The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

More adventures in croissanting

kendalm's picture
kendalm

More adventures in croissanting

 

So it really bugs me that I can get ok crumb on croissants but not (as Roman Moroni would say), fargin excellent crumb. One TFLer recently posted 'attempt number 4' or something crazy and posted the incredible crumb ever. What up with that man ! Looking at his recipe I noticed a lower hydration and thought I would give it a go today. As a result I turned out really nice shapes - every last one had 7 steps and weighed out between 90-100g - gee, that never happens - I usually get wild swings in weights coz wetter dough is harder to consistently laminate to uniform thickness. So all going well but still a bit underwhelmed by crumb. Oh well, the quest continues ... Some snaps for all y'all croissanteurs -

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

pul's picture
pul

Great technique, the picture of the layered dough looks nice. Pro

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Tks and btw its important to pound the butter into a slab. Last week I let the butter warm and thought hey ! Why don't I just shape the slab now - much easier. Um, no, it will crack during lamination. It has to be cold and pounded into shape and then it can easily layered later :)

Filomatic's picture
Filomatic

I haven't made pastry, but when I made brioche recently using the Hamelman recipe (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/58272/brioche), he talked about the magic of cold but pliable butter.  That is, pounding the butter makes it pliable while still keeping it cold for a long, vigorous mix.