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Croissant collapsing?

galenbrill's picture
galenbrill

Croissant collapsing?

Hello all,

I've recently been making croissants, with a good amount of success, after lots of practice.  However, I am beginning to encounter a problem that I hadn't previously had, and haven't had much luck in pinpointing the cause.  The center of my croissants have been deflating, or collapsing, after they come out of the oven (they look fine while baking).  Here is an example (sorry for the poor quality).  I have tried extending my baking time (usually about 25 mins at ~325 degrees fahrenheit).  I always proof them for between 2 and 2.5 hours, and I do not move the tray while they bake, as I hear this can cause the center to collapse as well.  The temperature while proofing is usually between 75 and 80 degrees, and humidity is most likely lower than it should be, so I'm having trouble believing that over proofing is the problem.  

I have tried rolling the dough out a bit thinner, or elongating and rolling the triangles out thinner before shaping, which hasn't seemed to help much.  Maybe I should use a little less yeast? They seem to be rising sufficiently otherwise.  Maybe insufficient humidity during proofing is drying out the outside while keeping the inside too moist (I don't have a proofer, so humidity is tough to control, I am applying at egg wash before proofing and again before baking)?  I was thinking it could be simple under-baking, but when I've baked at higher temperatures, the croissant ends up with an undesirably thick crust.  Any advice you may have to offer would be tremendously helpful.

Thanks!

MichaelLily's picture
MichaelLily

Could it be overproofing?  I've been having this same sort of problem.  That's what I'm starting to think.

wolfetan44's picture
wolfetan44

Actually, it's the inverse: underproofing. When you put them in, they are not ready, and expand too much but don't have enough structure, so they fall. You want to wait till you can see the lamination on the croissants(the layers are starting to seperate), then put them in. 

MichaelLily's picture
MichaelLily

It sounds good and I don't know if it's true or not, but I'm having a hard time believing it.  I had the same sort of problem today, and my croissants rose for 3.5 hours at about 80 degrees and were huge and jiggly and by any account fully proofed.  What's happening on the inside is the dough layers on the roll aren't sticking together and becoming one on the inside.  Some layers on the inside are fusing together as well.  I feel like it has something to do with final shaping.  Perhaps too much flour on the dough, preventing the layers of dough to fuse when rolled up?

ds99302's picture
ds99302

If they were overproofed, the entire croissant would be collapsed.  The inside looks like the inside of an empty cream puff or eclair shell.  That leads me to believe that you're putting too much eggwash on the dough and it's fusing all the layers together.  Instead of them expanding into a flaky product, they form a single shell.  It would also explain why the crust gets too hard when you bake them at a higher temperature.  325°F is way to low for croissants.  400°F-425°F is more like it.  Don't eggwash them before you proof them.  It will just soak into the dough and fuse the layers together.  After they're proofed, brush on a very light coating of eggwash just before you put them in the oven.

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Just finished with the 2nd half of my 2nd batch this evening.  And learned a ton very quickly, and progressed quite rapidly also.  And here's how: read up on The Weekend Baker's croissant write-up and watch their video .  Then pay a lot of attention the TFL's undisputed doyenne of baking, TxFarmer's croissant venture and accompanying writeup .  The basis is Jeffrey Hamelman's croissant recipe.  You don't have to do it all the way that they do, but if you do combine the two sets of approaches, you will quickly learn to do it correctly.

And it will answer just about all of your questions about the correct baking temperature and whether you are under proofed or over proofed, etc.  Trust me on this one...

alan

galenbrill's picture
galenbrill

Thank you all for your responses, they all helped immensely in my last batch over the weekend.  I think a combination of things led to the problem - the dough was not rolled out thin enough, may have been underproofed, and, most importantly, insufficient baking temperatures led to under-baking.  I started with the video and recipe from the weekend bakery, also learned some from Ralph on Chow.com, and read through many other posts on this site (txfarmer included).  I let these ones rise for about 2.5 hours before baking at 400, then around 360.  Here's a picture of the crumb.  Thanks again everyone!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Congratulations.  Those other posts were a great help to me so I was certain that they'd be of service to others as well.

alan