The Fresh Loaf

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Croissants in a tropical climate

Lady_C's picture
Lady_C

Croissants in a tropical climate

Since going on a 1 day French baking course at Christmas I have been keen to continue my croissant baking journey. There are many blogs on here already but I wanted a place to be able to track my progress and perhaps help other's in the meantime - even if it's just to show how not to do it! 

The recipe I use is from the Bread Ahead baking book. 

500g strong bread flour (I can't get strong bread flour so I used bread flour which I think has 13% protein here) 

12g sea salt

55g sugar

40g softened unsalted butter

30g fresh yeast

140g full fat milk

140g water

250g butter

1 egg for the eggwash 

I have had varying degrees of success the 3 times prior to this blog post. The first batch I made were OK - some honeycomb structure but not as airy as I'd like them to be. You can see them here. Changes I've made since that batch are leaving the dough in the fridge just a few hours rather than overnight and proving for longer. 

This week I've made 2 batches - 1 is actually still proving. 

The first batch this week turned out quite bready - although some bizarrely more bready than others even though they're from the same batch. There was a little evidence of layers in some of them but not many. I'm sure the butter was too warm during the laminating so it's been absorbed by the dough. I had sliced the batter and made the butter block by rolling that out - quite thin due to advise from another baker on TFL. I'm now wondering if this only made it easier for the dough to absorb the butter when it got too warm? 

After some more reading on TFL I decided I was going to make some changes to the batch that are currently proving. I decided only to do half the recipe so that I wasn't using so many ingredients. Also given the hot and humid climate I:

- beat the block of butter to shape in some cling film and then rolled it to size, rather than slicing it and then rolling it

- cooled the butter before locking it in as I think that previously my butter has been far too warm 

- put the dough back in the fridge after the lock in for 15mins and put the rolling pin in the freezer - as far as I can see it this was a very important step given the climate 

- rolled and turned it and then put it in the fridge for 1h 30min until I'd completed 3 turns (envelope fold) - I will do this every time from now on 

- each time I'd put the rolling pin back in the freezer alongside some ice blocks which I used to cool my counter down for 10mins before I rolled out the dough - I will continue doing this as it seemed to help 

- left it in the fridge overnight 

- I began to roll out the dough but had to put it back in the fridge several times (for between 5 and 15 mins) before I'd reached the correct dimensions - will probably increase the time it's in the fridge between rolling out 

- I cut my croissants and began stretching and shaping them, however, by the time I'd got to the remaining 4 they had warmed up too much so I put them in the fridge for about 10 mins - next time I'll cut all the triangles out and then refrigerate them all for 15mins before shaping 

- I egg washed them and now they are proving...update to follow! 

Update:

So I proved them for 3 hours (maybe up to 3hr 15min ish) and then cooked them in the oven at 180C (although I turned the oven up to 200C just after I put them in to give them a bit of extra heat). The oven is enormous and doesn't cook that well. They were in there for 25mins and were still only light golden brown. 

You can see the layers on the outside of the croissants but the crumb isn't as open and I can't really work out why. They taste very light though and aren't as dense as the batch from earlier in the week. More photos here

 

Is it over proved? Is the butter still too warm? I made a batch in March that came out much much more open but I wasn't nearly as cautious in that batch with keeping the butter cold and was probably more heavy handed. I also proved that batch for about the same time but cooked it in my countertop electric oven rather than the gas oven. The electric oven only gets up to 180C. Could that be a difference that counts? 

You can see photos from previous attempts here. I'd be grateful for any feedback anyone can offer. 

Comments

sayersbrock's picture
sayersbrock

Hey there!

I've never made croissants before, but I frequently make puff pastry which involves laminating dough. 

Something that helps greatly with making sure the butter doesn't seep into the layers of dough is to knead the butter with a tablespoon or so of bread flour before molding it into a block. 

This gives the butter a little more hold so it stays a layer rather than mixing into the dough. 

Lady_C's picture
Lady_C

I've seen this tip before so may give it a try next time. :-) 

julie99nl's picture
julie99nl

That proof looks to be OK, There are some spots of wet dough, but maybe that is because it was cut before being fully dried after baking.Or, it's slightly underbaked.

I do think you are facing an incredible challenge working in very warm and humid environment. What is your room temperature? I rolled some croissant today and the kitchen was around 20C and even then I had about 5 minutes of rolling time before it was losing temperature too quickly to hand laminate.

What did you do on your March 18 bake that you did differently this time? Different oven? Different thickness of butter? Anything else? 180C can be a little bit low of a baking temperature if everything else is also working against you.

Lady_C's picture
Lady_C

I don't think it was underbaked - possibly just cut too soon. 

My room temp is about anywhere between 24C and 26.5C. Maybe I need to set a timer for 5 mins and roll only for that amount of time? 

On the March bake I baked in a different oven (only at 180C) I sliced the butter and then rolled rather than pounding the block, I certainly wasn't as careful with my laminating as I remember thinking they were going to be awful as the butter had leaked and there were tears in the dough, however they were my best batch! I think that's what puzzling me more - I was so careful this time and not on that March bake but the March bake is better.....

julie99nl's picture
julie99nl

Lady_C, have you read this blog? It's a little old and don't know if the user is still active, but it might give some tips and insight into croissants in your environment.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/36582/yet-another-croissants-blog