A month ago, I went to the new Union Fare food hall in NYC, where Chef Thiago just launched a croissant spread in crazy flavors including red velvet, cookies ‘n cream, creme brûlée, Matcha and the super Instagrammable birthday cake. At the time, there was only a little buzz about the funfetti-style croissant, so I managed to get by without lines or sold-out signs. I’m not sure how it is now but I just couldn’t wait till my next NY trip so I decided to re-create them.
Before I get into the details, I’ll start off by saying that you can use your favorite croissant recipe for this. The only change to the dough is the butter block which has nonpareils mixed in. Then the rest of the dough process is the same. The other changes come just after baking for the topping and the filling. Chef Thiago uses mascarpone in his filling. I use cream cheese here.
Nonpareils vs jimmies: I studied a lot of Instagram pics to see which sprinkles are used. It looks like nonpareils are added to the butter block. A finer sprinkle makes it easier to roll out in the dough. Then for the cream cheese filling, the larger jimmies are used. I attempted with nonpareils but they basically disintegrated into colorful streaks. The jimmies held up when folded in.
Birthday Cake Croissants
Base croissant recipe adapted from Epicurious
Makes 14
Ingredients
Butter:
- 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup rainbow nonpareils
Dough:
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk, heated to warm (105°F–110°F)
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)
- 3 3/4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Simple Syrup/Topping:
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup Fruity Pebbles cereal, finely crushed
Filling:
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 TB heavy cream
- 4 TB rainbow jimmies
Baking Plan
The entire process at-a-glance so you can plan out your time.
Day 1
Make butter block, chill overnight
Day 2
Make dough, chill 1 hr
Roll out dough, chill 1 hr
Make remaining “folds”, chill 8 hrs or overnight
Day 3
Roll out dough
Shape croissants
Let croissants rise, 1-2 hrs
Prepare topping + filling, pre-heat oven
Bake croissants, 20 min
Add topping
Fill croissants
Enjoy!
Directions
Make butter block:
Place room temperature butter into a bowl of a stand mixer. Whip until smooth and fluffy. Then remove bowl from mixer and by hand, carefully fold in the non-pareils. The coloring will bleed into the butter a little bit. Then scrape out onto parchment and form an 8 x 5″ rectangle. Cover the top with more parchment and chill the butter block until completely solid. I placed mine in the fridge overnight.
Make dough:
Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn’t foam, discard and start over.) Add 3 3/4 cups flour and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and very soft, about 7 minutes.
Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Form dough into a roughly 1 1/2-inch-thick rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until cold, about 1 hour.
Roll out dough:
Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and lifting and stretching dough (especially in corners), into a 16 x 10″ rectangle. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold as you would a letter: bottom third of dough over butter, then top third down over dough. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush.
Roll out dough:
Turn dough so a short side is nearest you, then flatten dough slightly by pressing down horizontally with rolling pin across dough at regular intervals, making uniform impressions. Roll out dough into a 15 x 10″ rectangle, rolling just to but not over ends.
Brush off any excess flour. Fold in thirds like a letter, as above, stretching corners to square off dough, forming a 10 x 5″ inch rectangle. (You have completed the first “fold.”) Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 1 hour.
Make remaining “folds”:
Make 3 more folds in same manner, chilling dough 1 hour after each fold, for a total of 4 folds. (If any butter oozes out while rolling, sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking. If it gets really sticky, place the dough back in the fridge for 30 minutes to harden before rolling out again. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours but no more than 18 (after 18 hours, dough may not rise sufficiently when baked). I like to chill it overnight.
Roll out the dough:
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out into a 16 x 10″ rectangle. If the dough springs back, let it sit on the table to relax for 10-15 minutes and then try again. Then cut the rectangle in half lengthwise so you have two 16 x 5″ rectangles. Cut dough into triangles, each with a 4″ base. You should get 7 triangles out of each strip for a total of 14 triangles/croissants.
Shape croissants:
Holding short side (side opposite tip) of 1 triangle in one hand, stretch dough, tugging and sliding with other hand toward tip to elongate by about 50 percent.
Return to work surface with short side of triangle nearest you. Beginning with short side, roll up triangle toward tip. Croissant should overlap 3 times, with tip sticking out from underneath; you may need to stretch dough while rolling. You can see my how-to video here.
Put croissant, tip side down, on a parchment-lined large baking sheet.
Make more croissants with remaining triangles, then with remaining rolled-out dough, arranging them 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
Let croissants rise:
Lay a sheet of cling wrap gently over the baking sheet of croissants.
Let croissants rise until slightly puffy and spongy to the touch, 1-2 hours.
With 15-20 min of proofing time remaining, adjust oven racks to upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 425°F.
Prepare topping + filling:
In a small sauce pan, add the water and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
If the Fruity Pebbles are not already crushed, place them in a ziplock bag, seal tightly and use a rolling pin to roll over the bag until they’re fine crumbs.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cream cheese and heavy cream. Whip until light and fluffy. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the sprinkles by hand. Place into a piping bag with a 1″ star or jagged edge tip.
Bake croissants:
Brush each croissant with the egg wash, being careful not to let it drip down to the bottom of the croissant so it won’t get stuck while baking.
Spritz inside oven generously with spray bottle and close door. Put croissants in oven, then spritz again before closing door. Reduce temperature to 400°F and bake 10 minutes without opening door.
Switch position of sheets in oven and rotate sheets 180°, then reduce temperature to 375°F and bake until croissants are deep golden, about 10 minutes more.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
Add topping:
While the croissants are still warm, brush a bit of the simple syrup onto the tops of each croissant. It will give a sheen but also allow the cereal to stick. Then immediately sprinkle on some of the crushed Fruity Pebbles.
Then transfer the croissants directly to the cooling rack so the bottoms remain crisp. Let cool completely.
Fill croissants:
Once the croissants have cooled completely, turn each one over and with a paring knife, insert a small slit into the bottom of each croissant. Then fill each croissant with some of the cream cheese filling. You should see the croissant expand a bit as you add more filling.
Enjoy!!
I need to work on my laminating skills but the overall flavor was good. I didn’t feel like the recipe was that much more difficult than a plain croissant so I would attempt to make them again.
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