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Croissants tearing while proofing

imjlotherealone's picture
imjlotherealone

Croissants tearing while proofing

Hi all,

I've been having a problem with croissants. In fact, I've always had a problem with croissants. To my memory, there were only two times when my croissants actually turned out alright. Honestly, I've tried everything possible, and I still have no idea what's going wrong.

Here's the shortlist of problems that I run into:

1. Tearing during proofing. The skin on the croissants begin to tear while proofing, even when I brush with egg wash or cover with oiled plastic wrap. When I put it in the proofer, this problem turns up somewhat less, although I've stopped using the proofer for croissants, since I am afraid the temperature is too high in there.

2. The croissant won't merge together. After baking, the croissants will often emerge with the rolled edges separated rather than merging together like they should. To clarify, I don't mean the laminated layers, I mean the layers created while rolling up the croissant.

3. The center is often collapsed, no matter how much I proof them. This is probably connected to the problem above.

4. Oven spring is poor. Whenever I know my croissants are somewhat underproofed when going into the oven, they spring up nicely, but still end up with a dense center, no matter how long I bake them. Whenever I proof for slightly longer, there is very little oven spring and the surface forms many cracks.

5. Rather than rising upwards during oven spring, sometimes the ends of the croissants are squeezed outwards. This happens more often when I make butter gipfels (german style croissants), since they have elongated legs. The legs of the croissant puff up greatly and with great internal structure, but the center is still dense and collapsed.

There are several other things I should include to help with your diagnoses.

1. Ambient temp in the store is usually around 24 C/ 75 F.

2. I am using Bo Friberg's recipe currently. He calls for an unusually high hydration detrempe @ 70% (although many of his recipes high-ball the hydration; I suspect because adding flour to correct hydration is easier than adding water). He states that the detrempe should be mixed no more than necessary (no idea what he means by this, but I take it to mean minimal mixing) and that it should be firm. Usually this necessitates adding some extra flour, although since the dough is mixed cold, it probably still ends up with hydration around 68-69% (cold doughs mix up firmer, in my experience). His detrempe also includes zero butter or shortening. The beurrage is also somewhat unusual in that he includes flour and lemon juice, and that the butter is nearly 50% of dough weight (about 85% of flour weight). I've seen this kind of beurrage used often in puff pastry; in fact, his recipe for puff pastry, as well as the CIA recipe for puff pastry use flour in the beurrage, so I didn't question it. 

3. Lamination is fine, as far as I can tell. Up to the final roll-out, the layers are quite obvious. After the final roll out, it's difficult to tell since it's rolled quite thinly. Usually after proofing, some layers are evident, but not many. Also, the ends (or legs) of the croissants usually end up with nice internal structure, so I'm assuming the lamination is okay. I make puff pastry with his recipe too, and the lamination on that always turns out fine as well.

4. Often the layers don't appear to separate during proofing as they should. They stick together (even if I don't egg wash it) all the way through baking. The layers are still evident, they just don't separate. This is probably related to the shaped layers separating during baking. 

There's a couple solutions I'm guessing at:

1. Gluten isn't sufficiently developed. I'm thinking this because of the tearing during proofing. However, Friberg's recipe explicitly states to "mix no more than is necessary", presumably prevent the dough from getting too elastic. I'm also guessing that the high hydration is to aid in gluten formation.

2. The final roll-out heats the dough up too much. I dunno if it's possible for much of the butter to melt during the roll out but still allow layers to be evident during proofing and baking.

3. I'm shaping them too tightly. Perhaps an excess of surface tension is forcing the legs to extend outwards during baking, rather than upwards?

4. I'm over extending the legs. Perhaps stretching the legs out too much during shaping is causing the center to have weak structure? 

Anyways, any input would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much in advance. 

lazybaker's picture
lazybaker

The problem is that there's too much liquid in the dough. I had problems before when the dough was soft and contained a lot of liquid, like the recipe you mentioned. I ended up with flat, bready, and greasy croissants. I say when you're mixing the ingredients, add the liquid a little bit at a time and knead until you get dough that isn't sticky. It's ok to knead the dough until you get a uniform smooth dough. Don't let it be shaggy because it's going to end up with a bready product.  Also, don't let the dough bulk ferment before you laminate because the fermentation is going to create more moisture and going to end up bready as well. Laminate right after you form the dough. You can allow the dough to rest a bit for 15 minutes in the fridge before laminating,  but definitely don't let it bulk ferment. Let it ferment after you shaped the croissants. Fermentation time after you shaped the dough can range from 2 to 3 hours during room temperature between 75 F and 79 F. Don't go beyond that temperature, or butter will leak or dough ends up being too overproofed.

When you're laminating, I recommend rolling the dough thin, like 3 mm or 1/8" thick, during the first rolling. Once you get thin butter sheets during the first rolling, it's easy sailing during the rest of the turns. You don't want thick butter layers during the first roll because it ends up being really difficult to roll during the second or third turn because the dough ends up being rubbery. Though, you can let the dough rest in the fridge to relax. I get minimal butter leakage during baking if I roll the dough thinly during the first rolling. 

Sometimes I get the occasional croissants unraveling during the baking even if the tip is tucked underneath the roll. I think the tearing might be because the croissants were underproofed. As for a collapsed moist interior, it's underdone/underbaked at the center. I don't do eggwash because it ends up burning the croissants before allowing them to be fully baked. It takes me about 30 to 35 minutes for the croissants to bake. I preheat at 475 F. Once in the oven, I turn the oven down to 425 F. After 5 minutes, I lower to 400 F. After another 5 minutes, I lower to 350 F for the rest of the time, to make sure the interiors are thoroughly baked.

imjlotherealone's picture
imjlotherealone

is happening during the bake. It puffs up nicely during oven spring and then after it begins browning, it collapses. I mean the entire croissant sort of deflates. I don't do the Friberg recipe anymore and switched back to Hamelman's (which is relatively dry). 

lazybaker's picture
lazybaker

I had the collapsing happen during the bake before. It was opening the oven door during the first 10 minutes and then knocking or rotating the tray around. I think the dough wasn't set, so it collapsed. So now I refrain from opening the oven door during the first 15 to 20 minutes.

If it collapsed on its own during the bake, then maybe they were overproofed? 

The important thing is to make sure all moisture is driven off during baking. If the interior is still wet or damp, they'll gradually collapse during the cooling time after the bake. I had that happened many times. Now I just make sure to lower the baking temperature and let them thoroughly bake longer. If the kitchen is cold and damp during cold humid days, I leave the croissants inside the oven with the door slightly open and oven turned off once the baking is done. It's like once cream puff are done baking, you have to leave them inside the turned off oven with door slightly open. You want to dry up the insides while the steam is escaping in a warm environment. If you allow the puffs to cool in a cold room, they end up collapsing because steam escaping from the pastry causes the interior to dampen and collapse.

reguero10's picture
reguero10

Hi! I was wondering if you are using a convection or a conventional oven for your croissants. I'd also like to play around with the temperature when I bake mine but don't want to go to hot. I usually bake them at 375F on convection all the way through but have been having some problems with collapsing too. Thank you so much!