October 16, 2024 - 7:24pm
Rolling out low hydration croissant dough
Hey everyone. I recently dove into making croissants and I've hit a major impasse. How are you supposed to roll this dough out? My hydration is at 49% with 8% butter mixed in. I mix for 20 minutes in a stand mixer at speed 2 and cold ferment for 24ish hours. But the dough fights me after the lock in. What am I doing wrong here? Thanks!
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I've never even made croissants (mentioning this just as a note), but since you didn't mention resting, maybe try resting the dough if it fights you. Just plop it into the fridge, wait 20-30 mins and continue rolling out. More info might be needed though, the information you provided might be too brief for deeper investigation.
You're mixing too long. I made the same mistake when starting croissants. The lamination process will strengthen the gluten later in the process. You only need about 5 minutes at KA speed 1 to incorporate everything and then another minute at speed 3 to finish it off. Don't overmix up front and the rolling will go more smoothly,
Okay yeah I was thinking this was the culprit. I just wanted full gluten development to prevent tearing and to get a nice open honeycomb crumb, but my flour is plenty strong and I clearly developed too much gluten too quickly. I will report back on a new batch soon. Thank you!
When I made a batch a month ago, these were my measurements. Hydration @ 55% before considering the 50 g of water in the eggs which would get it closer to 60%.
Ingredient
Target %
Target g
Flour
100.0%
1,339
AP
50.0%
670
Pastry
50.0%
670
Salt
1.8%
24
Sugar
15.0%
201
Yeast
2.0%
27
Butter
5.0%
67
Liquid
55.0%
737
Water
25.0%
335
Milk
25.0%
335
Whole Egg
5.0%
67
This recipe included a pâte fermentée. I will often include a poolish or sourdough levain but did not this time. I’ve been using this formula for a number of years. Works well and the dough has never been difficult to work with.
Bonne chance,
Phil
Typically every croissant recipe I've come across from the type of croissants I like (open crumb honey comb layers) all recommend hydration between 46-50%. What does the crumb of your croissants look like at that hydration level?