Broken butter in croussant dough.
I think I have found that this is probably not a problem but when I am rolling my croissant dough, I see the butter, in chunks, trying to poke through. The croissants turn out OK but I wonder.... I have tried several levels of refrigeration or freezing. What if were to just whip air into the butter.
I am wondering if this problem will go away or if it may actually improve the croissants them selves if I whipped the butter. Some whipped butter recipes call for added milk or water but I read that this would defeat the use of European butter.
I could even flavor the butter......
Since I have made at lease 5 experimental batches of croissants in the last month, I am a bit tired of croissants believe it or not (: so asking is better than trying another batch.
I follow the following procedure with the butter.
Blend the 3 3/4 sticks of butter and the 1/2 cup of flour. Lightly flour a piece of plastic wrap and place the butter mixture on it. Shape the butter into an 8” x 8” square. Wrap it and place it into the refrigerator until the dough is ready.
Essentially the same procedure is used whether it is puff pastry for the boulangerie or for the pâtisserie. In either case the butter is already softened by the air mixed into it.
Ford
In the lamination world. You are not getting the butter to the right temp with the dough and it is breaking. You need to take cold butter and use a rolling pin to soften it and make it "plastic" You want the butter cool but maliable. So when rolled it will roll with the dough, opposed to cracking and shattering opposed to creating the layers. And without layers ... you don't get the layers. Further you want the dough and butter at same temp for best lamination. Often I do my first two folds, wrap and place in fridge for 30-60 minutes. (again this is a temp/texture thing. When it feels cool but not too cold you continue. If it isn't cool enough you risk melting butter into the dough, if too cold you can shatter the butter in the following folds) Then do the final folds. Wrap and chill at least 4 hours and often 24 hours. Then it's roll shape, fill, proof, bake.
Hope this helps a bit
Josh