the first, at 12.1 g protein per 100 g with added wheat gluten, and Beurremont 82 percent butter sheets supply the second in a 4.4 lb slab that needs no hammering out. The détrempe below runs 100 percent flour, 50 percent water, 10 percent sugar, 2 percent salt, 1.5 percent osmotolerant instant yeast and 8 percent soft butter, with a roll-in of 50 percent of the flour weight. That is in grams for a 1 kg test batch and a 5 kg bakery batch, followed by the folds, the proof and the bake.
Both the flour and the butter are stocked in Brockton, MA and ship nationwide, with next-day UPS Ground in Massachusetts. The butter is a cold-chain item that ships on Tuesdays; order by 1 PM Monday.
Shop this formula: Gruau Rouge T45 (25 kg), Beurremont 82% butter sheets (five 4.4 lb sheets), SAF Gold instant yeast for the sugar in the dough, and whole milk powder if you mix on water rather than milk.
T45 is an ash grade, not a strength grade, and the mistake American bakers make with French flour is to read T45 as cake flour. Gruau is the French term for the strongest milling grade, and the mill's technical sheet for Gruau Rouge lists wheat flour and wheat gluten as the only ingredients, 12.1 g protein per 100 g, and three properties that matter on a laminating bench: it takes high hydration with a wide tolerance, it is made for traditional-method viennoiserie and doughs rich in butter, eggs and sugar, and it supports freezing. A croissant dough has to be extensible enough to sheet to 4 mm across a long rectangle and strong enough to hold 27 layers of butter through a two-hour proof. This flour is built for exactly that; a weak refined flour tears in the sheeter and slumps in the proofer. Our guide to the French flour grades covers the ash-versus-protein point in full.
Lamination butter has one job, which is to stay in a continuous, plastic sheet between layers of dough from the first fold to the oven. The water in butter works against that: it softens the dough it touches, it turns to steam early and it makes the sheet crack when cold and smear when warm. An 82 percent butterfat sheet carries less water than standard 80 percent table butter, holds its shape across a wider temperature window, and arrives already formed to a uniform thickness. Beurremont sheets are 4.4 lb (2 kg) each, sold five to a case, which is enough roll-in for four 1 kg batches per sheet.
| Ingredient | Baker's % | 1 kg flour batch (about 26 croissants) | 5 kg bakery batch (about 130 croissants) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gruau Rouge T45 | 100 | 1,000 g | 5 kg |
| Cold water | 50 | 500 g | 2.5 kg |
| Whole milk powder (omit if using half milk, half water) | 3 | 30 g | 150 g |
| Sugar | 10 | 100 g | 500 g |
| Fine sea salt (Cargill) | 2 | 20 g | 100 g |
| SAF Gold instant yeast | 1.5 | 15 g | 75 g |
| or fresh yeast | 4 | 40 g | 200 g |
| Soft butter, in the dough | 8 | 80 g | 400 g |
| Détrempe total | 174.5 | about 1,745 g | about 8.7 kg |
| Beurremont 82% butter sheet, roll-in | 50 (about 29% of détrempe) | 500 g (a quarter sheet) | 2.5 kg (one and a quarter sheets) |
| Laminated dough total | 224.5 | about 2,245 g | about 11.2 kg |
Two published references bracket the roll-in figure. BAKERpedia gives 25 percent of total dough weight as the industry standard for croissant roll-in fat; Corman's professional croissant formula laminates 3.15 kg of dough with 1 kg of 82 percent butter, about 32 percent. Fifty percent on flour lands at 29 percent of the détrempe, inside that range, and it is the ratio that gives a clearly layered, honeycombed crumb without a greasy base. The sugar at 10 percent is why the yeast is SAF Gold rather than Red: Gold is the osmotolerant strain formulated for sweet doughs where sugar competes with yeast for water.
Mix flour, milk powder, sugar, salt and yeast, then add the cold water and the soft butter. Five minutes on low, then four to six minutes on second speed, to a dough that is smooth and elastic but stops short of the full windowpane you would take a brioche to. Under-developing the détrempe on purpose leaves gluten for the folds to build and keeps the dough from fighting the sheeter. Corman's method targets 24°C off the hook; use cold water in a warm shop and, in summer, chill the flour.
Rest the dough 10 minutes covered, then sheet or roll it to a rectangle about 1.5 cm thick. Wrap it and chill: 30 minutes in the freezer at minus 18°C is Corman's number for a same-day lamination, and an overnight retard at 4°C is the bakery alternative that also improves the flavor.
