The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Recommendations (Bread/Croissants)

swiggin's picture
swiggin

Recommendations (Bread/Croissants)

I just wanted to make a couple of recommendations for the bread and croissant recipe/techniques that I was able to try the last couple of days. The bread recipe wasn't so much a new use of flours, but more of a technique. I usually knead the dough until the windowpane test, let it ferment (with S&F's), etc; however, this time I used the 'in bowl' S&F's as outlined in Shiao-Pings Recipe for Pointe-à-Callière (I used the same percentages too, but used a T70,WW,Rye,Spelt mix). The other post I used for reference was vincenttalleu's post on croissants. I simply scaled down the size of the recipe as described in the video, and did a percentage of the flour as a preferment instead (as outlined by various people's technique). The loaf and croissants turned out decent enough, so I'm sure in the hands of someone who knows more (read: everyone), they would turn out really well.

Boule: (Scoring needs work. Smell and taste of the mixed flour is nice.)

Croissants: (Perhaps a bold bake, but I enjoy them like that)


whiskers's picture
whiskers

Thank you for sharing your photos! They look absolutely beautiful. I have been wanting to try making croissants for quite some time. I had watched this same video before and thought I would scale it down the formula just like you did. I think I will give it a try soon!

swiggin's picture
swiggin

I had made croissants once before, with the results not being as I had expected/wanted. The the key to crispy/flaky layers is using water instead of milk, and not using any eggs in the mix (as both of these tend to soften the crust/inside). I am not sure if a pre-ferment helps at all, but it didn't hinder the end results. Hope the formula works for you too (when watching the video, remember the weight of butter he uses is per 4kg of dough, not the total amount that he weighs at the beginning, and will be about 40% baker's percentage; also he uses cake yeast, which I used, so take that into consideration for IDY/ADY).

Seth