December 9, 2009 - 4:20pm
Croissants
Hi there, I had this video on Youtube for a while already but I though I'd share it here.
Video was made in a bakery south of France where I used to work last year. I doesn't really help for home bakers to see this because I got all the tools and machinery (especially pastry break) But I know some are interested to see how we manage to make lots of those in average size bakery.
This bakery has average of 150 croissants 150 pain au chocolat per day which is a bit more than average typical french bakery.
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Comments
All I can say is WOW! And now I know why proth5 wants a sheeter.
Loved the music, loved the action, and especially loved the boldness of the baking and the beautiful caramelized colors.
Very cool that you worked there.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Awesome...
to TFL! I absolutely love all your video's...you are so intertaining and a hard working baker. I'm a fan of yours and have learned so much by watching you in action! I think you are such a personality, full of energy and a real talent for baking. Are you still baking in France?
Sylvia
Thanks!!
Yep I'm still in France but not for too long, planning to go to UK soon.
I'll soon be making a video of a friend's bakery:
http://sucredange.monsite.orange.fr/
So be prepared!!
Lovely, lovely, bakery : ) Have fun on your new venture and can't wait to see your video!
Sylvia
I'm certain you will do it justice in a video! I will be watching for it!
Eli
Great video !!!
well done !
Welcome to TFL!
I have also been an admirer of your you-tube videos. It's a pleasure to see you here. I hope you will stick around as an active member of our community!
David
Thanks! I'll sure try to find the time to hang around as much as possible ;)
ive been watching your vids all year, really inspirational!
A simply wonderful video. Thank you,
Jeff
Great technique and speed! A real pro at work. Hope to see more videos from you.
Don
You make it look so easy. You are indeed a skilled baker. Thank you for sharing. I especially like the bold color of your pastry.
Eric
Glad to see you found the site...they look beautiful...make it look easy...see you on FB
Judd
That was the best 10 min I have spent watching youtube in awhile. Thank you so much. It make me want to try and make croissants.
Hmm, maybe I'll try using my old hand-cranked pasta roller in place of the sheeter...
THAT WAS AWESOME!! thanks so much for sharing. gotta go eat some surgar....
Thanks for all the good comments! Ca fait plaisir!!!
I can tell you that my boss back then was not as enthousiastic as you guys!!!
I am speechless!
That was truly inspiring!
I really miss good pastry... (No, doughnuts don't count!!!!!!!) ;)
If ever there was a short and brilliant advertisement for the baking trade, I'd say your video fit the bill! As a newbie professional baker (but I'm sticking to breads and just admiring the art of viennoiserie), I'm just blown away watching you.
Stay with us - we'll be tapping you for tips!
Larry
Vincent, beautiful work! Amazing croissants and you make it look so very easy. Thank you for sharing please share more.
I have a question. I have found numerous recipes for croissants and pastry dough. Most of them use milk or eggs, and other ingredients. I am assuming true french bakeries use only water, sugar, flour, yeast and salt? While I have traveled I have noticed differences in the flakier the dough and I am assuming it has been just flour, sugar, water, yeast and salt which makes it flakier and adding milk and butter to the dough add the softness? Any thoughts or recommendations. I like the flaky layered croissant.
Thanks again,
Eli
Hey Eli, you're definitely right, adding milk and eggs in the dough impairs the flakiness, it's often people think: Let's make a better croissant, trying to improve it, but by adding eggs it just becomes a brioche.
Anyway some people like them better this way. For example the bakery I'm curently working in does add egg and milk to the dough. But I'd say most bakeries only use flour salt sugar for the dough, for the money but mainly for the flakiness.
I personally like it better this way, as much as I rather have bread made with only flour than adding bit of oil, bit of sugar, bit of everything, but that's just me!
Keep up the baking ;)
Thank you and I am going to scale down your recipe and give it a try if you don't mind.
Eli
OK but try to use strong flour, at least 11% protein!
And you can put more butter also, some people put until 1500kg butter for the 4kg dough.
But 25% to the dough weight is the usual butter content.
cf: http://bonneau.siteparc.fr/recette/single.php?id=1
Vincent, I have HI Gluten flour by Con Agra here in the states. Approx 12-14 percent, I think.
