Croissant troubleshooting
Hi guys! I hope I'm in the right forum section!
I'm just done with my third attempt at making croissants. now that I'm satisfied with flavor, I really need some help to get some aethetic issues down.
These issue are:
1. the bottom of my croissant are on the verge of getting burnt (dark dark brown) how do I prevent this?
2. should I be proofing longer for a more open honeycomb crumb?
3. what are the advantages of using a poolish?
4. am I baking for too long? I'm deathly afraid of underbaking
This is what i did with my last batch of croissant:
I USED:
Flour 225 g
Milk powder 2tbsp
Water 120g
Sugar 29g
Salt 4.5g
Yeast 2.7g
Butter 2g
Butter for roll-in 112g
10Pm last night I laminated the dough over about 6 hours, a total of 3x3 folds = 27 layers. then i shaped 10 croissants and proofed for 4 hours at 77F. At 8.30am they didn't quite looked fully proofed, but by then I badly needed to bake in order to make it to work on time. I had thought three hours would be enough proof time, but I guess i was mistaken?
I then baked at 425 for 7minutes then 375 for 10minutes on parchment paper. For the first 7 minutes I poured water in the over to create steam every two minutes.
After i turned the oven off, I allowed the croissants to sit 5 minutes in the oven with the door cranked open before taking them out to cool.
Below are the results. They were such a hit with my workmates that they vanished in the blink of an eye. I had forgotten to take a photo of the almost burnt croissant bottoms.
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I'm completely new to laminated dough, so any tips and critiques are definitely!
Thanks in Advance!
For the dark bottom issue, one suggestion would be to put the rack higher in the oven.
They look amazing. Love the golden dark brown color, and even bake all around. I've been wanting to try Croissants for awhile now. You have totally inspired me to give it a shot.
You could also try putting tinfoil under your baking tray to deflect the heat. I just recently tried this with my dutch ovens for bread baking and it worked great.
Cheers!
Dave
You should definitely go for it. Every time I start the lamination process I groan at all the work. But when the croissants are baked, omg, soooo worth it!
I had a lot to learn as well, I accidentally made one tri fold too many in my first batch and made buttery bread croissaints instead of flakey. I also used too much eggwash, which sealed the layers, so now when I brush on the egg wash, i'm careful to not brush over the open layers.
The tinfoil idea is fantastic, I'll try that when I bake in a few hours! (it's 1am and sleep is overrated)
...problems.
1. the bottom of my croissant are on the verge of getting burnt (dark dark brown) how do I prevent this?
A: 425F is about 220℃. I assume you're using a convection oven but even so that's very high. With such a high butter content and sugar (plus milk - which you don't really need if you're aiming for traditional Parisien crx) the dough will bake at a lower internal temperature, so too much external heat can scorch your crx. Aim for around 200℃ (approx. 400F). Many bakers also reduce the heat another ten degrees after the the first ten minutes to avoid the scorching. However, leaving the door open gives you no control should you discover you've under-baked because the oven will be too cool to rescue them without drying them out. Why not bake them with the door closed until - to your eye - they look done?
If you're baking them directly on a stone then lowering the oven temp (or cracking open the door) will make little difference and you might still get scorched crx. Bake them on a rack.
2. should I be proofing longer for a more open honeycomb crumb?
A: If you over-proof you will have a load of collapsed crx that resemble roadkill. Looks like you did the right thing to bake them when you did.
I guess the point is not to stick slavishly to times when you're proofing. Your eyes and fingertips are a much better judge of when a dough is ready.
If you want higher cross-sections increase the size of each crx and increase the tourage. Four folds are used quite commonly, one of them often a book-fold. Btw, you start with three layers (dough-butter-dough) so three normal folds gives you eighty-one layers.
3. what are the advantages of using a poolish?
A: None, other than it might add some flavour. The simplest way to add a lot of flavour to crx dough is to cold retard for twelve hours (or overnight) and then degas gently before starting the lamination/tourage. It can make a big difference.
4. am I baking for too long? I'm deathly afraid of underbaking
A: I'll answer that with another question. Why be afraid? It's much better to check early and often than late. If your crx are under-baked then all you need to do is bake them a little longer. But there's no coming back from over-bakes.
Wow, thank you for taking the time to provide me with such detailed answers!
I don't bake with the oven open, I simply crank open the door after the bake and leave the croissants there for 5 minutes. But I think I've figured it out last night (yes, I've been making croissants daily, and it's painful yet fulfilling!). 7minutes baked at 425 and 10minutes at 385 gives me a very nice looking non burnt croissant.
I'm using a slotted broiler pan to bake, I can't believe I never thought of baking straight on the rack!
I do want the extra volume I always see posted on here, like the ones by txfarmer (sp?). Also pardon my ignorance and lack of vocabulary, but what does tourage mean? Should I be trying to give the croissant more layers?
My croissants ended up being proofed for 5 hours last night as I missed my alarm and overslept.... but the crumb in batch no.4 is pretty much the same as that of batch no.3....So I guess it isn't really a proofing problem...
Tourage is the process of laminating. I should have corrected that to plain English. Sorry.
By suggesting baking on the rack, I hope you don't think we meant placing each croissant directly on it. We meant using a baking sheet on top of the rack.
Five hours is a long time to proof but I guess it must have been pretty cold overnight.
What really matters is that those a great-looking crx. If they taste just as good it's hard to see how you could improve them.
Hope your back's okay doing all that lamination every day.
That makes sense. I baked on the rack anyway, and it was a happy accident. Other than the little indent lines on my mini pain au chocolats, it was perfect. The color was beautifully even top and bottom :)
I'm glad I'm only laminating small batches, I can't imagine struggling with more dough.
Wow I learnt a new term. "Tourage" makes this tedious process sound so much fancier! I came across a video yesterday where the lady mentioned the dough should be rolled out fairly thin to get the honey combs. What I ended up doing was putting the dough in the freezer. Freezing really helped me get the dough rolled thinner, and as a result the crumb was more open, not quite hexagonal... but I'm really happy to see improvement from my last batch!
The flavor was absolutely fantastic, I rarely say this about my own baking. I could have certainly done with more chocolate. I guess I forgot that while the dough rises, the chocolate does not. so what originally looked like an oversized chunk of chocolate became lost little pieces after the rise... oh well, attempt no.6 coming up tonight!
Inspired by the chocolate, I also baked a chocolate hokkaido milk loaf in between the lamination roll outs... easy baking, how I've missed you!