August 1, 2021 - 11:53am
Egg wash cracking croissants
Hi,
ivebeen having a recent problem with my croissants, mainly only the chocolate ones. I don’t get the smooth sheen of egg wash after the bake, it is cracked and speckled abs often the egg wash layer just falls off with gentle handling.
the croissants are pulled from walk in and egg washed before proof and again before bake. They are proofed at 80 F for about 3 hours. The proofer is a heatcabinet/proofer, i do sometimes spray with water to avoid them drying out. Even with a high humidity setting I need to spray them. The egg wash is 3 eggs and one yolk.
any suggestions greatly appreciated, im
sorry I don’t have any pics! I just tried to upload a couple and for whatever reason it isn’t working.
thank you!
christian
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Cgeronimo,
What is in your egg wash? Any cream?
You could also lightly apply two coats - one at proofing (it's easier to paint the wash on properly, on cooled dough - helps avoid wash sealing cuts together) - one at proofing, a very light second one just before putting them into the oven.
Thanks for the reply. I egg wash twice. Once before proof abs another time before bake. I use no cream In the egg wash. I thought for a while maybe the first coat drying out and getting crispy was resulting in a weird cracked look after bake. But I try keeping them super humid and I’m not sure it’s making a difference.
i think there is too much egg white in the wash. Try using more yolk. Can be thinned with milk or water and/or oil. Be sure to remove yolk sacks.
Egg white protein dries quickly, the yolk is mostly fat drying slowly. The darkest colour is achieved using yolk & oil with a little sugar syrop. You can vary the mixture to your liking.
^^
Excellent, thanks mini! Wish there was an applause emoji. Learned something new.