What is the main difference between laminated puff pastry and croissant dough in terms of technique and fat content?

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The key idea here is how leavening and lamination interact to create texture. Puff pastry achieves its light, flaky layers purely through folding and rolling fat and dough together, with no yeast involved. The butter between ultra-thin sheets steams during baking and pushes the layers apart, giving a crisp, delicate flake without any rise from fermentation. Croissant dough, on the other hand, starts with a yeasted, enriched dough that is laminated with a butter block, but it also undergoes a proofing stage. The yeast ferments, producing gas that expands the dough before it bakes, adding height and a tender crumb while the laminated layers still deliver flakiness.

In terms of fat content, puff pastry uses fat only as separate laminated layers within a lean dough, whereas croissant dough incorporates fat both in the laminated butter blocks and within a richer, enriched dough itself. That combination of fermentation and enrichment is what makes croissant dough different from plain puff pastry.