January 20, 2018 - 11:14am
Laminating dough - rising too much while chilling
Hey all, one of the (many) challenges I've had laminating dough for croissants is that after a turn, I'm told to wrap the plaque in cling film and chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes to two hours (depending on the recipe). But while its in the fridge, it rises so much that it sometimes breaks through the film, or the film unravels, and exposes some of the dough, which dries out.
What am I doing wrong? Should I just wrap it in so much film that it can't rise? Reduce the yeast? Or should I have left it to rise longer in the original bulk fermentation? If so, how do I know how to leave enough rising power for the final rise?
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You may also like to give a bit of other detail,such as sugar quantities etc. Typically vienoisse dough has to fight all the sugar to get it on a good raise path and if the dough is cold you should not have any troubles with rising during chilled rest. Quick question - is the first fold being,performed,with cold dough ? If so which it should then that's about 5 minutes max of rolling then back,in the fridge and if still,cold then you should be in good shape. ,case in point, be,sure you start with chilled,dough. From here if you are having problems with cold dough rising in 30 minutes then something is out of wack. The only time you might expect to see dough puffing through the cling is at the very first chill simce it takes a while to come,down in temperature but after that a typical routine is to roll out the puffy dough and do one or two folds, chill for 30 to an hour and finish folding. Just ensure the dough is always cold while rolling and if cold,dough is exploding through cling wrap in 30 minutes then maybe revisit you recipe or check you refrigerator thermometer !
Thanks for your responses. To answer kendalm's question - I'm just following recipes I've found on the web to the tee, like Weekend Bakery's: http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/classic-french-croissant-recipe/, which calls for 11g of yeast (for 500g of flour). And yes I'm rolling it out while still cold, only 1 turn at a time, then re-chill for 30-60 minutes.
What I can't grasp is, I would *expect* the dough to rise, even when its cold and chilled in the fridge. That's what it does when you make bread, right? It rises, even in the fridge. So why wouldn't it rise during this long lamination process? But all these recipes and forum conversations seem to suggest otherwise, which makes me think I'm missing something.
Does the dough just not rise for you guys while it's chilling in the fridge?
Dough will rise in the refrigerator just very slowly as in many hours. if you have a chilled block of dough, oerform turn or two on the counter and put it in the fridge,again for 30 minutes there shouldnt be any recognizable rise - I gotta checkout the recipe something is odd here...
There's nothing odd its actually a really good article. They key point with regard,to your problem is to chill over night. I will often times wake up to a puffy cling wrapped dough but from here the rise should occurring really slowly. Maybe ensure you counter is not warm. Keep in mind a lot of surface area hits the counter and can raise the dough temperature in minutes. Of you have done all,this and still seeing puulffed exploding,cling wrap maybe its time lower the yeast a bit - I dummo just for dough to rise that much in a 30 minute chilled rest (and with all the sugar and butter etc) that's like supercharged activity !
Thanks all for the comments. I guess I'll just keep chugging along. My croissants have been improving with every iteration, so I think it just takes more practice.
There really is no substitute for practice so yep just keep plugging away - its very satisfying if and when baked goods just work and you yourself coast really put your finger on exactly why. Just to reiterate - on the cold dough thing - it will rise in the fridge especially on the first long chill as it takes time to cool, but once cool enough that rise is so slow you shouldn't notice anything during folds. Looking forward to your progress !