Banana & Black Sesame Croissants
Have you ever wanted a peanut butter and banana sandwich, but thought "that's for babies" and "I'm an elegant, sophisticated adult with an image to maintain"? Boy, have I got the croissant for you!
Fun fact: I don’t like banana. Some might even go so far as to say that I hate banana (unless it’s banana bread, because c’mon, that’s mostly sugar, ok? fight me). We don’t even have bananas in the kitchen because I can’t stand the smell. BUT SOMETIMES. AN IDEA IS JUST SO GOOD. THAT SACRIFICES MUST BE MADE. And this croissant was just one of those times. So I hope you like it, because I did this for you. I willingly introduced the smell of banana into my kitchen, and every time I gagged, I whispered angrily to myself “this is art” and that was all for you.
Servings: 15 | Prep Time: 3 h 50 m | Chill Time (over 3 days): 24 h | Cook Time: 16 to 18 m
Hand-mixer / Stand-mixer
Kitchen scale
Plastic wrap
Medium saucepan
Fine-mesh sieve
Infrared thermometer (optional)
Rolling pin
Piping bags
Two large round piping tips
Food-safe gloves
Baking sheets
Parchment paper
Spray bottle
Wheel cutter
Proofing bags / towels
Pastry brush
Croissant Dough:
1 ⅔ cups (250 g) flour
1 ⅔ cups (250 g) bread flour
½ cup + 1 tbsp (140 g) water
½ cup + 1 tbsp (140 g) whole milk
6 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter, room temp
10 g instant yeast
12 g salt
1 tbsp black sesame paste (I used Nouka)
Black food coloring
Banana Pastry Cream:
1 ½ cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
⅔ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ cup banana puree (I used Finest Call)
2 egg yolks
½ tsp crème de banana syrup (I used Torani)
Yellow food coloring
Black Sesame Pastry Cream:
2 cups milk, divided
1 tsp vanilla
⅔ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
2 egg yolks
3 ½ tsp black sesame paste
Croissant Butter Block:
1 ¼ cups butter, room temp
¼ cup flour, sifted
Assembly:
2 tbsp crème de banana syrup
Croissant Dough (15 minutes + 8 hours chilling)
In a large bowl, with a stand-mixer or hand-mixer, combine all the ingredients (except for the black sesame paste and the black food coloring) on low speed until the dough begins to form.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and bounces back when pressed, about 3 minutes.
On a kitchen scale, weigh out and separate 300 grams of the dough. (This will become your black sesame dough.)
Shape it into a disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until needed.
Shape the remaining dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
Meanwhile, make the pastry cream.
Banana Pastry Cream (15 minutes + 2 hours chilling)
Place the milk and vanilla into a medium saucepan.
Cook over high heat, stirring often until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch until there are no lumps. Then add in the banana puree and egg yolks and whisk to combine.
While whisking vigorously, slowly pour the hot milk into the bowl to temper the egg mixture.
Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a boil.
Pass the pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve and into a bowl.
Cover completely with plastic wrap, placing it directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.
Allow the cream to cool to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator for a couple hours to set. Do not freeze.
Black Sesame Pastry Cream (15 minutes + 2 hours chilling)
Place 1 ½ cups of milk and the vanilla into a medium saucepan.
Cook over high heat, stirring often until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch so there are no lumps. Add in the remaining ½ cup of milk and the egg yolks and whisk to combine.
While whisking vigorously, slowly pour the hot milk into the bowl to temper the egg mixture.
Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a boil.
Pass the pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve and into a bowl.
Cover completely with plastic wrap, placing it directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.
Allow the cream to cool to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator for a couple hours to set. Do not freeze.
Croissant Butter Block (10 minutes + 5 to 20 minutes chilling)
Once the croissant dough has chilled overnight, use a hand-mixer to cream together the butter and flour until fully combined.
Transfer the butter to a small plastic bag or a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a 7” square. Make sure the butter is an even thickness.
Cover and transfer to the fridge to firm up slightly for laminating, anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. You want the butter to be solid, but slightly pliable. (You can also use an infrared thermometer to check. Once the butter reads between 58 and 64° F, it is ready.)
