Croissants doughs butter layer ripping early into the rolling process.
Hello everyone,
This is my first of hopefully many posts on The Fresh Loaf. Having read so many post over the last few months it feels an honor to finally add something myself.
I wish this could be a story of success, however it is quite the opposite. I've been trying to make croissants over the last few months and for some reason it just never ends up as the neatly layered product it should be. Instead it's caky and if there are layers, they are undefined and non-flaky.
I have followed many different recipes, and in some areas my ability has improved due to the fact I'm doing the process so many times over and over. However there are several stages of the process that recipe books rarely go into (maybe as they are common sense), such as once you have enclose the butter in the dough, how do you roll it out without breaking the butter? I've tried knocking it on top lightly with rolling pin to loosen the butter (after seeing a french baker doing it on a youtube video), I've tried rolling slowly back and forward (which I guess would be standard), but every time the butter seems to break inside the dough. I read somewhere that the butter need to be the same temperature as the dough, but I don't really know how to judge this. I guess the butter could be rolled out at room temperature, but I do worry that it will go the opposite way and melt during the roll.
I desperately want to master the art of croissant making, but feel I need help to start this journey.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Simon
...knocking it on top lightly with rolling pin to loosen the butter...
I've never made croissant, so I can't offer any advice in that direction, but I have worked with butter and if you want to make very cold butter malleable you'll have to do more than knocking it on top lightly with rolling pin. It takes some serious bashing before wrapping it in dough. Great stress release.
A collection of inspired sources exists, most notably The Weekend Baker and TxFarmer .
The Weekend Bakery has some quality instructions and videos. TxFarmer is the reigning queen/doyenne of baking on Isle TFL, although her activity has pretty much slowed down these past two years.
Quoting Irving Berlin's "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better", with TxFarmer, it is more like "Anything We Can Do, She Can Do Better". She has a lot of very detailed instructions with links to other posts with very detailed instructions. Prepare to spend time there. So...check out the links and see where you might pick up a few dozen hints!
alan
Not at all an expert in lamination, but my understanding is that if the butter is breaking, it's too cold for its melting point and the solution is to warm it up. I too used to be afraid of it melting into a liquidy mess but realised that too cold wouldn't work either.
.. to the good advice & links posted - one thing I've found (& seen) is to try to make the butter about the same consistency as the dough - so make dough, into the fridge - then butter in-between 2 sheets of parchment paper and whack it with a rolling pin a few times then roll it out to the shape - then into the fridge until the dough has chilled - then you can start laminating.
Here's another (fun!) video to add to the collection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L36OiPWmOL4
-Gordon
One of the things I have done while making my croissants is I let my butter come up to room temp, then mix in about 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour into the butter. I then roll out my dough then spread the butter on top of the dough a third of the way. fold the dough up into thirds then chill over night in plastic wrap. in the morning you can then begin your rolling and folding process.
add about 2 Tbsp flour per eight ounces of cold butter and blend it in with a food processor or the stress relief method while the dough rests in the fridge, when the butter feels like "moldable play dough" get the dough out and do your first folds. When the dough warms up put the whole shebang back in the fridge for fifteen minutes and continue.
Not all butters are appropriate for lamination. Professionals use special purpose butters that are much more plastic than ordinary ones. Examples in europe are Corman and Debic, just to name a few.
The melting point is much higher, they can even stand at room temperature without melting. Moreover they are really plastic, meaning that you can fold a strip of butter without tearing it. You can imagine what a difference it makes when you spread the dough with this butter inside: it doesn't break.
Generally you should avoid butter obtained by means of surfacing (that being fermented is also sourer), preferring instead northern-europe style butters obtained by centrifugation. I don't know how butter is obtained in N. America, I'm curious.
Italian butter is always obtained by surfacing. It's simply disgusting in all respects.
Try to fold and break a piece of butter between your fingers. It if crumbles it's not good for lamination, while the more it folds the better it is for your purpose.
in the states to do laminated doughs you must buy "European-style" butters, lower moisture content equals higher melting point equals easier laminating. Simon is in Shanghai LOL so not sure what's available there.
So over the last few days I have been around the supermarkets in Shanghai, and the highest fat content I've found is 82%. Obviously others have suggested 84% or above in the fat content, so I'm not sure if the 2% makes a big difference.
Also I have tried to mix the butter with some flour, but I'm not exactly sure if I should be mixing it all the way in to soft butter, or just coating cold butter cubes in flour. Please advise on this.
Many thanks for all your replies, great to know people really do care to help others in solving these problems.
Butter in the UK has a minimum of 80% fat. President butter (French) which you can get fairly easily has 82% so I would think that anything >= 80% is as good as you'll get.
-Gordon
I can see what you're saying about low water content butter solving both problems of the butter not melting and staying pliable throughout the process.
I will look out for something here. I have seen several French brands in the supermarket, but not sure if it will have these specifications.
butter that is less than 14% water and use flour to soak up that existing water content and make the butter pat pliable.
I am not an expert by any stretch and fold of the imagination (a little baker's humor for you) but have had good success laminating dough with that criteria. Good luck!