Time saver: Phil responds to popular demand… (later he’ll be offering advice on how to cook toast, make tea, etc.)
OK, so this is a bit of weird one. For some reason though, people are ending up getting directed to my croque-croissant page when they search for “how to make frozen pre cooked croissants”. No kidding.
Because I’m a helpful guy (really) I figure I may as well give the people what they want. So here it is:
Your Guide to Cooking Frozen Croissants (pre-proved and otherwise)
Frozen croissants are essentially awesome. You get to make fresh, hot croissants, without any of the effort of making them. If you use a little imagination you can pretend you spent hours toiling away, preparing the pastry, and folding to perfection. And then you forgot all about it, et voila, beautiful smells and croissants out of the oven.
So, you’ve got hold of some of these frozen delights, but presumably they either didn’t come with instructions, or you lost them. Careless of you, but luckily Phil’s here to save the day.
First off, you need to determine whether your croissants are pre-proved or not. That just means you need to know whether the croissants have been left to rise already, or whether you’re going to have to do it yourself. If the packaging doesn’t say, then the best way to judge is simply by size. Un-risen croissants are surprisingly small compared to their final size. If the croissants look tiny, then you’ll probably have to prove them. If they look croissant-sized, then you won’t. (Note that just to make things fun it’s slightly trickier than that, since you can also buy mini-croissants. You’re just going to have to make a call, but maybe a sign of that would be the sheer number of them.)
For pre-proved croissants you normally don’t even have to thaw them. Just pre-heat the oven to about 180-190°C (355-375°F), then bake the croissants for around 15 minutes, till golden brown.
For the non-pre-proved croissants, you normally just lay them out on an baking tray (lined with baking paper) and leave them to thaw overnight (or for around 8 hours). After thawing they should expand a lot. Be careful not to leave them too long, or they’ll end up collapsing down on themselves. Pre-heat the oven to around 180-190°C (355-375°F) and bake the croissants for around 10-15 minutes, till golden brown.
For both kinds you can improve the appearance of the final product by giving the croissants an egg wash before you put them in the oven. Just whisk one egg together with a tablespoon of water, then brush over the croissants.
philcooks 
Thank you – I did get to your website by the ‘by mistake’ route.. and your answer is brill. Thanks Gill
Glad I could help! Since I’ve been too lazy to post this has easily become the most visited page on the blog… 🙂
Mine stick to the pan or the grease proof paper if I use it. After proving I ah try putting hem straight on to a pre heated baking tray to cook he bottom straight away so they don’t stick
Sorry for the spelling mistakes etc. Next time I will pre heat the baking tray first then put the croissants that have proved over night straight on. Grease it first???
I would try using baking paper as opposed to grease proof paper – they’re two different things and you’ll have much better luck with baking paper. Alternative would be a silicone baking mat. You could try transferring them to a heated baking tray, but you’ll probably just end up deforming the croissants – they tend to be pretty pliable after they’ve risen.
Yep I’m another one, wondering if I could bake the little things from frozen. I see the answer is no.
They don’t come with instructions, cos they are sold loose from a big freezer in my local shop. Thanks for your clear advice.
Chris (Sheffield UK)
About 18 years ago, in Stockholm, a young french couple set up a tiny business selling take away croissants . The croissants were filled on the spot with what the waiting standing customer desired, for example champions, or ham and cheese or what have you, and then the apparently unbaked triangles were rolled and put in a little oven for a very very short time while the customer stood waiting, I have never again seen this anywhere in the world. How did they manage to do this so quickly?
That sounds great, but I have no idea how they would do that without leaving them to rise a bit.
Could one leave them to rise a bit before rolling them? How would the whole process be, do you think? Or at least a process that would be similar, I want to try opening a croissanterie of this type, any tips would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Recently recieved a whole box which i shared with guite a few not keeping box so at this point i have no directons so i asked you and with your info..they need to rise..Thanks so much
Thank you! That’s exactly what I was looking for. I received a dozen raw frozen dough with a label that only said sandwich crossiants.
This was a tremendously big help.
You’re very welcome 🙂