Croissant Dough Cont’d (30 minutes + 9 hours chilling)
Once the butter block is ready, roll the croissant dough into a 10 to 11” square.
Set the butter block so it sits at a 45° angle (diamond-orientation) in the middle of the dough.
Fold the corners of the dough over the butter to enclose it completely, pressing the overlapping edges of dough together to seal.
Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to an 8 by 24” rectangle, always rolling from the center of the dough outward.
Fold the dough like a letter, folding one third of the dough in, and then the other third on top of it.
Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees so the folds face the opposite direction this time.
Roll the dough out to an 8 by 24” rectangle again and fold.
Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Rotate 90 degrees and roll out the dough to 8 by 24” a third time and fold.
Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge overnight.
Banana Pastry Cream Cont’d (10 minutes)
Add the crème de banana syrup and a drop of yellow food coloring (you may need more or less depending on the brand) to the banana pastry cream.
Using a hand-mixer, whisk together on high until fully combined and the cream loosens up.
Transfer the banana pastry cream to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Store in the fridge until assembly.
Black Sesame Pastry Cream Cont’d (10 minutes)
Add the black sesame paste to the pastry cream.
Using a hand-mixer, whisk together on high until fully combined and the cream loosens up.
Transfer the black sesame pastry cream to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Store in the fridge until assembly.
Croissant Dough Cont’d (1 hour 35 minutes + 3 hours resting + 16 to 18 minutes baking)
Using gloved hands, combine the separated 300 grams of croissant dough with the black sesame paste and some black food coloring.
Add more black food coloring, a little at a time, until the color is evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Shape into a disc, cover with plastic wrap, and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to as low as it will go. Once preheated, turn it off. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Once it’s rested, roll out the black sesame dough to an 8 by 24” rectangle and set aside.
Gently roll out the plain croissant dough to an 8 by 24” rectangle. If the dough resists, let it rest longer before continuing, or you may damage the layers.
Using a spray bottle, spray the top of the plain dough with water and transfer your black sesame dough on top, gently pressing them together.
Continue rolling out the dough until you have an 8 by 44” rectangle.
Trim the corners and edges of the dough into a neat rectangle, exactly 40” long.
On one of the 40” sides of the rectangle, measure every 5” and make a small mark or cut.
On the other 40” side of the rectangle, make a mark 2 ½” from the end, then every 5” after that.
With a wheel cutter, make diagonal cuts across the dough from one mark to the next, so you end up with 15 triangles (plus a little scrap dough at either end.)
Very gently elongate each croissant to about 10” long, either by hand or with a rolling pin.
With a knife or the wheel cutter, make a ½” cut in the center of the short side of each triangle. This should create two little wings.
Using your hands, start at the short side of the triangle and roll it up, angling the wings outwards from the center as you go, to create the desired croissant shape. Make sure to apply slight pressure as you roll, to make the layers stick together.
Press each rolled up croissant down slightly, to seal the tail underneath into the dough.
Place the croissants on the prepared baking sheets, leaving space between them so they don’t touch while proofing. Cover with proofing bags or clean towels.
Once the temperature inside the oven drops to 79° F, place the covered croissants inside to proof for about 2 ½ hours, or until doubled in size. The croissants should have a slight jiggle to them when ready.
Remove the croissants from the oven and preheat the oven to 380° F. Let the oven stand at that temperature for at least 15 minutes.
Bake the croissants for 6 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 330° F. Continue baking for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Let croissants cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Assembly (30 minutes)
Using a large piping tip or a small knife, poke two holes into the bottoms of the croissants, one on each side, coming in at an angle towards the center.
Insert the piping tips into the holes you just made and fill the croissants with the banana and black sesame cream. You can pipe one flavor into each half of the croissant, or alternate so the flavors are more mixed, up to you.
Using a pastry brush, brush the croissants with crème de banana syrup.
Serve immediately. Croissants are best enjoyed within 24 hours. Leftovers may be stored covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Enjoy!
Be sure to check out my Best Practices page for tips on how to make this recipe yourself. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and feel free to tag me on Instagram @made.by.shade if you make it!
-Shade