Croissant
Yesterday i tried making croissants for the 2nd time.
The first time wasn't tht good becoz the butter burst through the dough and i just threw part of the dough and simply made some badly/oddly shaped croissants.
So yesterday, i rolled out the dough and thought mebbe if i use pieces instead of a block, the results will be better. Instead, the pieces were too frozen and it pierced right through the dough!.. :S... I got frustrated and kneaded the pieces in the dough and roughly crushed it while i kneaded it. Then i quickly threw it in the freezer.
I took it out and did a business letter fold but the butter burst through the other side again. So i just folded tht part over and froze it.
I got an idea suddenly, instead of doing the business letter fold, i rolled out into a long rectangle and rolled it up like a swissroll. Then rolled it out again after freezing it. I tot tht could incorperate more folds in less time...and it did! ...
It came out to be quite good, with layers and a lot of volume. :)
I shared it with my church group and they found it hard to believe i made it.. :P hehe
(hmm..how do u attach a photo??? )
Comments
Glad to hear your croissants came out. Way to improvise!
I believe you should be able to post an image here using the image upload tool. I have yet to try it though, so let me know if it gives your any problems.
If it doesn't work or you want more flexibility, there are a couple of other options. Probably the best is to get yourself set up with an account at Photobucket. The site is free and they provide real nice photo management tools, and you can link to them from anywhere (here, another journal or forum, anywhere).
Another option is you can email them to me and I can put them up on my server.
The bursting butter can be an annoyance at times. Here are was to get around it.
First go to your local home improvement store and by a sheet/roll of the thickest mil plastic sheeting. Also while there buy a 24" piece of 2" wooden dowell (rolling pin)
Version one
Make your dough. Form it into a ball shape and let retard for 1 hour. Remove from retarder and using a knife cut a large "X" in the dough, cutting almost all the way through. Pull each of the four pieces out and roll flat.
Now cut a piece of that sheet of plastic. Take your butter and put it on the sheet. Fold over the remaining plastic and using that wood dowell pound it flat. Trim as needed to fit the dough you have. The pounding will make the butter maliable to work with.
Pull each of the four pieces back to the center so that it encases the butter. Now go ahead and process the dough as normal.
Allow good retarding between folds to keep the butter cool.
Version 2
Roll the dough into a rectangle, like the size of a small sheetpan aka jellyroll pan.
Flatten the butter to fit the width of the dough and half the height. Place the butter on the bottom half and fold the top half down. Pinch the edges slightly to seal in the butter and roll as usual.
I would not use the spot-in method on any dough using butter, unless the butter was either mixed with margarine, or softened a lot and mixed with a little flour in the mixer. Butter has a very hard fat structure and using the spotting method will cause ripping.
I will attempt to post some pictures of the various processes in the next few weeks.
Carlton Brooks CEPC, CCE
Mesa, Arizona
I think i would sure like to try 'Version 2' instead of the former one. I've done that version 3 times, one with puff pastry and 2 with croissant doughs, and they all burst. Version 2 sounds less likely to burst too. However, it would be a while till i make another batch of croissants... hehe.. :)
Good tip...grating the butter...hehe.. Sounds a bit like flaky pastry style... ;)
Thx for the idea Helen.
And Carlton, it sure would be good to see the photos of processes done when making laminated doughs, if u could post em. :) ...