Behind the bake: our 36-hour croissant

A great croissant can't be rushed. Ours takes 36 hours from start to finish, and most of that time is the dough simply resting — relaxing the gluten and developing flavor in the cold.

It begins the morning before with a butter block folded into the dough through three turns, each one chilled for hours in between. That's what builds the dozens of paper-thin layers that puff and shatter when you bite in.

The shaped croissants proof overnight, then bake off at sunrise so they hit the case still warm. It's slow, finicky work that doesn't scale easily — which is exactly why we love it. Get here early; the first batch tends to disappear by nine.