Trust you have tasted croissants before? They are delicious with a flaky and buttery flavor. Croissants could sometimes be served on their own as breakfast or could be used for meals with savory flavors or could be topped over with very sweet ingredients to make a dessert.
The only issue we have about croissants is that, though they are very delicious, they always go stale if not eaten within three days that will no longer be good for eating.
The question we can ask is whether or not they can be frozen in case you have several leftovers after preparing them or buying from a local bakery. Croissants can be frozen to keep the buttery and flaky taste just like some very fresh ones and you could also freeze the croissant dough in as much as you have first flash-frozen and shaped them.
When you want to freeze croissants, you must follow all storage instructions and proper handling to ensure the taste is still delicious as they should be with the same texture kept intact after being frozen, defrosted, and reheated. This means you have to follow the proper guide to store by freezing and reheating them if you want to maintain their texture and taste.
How to Freeze Croissants
You need to allow croissants to cool completely before you can freeze them. Remove from the oven, put them away from your baking pan into your cooling rack. You can perfectly get your cooling rack from Amazon. A cooling rack ensures that your croissants cool quicker by allowing air to spread over all the sides.
Once they are cool, endeavor to wrap the croissants individually lightly in plastic wrap in a manner that is suitable for them to enter into a freezer. Each croissant should be wrapped several times in order to ensure that it is airtight. In case your plastic wrap refuses to stick together, secure it with freezer tape. Reusable food wraps can also be used to perform this function.
After you are done wrapping all your croissants, put them in a very large prepared freezer bag, and leave around two inches of clearance at the top of your freezer bag. Seal the bag after you have squeezed out the air within. Don’t overfill the freezer bags, you can use as many freezer bags as you want, depending on the number of croissants you want to freeze. Make sure each of the croissants is tightly wrapped and you should also possess zipper bags or double seal and of high quality. Proceed to label your freezing bags by putting the date you are freezing so that you will know when you should use them. Put the bag containing the croissants against the wall of the freezer so that they will freeze rapidly and move the bag towards the middle after one day or 24 hours when they have all frozen out.
Quick Tips for Freezing Croissants
- You can prevent your croissants from being dried out by covering with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. This will help maximize the croissants’ shelf lives.
- If you keep your croissants that have just been freshly baked at room temperature, it will only last for two days.
- If you store properly inside the fridge, croissant could last for one week.
- You can keep your croissants inside your freezer for one year if you tightly wrap them inside a plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store them inside your plastic bag. However, to get the best taste, eat them within two months.
Can You Freeze Croissants before Baking?
Croissants can either be frozen before you bake or after you bake. Make sure to first shape them and place them in your baking sheet if you wish to freeze your croissants before you bake. You should proceed by placing your baking sheet inside your freezer and allowing each of them to completely freeze. After freezing, remove and place them in your freezer bag, proceed to label the bag and put it into your freezer. Once you are ready to bake, allow them to thaw in the fridge overnight, egg wash your croissants, and put inside your oven to proceed with baking. This should give you the same texture and freshness with the same flaky and buttery taste as the fresh ones.
Can You Refrigerate Croissants?
Croissants can be kept inside the refrigerator if you don’t want to freeze them or allow at normal temperature, but they can only be kept for some days. The croissants should be allowed to first cool before wrapping inside aluminum foil or plastic wrap, the same way you will do them when you want to freeze. After doing that, put your wrapped croissants inside the innermost part of your fridge where you will have the most consistent temperature. You can only keep them in the refrigerator for only one week, so endeavor to eat them within this time.
How to Thaw and Reheat Croissants
After freezing your croissants for a long period of time, you should certainly enjoy them. You have to follow some steps to make sure the taste is very good and that they are not exposed to the potential growth of bacteria when you are undergoing the process of thawing most especially for croissants that are yet to be baked.
Remove your croissants from your freezer, let them thaw overnight inside your fridge so that they can be thawed at a temperature that is very safe. Even though it takes longer than exposing it to normal temperature, it is still the best way you can thaw your croissants before you bake them. After thawing, put them inside your oven until they are heated throughout. Another method you can use is to reheat your frozen croissants directly, all you have to do is adjust the time you will use to reheat them so that they can defrost properly while they reheat inside the oven.
Croissants cannot be reheated twice, once you reheat the first time, it is either you eat immediately or throw away. One of the reasons you should reheat more than once is because they may get spoilt as you frequently change their temperatures.
Endeavor also not to refreeze your croissant unless you want to ruin the croissant’s flaky texture which is very delicate.
The Shelf Life of Croissants
You have to be familiar with your croissant’s shelf life so that you can know when they will go bad or stale. If you leave your croissants at room temperature, do not store longer than a maximum of two days, they begin to go stale on by this time. If you stay in an area of a warmer climate, it’s advisable you should not store it at room day for more than a day because they start to spoil on the second day.
Your croissants can be kept fresh for about one week if you keep them in the fridge in the proper conditions. You can keep your croissant in your freezer for a year if you decide to freeze them. It is, however best to eat your croissants within two months of keeping them in the freezer because their quality begins to depreciate afterward. They will still be very much safe to be eaten even after the time frame, but the taste, quality, and flakiness will decrease greatly.
Note that all of the timelines for storage depends on if you properly handle and store them. If you refuse to follow the proper guidelines for storage, you risk your croissants being stale and getting spoilt.
How to Tell If Croissants Have Spoiled
If you want to know if your croissants have gotten spoilt or not, you have to first pay attention to whether or not they have gotten stale. Once you detect stale croissants, the best thing is to throw away and buy another set or perhaps bake up.
Check for any kind of sign such as mold, once you detect mold, please throw them away. In case you cannot find such signs, you should smell your croissants to detect whether the smell is off or not. Once you detect that the smell is off, do not eat such, throw them away. You can as well taste your croissant to detect straight away if they are still good or not.
Related Questions
Should croissants be heated?
Your croissants thrive better when they are served warm. The layers can flake up when you heat and you can have more volume that helps with their buttery taste.
What is good to serve with a croissant?
Croissants can be paired almost with anything, this is one of the beauty as regards croissants. You could pair with maple syrup, honey, fresh fruit that has whipped cream, and chocolate to give sweet options. If you want something more savory, pair with any savory ingredient such as pickles, caramelized onion, bacon, brie, cheese, egg, and ham.
How many layers should a croissant have?
There are three tri-folds contained in a traditional croissant, this will make up 81 layers. The layers are even as they are baked giving them delicate flakes and volume croissants should have.
Can you freeze croissant dough?
In case you don’t want to bake your croissant straight away, you can proceed to freeze the dough. You should, however, shape your dough before you freeze, this will make them very easy to bake from frozen when you are ready.