I will try the butter and make a sample to see how it goes. We don't have a great European butter here in my area.
Thanks and I will let you know how it works out.
Eli
Vince,
I love the recipe! I tried it last week and it is great. Nice and flaky, however, during baking a great deal of butter ooozzed from the bottom of the croissants. What can I do to keep this from happening? Did I proof in too warm a place?
Thanks again for sharing!
Eli
PS. Will take some photos next time.
Most probably it's too high a proofing temperature, I've had the problem many times when we need to prove them really fast we put them on top of the oven and they loose their butter. Best temp for profing around 25 I'd say. Butter needs to be nice and soft. Looking forward to the pictures ;)
Is it normal to lose much butter in the oven? Mine seemed to have had butter puddles around them and the bottoms became really crusty. Thoughts?
Eli
I'm no expert on this, but check the temp of the butter when making the dough, maybe it didn't adhere well to the dough. Just a thought (and I assume you folded it right, etc.).
It's really interesting that it came out nice and flaky even though it oozed a lot of butter.
It layered well, and came out flaky, however, I did have butter after the bake on the silpat.
It shouldnt lose butter while baking that's for sure, this recipe calls for average amount of butter, so it's not too much butter in the dough. What's your baking temperature? Maybe not hot enough an oven?
Oven was around 375/176? I have another batch in the refrigerator now. I am using a hi-gluten flour and I did find a "european" type butter with 82 percent butter fat. I will let you know how they roll out and what happens this evening.
Thanks for all the help!
Eli
Obviously I have tried yet again to produce a croissant. I will also share that my nature will not let me stop until I get it close to right. I have more bulk fermenting now.
Oven was too low and causing the puddles of butter. I raised it to 400 and no puddles. However, I am having a problem with rolling them out. Very tough and extremely hard to roll. Dough pushes back and allowed to relax the butter tends to try to escape.
Thought?
Eli
Work in a cold kitchen. Pre chill your rolling surface by putting frozen goods on it for 10 minutes prior to rolling out the dough. You do not want the surface too cold as that can lead to condensation problems.
Try coaxing the dough with the rolling pin rather than forcing it. It is a lot of rolling and takes a bit of time. If it all warms up too much, put it back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the dough to cool and relax.
Patience and a firm but gentle touch with the dough will lead to success. If your kitchen is too warm the task is nearly impossible.
Jeff
Hi Eli,
My experience is AP flour (around 11.5% gluten) works better than bread or high gluten flour (12-14% gluten). The high gluten makes the dough more elastic and less extensible which makes your dough pull back when you roll it out. Check out my blog on croissants and pains au chocolat.
Don
Do you mix the dough with a mixer? How long do you mix it?
With the bulk fermentation the dough tends to increase its elasticity and loose it's extensibility. Whenever you work the dough after the mixing, you want to avoid whatever gives it strenght (rounding, folding, etc)
And when you need to give it a rest while rolling, always put it back in the fridge ;)
I know how difficult it is to make good croissants at home, I've tried few times and they were crap really :D Am still awaiting for pictures though!!!
Right now kitchen is too warm, I think around 73 degrees. I was and have been in rush trying to make the croissants. Life happens while you are trying to do something else. I am rushing things which isn't helping.
I don't use the mixer.I could but I prefer doing bread by hand. I barely get a smooth ball together and place in an oiled bowl to bulk. As you state, " the bulk fermentation the dough tends to increase in elasticity and lose it's extensiblity"' The fist batch I didn't allow to rise much and placed in the refrigerator early due to it being late in the evening and sleep calling my name. The first batch much easier to roll out and layered better. Hmmmm. will keep going and I have 22 kg 50 lbs of bread flour. I haven't forgotten the pix but I am embarrassed that I cannot get them right but it was also too late.
I will make some photos and keep you posted. Thanks for all the help!
Eli
Wow... when I grow up I wanna be just like you!
Thanks, coming from a pro that's a warming compliment ;)
I spent an awful amount of time on the editing but apparently was worth it!
Ca fait plaisir!
Milk is too expensive!
Many bakers use milk it's just a matter of taste ;)