Croissants and New Toys

What follows is my attempt at passing on what I've learned from watching a Youtube in a language I do not speak.

Some new toys. Both the dough whisk and the silicone scraper are great. AP and WW, poolish, milk, sugar, butter, and salt.

Maybe 30 seconds of mixing with whisk & dough was starting to come together. Another half minute or so & scraped the dough out onto the board. Picture doesn't do the scraper justice. The bowl was a little wet when I added the flour. Kneaded the dough for a minute, but should have developed it a little more.

Bought some safety razor blades, too. Wow! Much sharper than anything else I've tried to cut dough with so far. My attempt at 'Pointage' allowed the dough to spread while resting.

While the dough rested, I worked on folding my parchment for the butter. Watch the video. He makes it look very, very easy, in the effortless way only someone who has done something many, many times can do.

Even executed somewhat poorly, the parchment still makes getting the butter to fit the dough much easier.

Butter is 6" x 12" and dough 12" square. Single fold. Tap with pin and roll out.

 Rolled out to 12" x 24" and trimmed to make square and expose layering. No 2, is a "book fold" and the seam must be offset.

If I'm counting right, should be at 4 layers of butter now. Before and after resting (and almost getting dropped on the floor when I realized I'd forgotten to set the timer on my pain levain that was in the oven!).

Here the dough is again rolled and trimmed to 12" x 24" for Fold C. Scraps are re-incorporated.

I messed up by pressing the scraps in too firmly before finishing the "tri-fold" and had to roll out the top a bit more to get everything looking right again. Some more tapping and time to rest. Not for me of course, but for the dough while I got some Struan in the oven. 12 layers of butter now. I had been trying to layer more than this and ending up with no layers at all.

Getting short on time and a little tired of snapping pics. Should have got pictures of the shaped croissants, but again watch the video. It is important to shape firmly and push out while rolling if you want the really pointy ends of a 'manly croissant' (what I pretend he's saying in the video since I don't speak French).

The better looking ones had been either sold and/or eaten by the time I snapped these pics. Should have proofed longer and at a lower temp. Running short on time, proofed at 80 ish for about 90 minutes.

Not perfect by any means (either the croissants or this blog) but I feel like I'm getting better.