First Croissant Dough!
I just finished making croissant dough for the very first time with information I could find on the internet. Wow. Making croissant dough is tough, and I'm still I'm not sure I did it correctly. What I just made tastes good, though it's reminiscent of a bread-child between a buttermilk biscuit and a croissant.
I regret leaving them in the refrigerator overnight after folding the dough, I should've let them rise to something larger. Also I think I put too much milk in them and didn't kneed the dough as much as I should have done. They're tasty, surprisingly! I am absolutely shocked they turned out edible and that those 17 hours of creation, refrigeration and proofing didn't go to waste!
I combined a few recipes posted on these forums to create this Frankenstein deliciousness (Croissants, but with more milk than originally planned):
I put some almond paste in these (Same dough):
I haven't tried the bear claws yet, I'm too excited that I didn't burn them to oblivion, or that they're not hard as rocks that I had to post this and share these creations to the world. Also, I'm sure the almond paste filling resembles a hot lava that would scorch the tongue for at least the next 20 minutes.
Hooray!
Tips? Thoughts?
It looks like you're on the right track for a first time with croissant dough. Here's a link to a post on laminated dough construction by a fellow TFL member who is also a college instructor in Baking and Pastry Arts. It's well worth reading and has a video as well.
All the best,
Franko
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16082/laminated-yeasted-dough-construction
Thank you, Franko! Whoa, this is great.
When I make croissant dough, it's a whole day from very early in the morning to very late at night, so I make a lot of croissant, like 100 of them, and then I freeze them and swear I'll never do it again.
Congrats on your first time. It doesn't get easier (until you get a laminator or, as Jacques Torres does, use a wide pasta machine to roll the dough), but it's always worth the effort.
You do, however, get better at it.
Silpats are your friend, as is a French rolling pin (tapers off) and plastic wrap.
My rolling pin never touches the dough directly anymore. I roll it on a Silpat covered with plastic (so I don't introduce more flour to the dough each turn).
Your next assignment: make a Pithiviers! :D
I posted some tips and recipes here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19699/do-you-know-how-make-excellent-croissants-minimum-effort
What I found to work is to add enough flour to the dough in the beginning, so that it doesn't stick to the table when you're rolling. You don't want to add too much flour during the rolling process. During rolling, dust a pinch of flour to the dough and then make sure to brush off the flour from the dough and table. If you add too much flour to the dough during the rolling, you'll end up with crunchy, bread-like texture. A light dusting of flour is fine. Actually, you do need a light dusting of flour and then brushing off the excess, so the dough doesn't stick to the table.
I don't let the dough rise before rolling. Rather, I let the dough rise slowly after they're shaped. I let them proof in a cool room for 2 to 3 hours or more.
Bake at 475 degrees F for the first 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to 400 for 5 minutes and then to 350 for 10 minutes. I use two baking pans on top of each other to prevent the bottoms of croissants from burning. If I use one baking pan, the bottoms of the croissants burn. My baking pan sheet is too thin, so I need two. The initial high heat is needed because it makes the dough puff and the butter evaporate. When I bake at a lower temperature, I end up with butter pooling which is not good!