Homemade Vegan Croissants, The Perfect Recipe!

Croissants are a laminated wonder, as tender as it is delicate, tasting both salty and sweet. The grace of the croissants is in that dough made of lots of layers of leavened dough and vegetable margarine. It is a process of lamination and expansion caused by both, the leavening effect of yeast and the physical separation of the layers by the action of fats.

Both of these cause the air trapped between the layers to turn to steam, grow, and separate. A good dough for croissants requires a lot of experience, time and patience, so I will explain how to make it with purchased puff pastry, which is much easier and gives very good results.

Making puff pastry croissants

You can use any puff pastry that has nothing of animal origin, be it frozen or refrigerated. Of course, if it is frozen you will have to thaw it first to the point where you can unfold it without breaking it. It is preferable to defrost in the fridge overnight.

• The first thing to keep in mind is not to remove the dough from the refrigerator until we are going to use it.
• So, first of all, prepare your fillings and, once by hand, preheat the oven to the temperature indicated on the package (usually 180-200 ºC).

Savory Stuffed Vegan Crusans

For me, the best savory fillings are sauces with strong flavors such as pestos, although I also really like to put some vegan cheese on them (such as blue cheese or others with intense aromas). I leave you a couple of recipes of my favorite pests:

Ingredients for Green Pesto alla siciliana:

• 50g basil leaves
• 20g of parsley leaves
• 50g raw peeled almonds
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

preparation:

1. In a mortar (or with the mixer) crush the basil, parsley, almonds, vinegar and salt.
2. Add the olive oil and mix it by hand. You already have your pesto ready to use!

Ingredients for Pesto rosso alla trapanese:

• 250g of peeled and chopped tomatoes
• 3 halves of dried tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic 50g of peeled raw almonds
• 25 g fresh basil leaves
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

preparation:

1. Blend all the ingredients together except the oil.
2. Add the oil and mix it by hand.
3. Your pesto is ready.
4. Store in the fridge until ready to use.

Sweet fillings for vegan croissants

Sweet fillings are also very popular. The easiest to do is to place a piece of dark chocolate so that it melts in the oven, but we can also put chocolate cream, cocoa cream with hazelnuts, pastry cream, compote or fruit jam, crushed berries, banana in very thin slices or crushed, peanut or cashew butter, etc.

How to make the puff pastry croissants?

1. To make the croissants we have to cut the dough into triangles. The trick to make them flaky and beautiful is to make them as long as possible. That is, we will make long triangles or we will stretch the dough a little with our hands to make them longer.
2. Depending on the width of the triangles, they will come out more or less with the same mass. If you want them small, a sheet of puff pastry will suffice, but if you want them medium, you will need a couple.
3. Place your filling at the base of the triangle. If it is pesto or jams or crushed you can put a teaspoon throughout the entire dough. If it’s chocolate, just put it on the base.
4. Roll up your triangles and place them on a baking sheet with parchment paper and make them according to the instructions on the puff pastry package. If they are very light, you can raise the temperature a little more and leave them for a few minutes (not much or they will dry out).
5. If you want them shiny, you can make an aquafaba coating (the cooking liquid of chickpeas) with sugar, or if they are salty, aquafaba with a little soy sauce, oil or melted vegetable margarine.
6. Let them warm up a bit before taking a bite!