The Fresh Loaf

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Croissant Woes

nychristina's picture
nychristina

Croissant Woes

So I’ve been baking for years but am recently trying to perfect my laminated doughs.  I made a batch today (1/2 AP & 1/2 Bread Flour) and they proofed beautifully and you could see the distinct layers but when I baked them, all the butter melted out and they were “doughy” on the inside...but you could still pull apart the layers.  

this is giving me a headache cause I followed the recipe to a “T”.  I’m also a bit of a perfectionist so it’s all I’m thinking about right now ?)

anyone can help out with what I’m doing wrong.  (also when I realized the batch was wrong, I started the 2nd tray at a higher temp hoping that would help...nope!  Butter everywhere)

 

thx!!

 

 

suminandi's picture
suminandi

After some experiments, here are some things that helped me eliminate butter leakage:

1) proof until very puffy. the dough must encapsulate the butter by rising around it

2) proof in a coolish place. Around 70 deg or less. Combined with #1 above = patience.

3) not too hot oven. I use 375 F

4) a little steam or a cover for the first few min of baking helps ( not always practical, though)

My process- after shaping i place them in the freezer until hard ~3 hrs.  I freeze them on a baking sheet or a few pie tins and once hard, pry them off and store some in a ziplock bag and proof the rest overnight on a baking sheet in a cool part of the kitchen. i cover them, but I don’t think it’s necessary. They will stay well in the freezer for several weeks. 
if I’m baking just a few, i use a covered roasting pan for the first 10 minutes of baking ( and then remove cover). But they turn out ok without covering- perhaps a bit less puffy. 

Best wishes on your croissant journey. 

here’s a recent bake, which while not perfect, shows no butter leakage. 

wheatbeat's picture
wheatbeat

The most common reason for this is not chilling the dough enough between turns or proofing at too high a temperature (over 80F). The butter and dough simply become as one.

Zuri

suminandi's picture
suminandi

Zuri-

You can see that the layers stayed separate in her bake, so the chilling between turns must have worked fine. Having made that mistake, the result is spiral shaped brioche - no layers. I would agree that proofing was probably too warm, (and possibly underproofed too).

Sumi

wheatbeat's picture
wheatbeat

You may very well be correct Sumi. My experience has been that it could still be under- chilled between at least some of the turns. I see some layers there but many of the layers have layers within them that are fused as one. This could be caused by perfectly chilled dough on turn #1, but then not chilled enough on turn #2 and #3, for example. 

Zuri

nychristina's picture
nychristina

Thanks for the input...proof time was about 3 hrs and the room was no higher than 75 (I just let them sit out in my kitchen table)

Sounds crazy, but how long do you mix your initial dough for?  I’ve made 2 different recipes and both have come out the same so I’m going over everything.  They both have pretty long mixes on the detrempe (anywhere from 10-15 min)...Perhaps I’m mixing that too long?

wheatbeat's picture
wheatbeat

You are trying for an intense mix with a smooth and strong gluten window. 

If you have the patience, check out the part on "mixing" here: https://wheatbeat.com/croissant/

nychristina's picture
nychristina

Ok no problem but if the mixing time isn’t the problem, they are properly cooled between rolls, & are proofed correctly...why do I keep getting “bready” croissants with layers?

 

i love a good mystery but not when it comes to baking

wheatbeat's picture
wheatbeat

It's hard to know just from a description, of course. It could be so many things: your yeast has gone bad, your flour is too weak, your turning technique and butter lock is not sufficient, your formula is not right, your butter is too low in fat content, etc, etc. From my own humble experience, I think you need to focus on the most likely cause: under-chilled dough between turns.

wheatbeat's picture
wheatbeat

Also, one more thing about chilling the dough between turns. You may be perfectly chilled at the time you start to sheet your dough, but if you are taking too long to do the work and the dough warms up, you will lose your layers that way too. Everything needs to stay cold during the ENTIRE process, not just at the start of each turn.

nychristina's picture
nychristina

Thank you both for your input.  I’m pretty quick with my roll ins (a few min max) and usually wait a minimum of 20 minutes in between rolls ins so the butter doesn’t get too hard.  

Back to the drawing board but thanks again for your insight 

florians's picture
florians

A year later, have you figured out what might have been the issue?