The Fresh Loaf

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Help with croissants

Uther522's picture
Uther522

Help with croissants

Hey friends!

My girlfriend and I have just started making pastry and we wanted to try our hand at croissants (she did all the work on these, I’m just here to cheer her on).

We’re a little bummed that because the dough was sprinting back into its original shape before shaping, we couldn’t get multiple spirals in the croissants, nor did we get a crescent shape.

we also, for the life of us, could not get hem to keep their shape in the oven. They would unravel and fan out every time. 

Any thoughts about how to keep croissants in a nice spiral or how to overcome a dough that won’t listen? 

 

Thank you, and cheers! 

peteycook08's picture
peteycook08

Just off the top of my head, my guess would be that the dough may have been overmixed to begin with and wasn't kept cool enough. With croissant dough you want to use a strong bread flour, because it needs to be able to withstand lots of rolling out without breaking, but you don't want to mix the dough too much initially. Usually when dough pulls back like that it needs to rest, and also in the case of pastries, be kept very very cold. Some things for you to think about.

Uther522's picture
Uther522

Thank you so much. Excited to give them another go. 

suminandi's picture
suminandi

they may come apart because the dry flour used to prevent sticking when rolling out the dough wasn’t thoroughly brushed off before rolling up the croissants. Dough sticks to dough, but sticks to dry flour not much. 

Agree with Peteyco about adding more cold rest time, though i get good results with AP flour dough that’s been somewhat developed to prevent tearing ( not too much development, or it springs back). I found bread flour croissants to be tough, but probably I could have worked the dough less and got decent results with that. 

Bread_soul's picture
Bread_soul

Hello, 

I have this problem sometimes. 

Lamination is good. After i shape and place the croissants into the tray, after couple of hours the croissants unravel from the tip even i carefully lock the dough. 

I suspect, the final dough can be thick while shaping, can this ve a reason? 

Thanks in advance

Jbaker's picture
Jbaker

Hi,

I have the same problem. They unravel and the shape looks horrible.. 

Bread_soul's picture
Bread_soul

Who is going to help us ?

Jbaker's picture
Jbaker

I think Im gonna try using water spray before rolling d croissant to see if its the excess flour.

Bread_soul's picture
Bread_soul

I guess it is excess flour and also if the final dough is thicker it is unraveled obviously

Bread_soul's picture
Bread_soul

I suspect it is all about the thickness of the dough after final turn and roll, the shaped dough can not resist the tension as it grows during fermantation. Here you have a few shots. Btw i have No problem with pain au chocolate ones, they are very well proofed and looks absolutely great. Failed during proofing

Bread_soul's picture
Bread_soul
Bread_soul's picture
Bread_soul
Jbaker's picture
Jbaker

I never had any unraveling with 5mm/ 6 mm.. but 3mm and 4 mm did unravel.

Also ive been using alot of flour to dust .. so i will try spraying water following Benny's baked video on YouTube.. watch it.. hope it helps u.

Btw I livw in India. Where finding good and cheap bread flour is next to impossible..