The butter and the dough have to be the same firmness when they meet. Take the butter sheet out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before lamination so it reaches 17 to 19°C, then roll it between parchment to a rectangle half the length of the dough and the same width, about 8 mm thick. It should bend without cracking and take a fingerprint without smearing. Lay the butter on one half of the dough, fold the other half over, and seal the three open edges with the side of your hand so the butter is fully enclosed.
Roll the package out lengthwise to three times its width, keeping the edges square, and fold it in thirds like a letter. That is one fold. Wrap and rest 30 minutes at 4°C, turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat. Three letter folds give 27 layers of butter and are the standard for a classic croissant; two book folds, Corman's method, give 16 thicker layers and a slightly more open, taller crumb. Do not go past three letter folds. Each extra fold thins the butter until the layers merge and the croissant bakes up bready.
Watch the butter between folds. If it starts to show through the dough as pale streaks it is too cold and cracking; let the dough stand five minutes. If the dough feels greasy and the surface looks wet, it is too warm; return it to the refrigerator before continuing.
After the final rest, sheet the dough to 3.5 to 4 mm and to a width of 25 to 28 cm. Trim the edges square so the layers are open, then cut triangles with a 9 cm base; for a 1 kg batch that is 26 croissants at about 85 g each. Make a 1 cm notch in the center of each base, stretch the triangle gently to lengthen it, and roll from the base to the tip with light, even pressure, ending tip-down on the tray. Leave 8 cm between them; they double in the proof and spread in the oven.
Proof 90 to 120 minutes at 26 to 28°C with 75 to 80 percent humidity, until the croissants have roughly doubled, wobble when the tray is shaken and show distinct layers at the cut edge. Temperature is the limit here: above about 30°C the butter melts out before the crumb sets. Egg wash with a whole egg beaten with a pinch of salt, brushing across the layers rather than over the cut edges so they are free to open.
Bake at 200°C in a convection oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or 18 to 20 minutes in a deck oven, to a deep, even gold. BAKERpedia lists 200°C for 10 to 20 minutes and Corman 15 to 17 minutes with fan, so a first batch in an unfamiliar oven should be checked at 14 minutes. Cool on the tray 5 minutes, then on a rack; a croissant moved while hot collapses.
Because the mill states that Gruau Rouge supports freezing, this dough fits a two-day production rhythm. Shape on day one, freeze the croissants on trays until hard, then bag them. On bake day, tray them frozen and proof for about three hours at 26 to 28°C, egg wash and bake as above. Alternatively, retard shaped croissants overnight at 4°C for a next-morning bake with a 60 to 90 minute proof. Hold laminated but unshaped dough no more than 48 hours at 4°C; beyond that the yeast exhausts the sugar and the layers lose their lift.
A 25 kg bag of Gruau Rouge makes 25 of the 1 kg batches above, about 650 croissants, and needs 12.5 kg of roll-in butter, which is six and a quarter Beurremont sheets, so a five-sheet case plus one. Both are in our Grands Moulins de Paris collection and the butter ships cold on Tuesdays. The same flour and butter make pain au chocolat, Danish and kouign-amann, and the flour carries over to brioche; our brioche formula runs on the mill's T55 but takes Gruau Rouge for a richer, taller loaf.
A strong, refined flour. Grands Moulins de Paris Gruau Rouge T45 is milled from hard wheat with added wheat gluten to 12.1 g protein per 100 g, and the mill lists it for traditional-method viennoiserie and butter-rich doughs. A refined T45 without that strength, or an American pastry flour, will not hold the layers.
For the roll-in, 50 percent of the flour weight, which is about 29 percent of the détrempe weight. BAKERpedia gives 25 percent of dough weight as the industry standard and Corman's published formula runs about 32 percent, so 50 percent on flour sits in the professional range. Plus 8 percent soft butter in the dough itself.
Butter is water and fat, and only the fat separates the layers. At 82 percent fat there is less water to turn to steam and soak into the dough, the sheet stays plastic across a wider temperature range, and it rolls without cracking. Beurremont sheets come pre-formed at 4.4 lb, so there is no block to hammer out.
Three letter folds, which gives 27 layers of butter, or two book folds for 16 thicker layers. Rest the dough 30 minutes in the refrigerator between folds so the butter stays firm and the gluten relaxes. More folds than that thin the butter until the layers merge.
26 to 28°C with 75 to 80 percent humidity, for 90 to 120 minutes. Above about 30°C the butter starts to melt out of the layers before the oven sets them. If you have no proof box, a turned-off oven with a pan of warm water gets close.
Yes. The mill states that Gruau Rouge supports freezing, which is why it suits a shop that shapes on one day and bakes on another. Freeze shaped croissants on trays, bag them once hard, and proof from frozen, allowing an extra 45 to 60 minutes.
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