Milk Street Digital Class: Croissants with Roxana Jullapat

About this Pre-Recorded Class:

You can make a great cake in your sleep. Your friends beg you for your cookie recipes. Pies don’t make you break a sweat. But when it comes to laminated dough—the secret to croissants, danishes, kouign-amann and all your other favorites from the pastry case—it’s a whole different story. You’re not alone: even confident bakers are thrown off course by this 301-level process. The butter block, the many rounds of rolling and chilling and the challenge of baking them in a standard oven—it all seems designed to confound the home cook. Roxana Jullapat, founder of Los Angeles’ beloved Friends and Family bakery, is here to take the mystery out of laminated dough. Join her for a two-day pre-recorded Mini-Intensive where you’ll level up your baking confidence.

Class one: We start from scratch. You’ll get an exhaustive explanation of every ingredient, from the ideal protein content of the flour to the best brand of butter to the grind of the salt—because it all matters. You’ll learn how to measure and mix your base dough, how to proof it to perfection and how to adapt the process according to the realities of your home kitchen. Then, we’ll tackle the elephant in the bakery: the butter block. Roxana shows you how to strike the perfect ratio of butter to dough—not too little, not too much—and keep it all cold as you fold and roll your dough.

Class two: Our second day is all about shaping, embellishing and kneading. You’ll practice measuring, cutting, stretching and rolling a classic croissant. If you’re feeling brave, you can follow Roxana as she demonstrates other common shapes, like the twisted square of a Danish or the knot of a morning bun. You’ll get a visual on the final proof, making sure that all your work doesn’t go to waste due to under- or overproofing. And we talk oven temperatures and times to guarantee that all that butter doesn’t leak out of your pastries in a big greasy puddle. The end result is a flaky, buttery pastry that your friends and family won’t believe you didn’t buy from a bakery.