Hi,

recently I'm doing lots of croissants:-)  and I'm experiencing lots of negative effects on gluten development by sugar: while without sugar the dough hydratation can get as high as 60%, with little sugar added  (20%) -whether dissolved in water or added to the flour- I can barely reach a 50% hydratation.

Can anyone explain the underlying physics? Is there any countermeasure other than adding flour?

Not that adding flour or changing hydratation is a problem, but I'm really curious to understand why sugar has such a negative impact on the structure of the dough.

Thanks.