Making the Perfect French Croissant

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to make the perfect French croissant, read on. One taste of Chef Godfrey McKenzie’s croissants, pastries and bread and you’ll understand why there’s a line out the door of this thriving Leesburg bakery, Dolce & Ciabatta Bakery & Cafe. The gorgeous breads, pastries and gourmet desserts that come out of this bakery are divine. Upon walking into the bakery, guests marvel at the menu, complete with incredible baked novelties, such as pastries, specialty desserts and artisan breads. However, perhaps one of the bakery’s most incredible feats is their perfect, flaky, buttery croissant. The popular bakery is now bringing its recipe, formally inspired by European patisseries then perfected in Northern Virginia, right into your home. Read along as Master Baker Godfrey McKenzie shares his recipe for making perfect French croissants at home.

Croissants & Pastries by Internationally Acclaimed Baker Godfrey McKenzie

To create something that sings in a universal language and cultivates widespread appreciation takes rare talent. In the case of McKenzie, it also includes reverence for history’s faint simmer. When he slides piping loaves out of his bakery’s German stone oven, he relishes in “listen[ing] to them crackle, as if they are talking.” A renowned culinary artist, McKenzie is the co-owner of Dolce & Ciabatta, a bakery café—and local favorite—in Leesburg. With its European flair and carefully curated goods, the establishment pays homage to culinary practices of a bygone era, and it’s clear that Chef McKenzie is passionate about everything he creates.

As a child in Jamaica, he often lent a hand in his family’s kitchen, and after relocating to Miami, McKenzie snagged his first job in a bakery before working his way up to bread-making. Eventually, he secured the attention of acclaimed Baker Keith Rinaldi and scored years of mentorship, which led to centuries-old European techniques being infused into McKenzie’s process.

In years since, he has baked on national and international stages, including a stint as a cruise line chef, leaving his mark on 30-plus countries. But in 2012, a gig for a major pastry company lured him to Northern Virginia, where he met Russia native Tatiana, now his wife and the mother of their two children. When a space in Catoctin Circle opened up in 2018, the couple decided to open their own place.

At Dolce & Ciabatta, sleek metal butts up against hardwood and white-painted brick, while bulging breads and pastries dot the scene. To McKenzie, baking is a lifestyle, one that involved gathering “the finest ingredients” like specially prepped liquid levain, unbleached and unbromated flour, and, of course, salt and water. To them, “each levain recipe reflects the soul [and] style…of the baker.”

Midnight shifts start the 18- to 24-hour periods of dough fermentation. The couple credit this step with producing “deep, rich [and] remarkable flavor and texture.” And at Dolce & Ciabatta, “good” comes in a wide range of flavors, like a sundried tomato-basil cheddar loaf, cinnamon raisin bread and cranberry whole wheat boule, to name a few. Pastries, from croissants and cookies to twists and tarts, also line the menu.

To McKenzie, the bakery’s mission extends beyond providing joy and sustenance to the community, serving also “to restore the time-honored tradition of artisan bread making.”

CAROLINE HOCKENBURY, a UVA grad, is a nonprofit communicator, multimedia journalist and poet. Her work has been featured in Virginia Quarterly Review, Virginia’s Best Emerging Poets and more. She was formerly sound engineer of the Probable Causation podcast.

JANINE AQUINO has been a business consultant and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience. Her focus lies in Agritourism, the grower, the producer. She grew up in the Hudson Valley region of New York, on a small family vineyard where she learned grape growing, making wine and distribution. While in NY, she studied food and wine pairings at the CIA and worked for a couple of wineries lining the Hudson River. She then received an opportunity to buy a boutique winery in Ohio, which she did, and ran it for 10 years successfully. Opportunities were presented to her in VA to take the reins of a couple of startup vineyards and fully develop them. After working with the wineries, she started Aquino Baron Consulting, an agritourism consulting company focused on wineries and cideries. She is a member of the Virginia Wineries Association, Virginia Vineyards Association, Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail and sits on the Waynesboro Tourism Advisory Board.

R. L. JOHNSON is our co-publisher and creative director, Robin Johnson Bethke, who began her career as a professional photographer in Los Angeles before moving into graphic design and art direction when she relocated to Charlottesville in 1994. As our company’s co-founder and visionary, she enjoys all aspects of the publishing process from story conception to graphic design to photography. Her work is often seen in many of our publications.