I Spent My Morning Making Croissants in Paris

January 31, 2026

My favorite and most memorable experience in Paris was undoubtedly making croissants alongside a pastry chef. I am such a sucker for a good pastry!!

We booked the experience online months in advance, and after a long wait, we finally found ourselves in Paris, where we were greeted by the friendliest staff and directed to a kitchen where the class took place.

There were of 8 of us in my class. Four of us were from the United States, three from Canada on a bachelorette trip, and one was on a solo trip from Australia for her 21st birthday. We had a nice mix of people from different backgrounds. It was very nice to chit chat about life as we got in a good arm workout.

Our instructor was amazing and I owe it to her for the great experience. I wish I could’ve remembered her name. She was a great teacher and very knowledgeable. She gave us the “why’s” in the little nuances of making pastries, making it easy to understand.

If You Want To Try Too:

We booked with La Cuisine Paris. They offer multiple workshops ranging from Cooking Classes to day trips for food tours. This time around we booked the French Baking Class-Le Croissant & Breakfast Pastries. Click here to see their calendar of all their classes!

Cost: €119.00 per person

Location: The location was great, it was centrally located. It is about a 5 minute walks from the Notre Dame Cathedral and a 15 minute walk from the Louvre so it was very easy to incorporate into our itinerary.

Making the Pastries

The very first thing we did was prep our butter to make a tourrage (butter block). She showed us how to fold parchment paper to pound our butter into the ideal shape for a croissant.

When we finished, we labeled them and had them placed in the fridge to chill.

Next, we were given pre-made dough that had been proofed and was ready to use (presumably from the previous class).

This class worked kinda backwards- we baked the pastries first, then made the dough afterward. It actually made sense for making the most use of our three hours, but it caught me off guard when we jumped straight into rolling our dough rather than making it ourselves lol.

After rolling it out in the shape we needed, we got our chilled butter and learned how to fold it into our dough and make the layered dough for the croissants.

After the dough was created, we learned how to cut the dough to make different pastries. We learned to make croissants, pain au chocolat, pin wheels and more. I had no idea how many variations of pastries you could make out of croissant dough.

After that we let them proof and brushed with egg wash before baking them in the oven.

While our pastries were in the oven, we got started on making our own dough. The “detrempe”, as the French call it. We were given flour, yeast, water, sugar and butter. She had us make a “double well” to contain our mess while we mix and knead the dough.

One thing I hate about making bread is having to knead the dough, but surprisingly, croissants don’t need to be kneaded that much because the folding of the dough layers will activate the gluten.

By the time we finished kneading our dough, our pastries were ready!

Honestly, I could not believe how delicious and beautiful they were. I lowkey felt like a professional. I would say it was pretty easy but that’s only because our instructor held our hands the entire time, making sure not a single mistake was made.

I’m still very intimidated in making croissants on my own, and haven’t tried since taking the class, but this has significantly piqued my interest in the world of French cooking. Hearing the instructor’s experience in pastry school, seeing the different types of tools used, even seeing how specific the fat content the butter needs to be made me curious of it all. Next time I’m in Paris, I am definitely booking a cooking class again!