I did not have it in my 2024 bingo card that I would be making croissants again. The last time I tackled croissants this frequently was 4 years ago during the pandemic, when there was literally nothing else to do. Croissant dough usually takes a long time to make, since the dough is laminated, but also yeast-based. The TLDR of it is that the dough is temperamental, unforgiving, and even with fast-tracking, can take upwards to 6 hours to prepare. But for Pinktober, I wanted to have something cute and pink(and red-ish), so that was how I came about with this recipe! This dough is a modified version of the recipe my dear friend, Samantha Daily, gave me when we were making croissant supremes for Valentine’s Day. I reduced the quantity, and her recipe used fresh yeast, so I converted that to dry yeast. Additionally, I added red beet powder to a portion of my dough so that there was a pleasant red stripe running through my dough, and unlike a normal croissant, where you laminate the dough using a butter block, I went with a method similar to phyllo dough, layering up rounds of dough with brushings of butter. It comes together relatively quickly, and you still have the same flaky layers that you would get from traditional dough lamination! The filling was a red currant cheesecake situation, made by whipping cream cheese with red currant jam I got during my most recent trip to Germany! These croissants were adorable to look at, and finished with some Indian rock sugar for a glittery touch.

For the croissant dough:
375g bread flour
50g granulated sugar
15g unsalted butter
7g active-dry yeast + 11g water
145g water
80g milk
7g salt
1 tbsp red beet powder
176g unsalted butter

In a bowl, mix together the bread flour, sugar, the 15g softened butter, active-dry yeast, water, milk, and salt first, kneading everything together until a soft, smooth dough has formed. Cover the dough, and allow it to proof in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Portion out roughly 1/4 of the dough, and knead red beet powder into that to form your red dough. Then divide the red dough into three pieces, and the white dough into 9 pieces. With the 175g of butter, whip that until it is spreadable.

To assemble the croissant dough, start by rolling out your 12 pieces of dough to be roughly 6 inches in diameter. Spread onto all but one red piece of dough roughly 15 to 16g of butter. To layer up your dough, start with three white pieces, and then a red piece. Continue stacking this until you have a large pile of dough comprised of all 12 pieces. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for another 2 hours.

Dust the dough with flour and then roll out the dough to be roughly 12 inches by 10 inches. On one side of the dough, make incisions every 1 inch. On the other side, do the same, but every 2 inches. Cut across the dough, starting on those incisions to form triangles. Roll the triangles up from the short side towards the pointy end to form your croissant rolls. Place the croissants onto a lined sheet tray, spacing them 2 inches apart, and allow those to proof at room temperature for 3 hours.

For baking:
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup Indian rock sugar

Brush the tops of the croissants with some beaten egg yolk, and sprinkle some Indian rock sugar on top. Bake the croissants at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking process to ensure even baking. Allow the croissants to fully cool before cutting them in half and filling with the cream cheese mixture.

For the red currant cream cheese:
4oz cream cheese
1oz red currant jam
a pinch of salt
.1oz rose water

In a bowl, mix the ingredients together. Pass through a sieve if necessary to remove lumps. Transfer to a piping bag to finish.