Croissant-making over 4 days??
Hi All,
I'm still fairly new to croissant-making, but feel like I'm closing in on my "perfect croissant". Typically, I make them over a three day period as follows:
Evening 1 - Make dough, Refrigerate
Evening 2 - Laminate, Refrigerate
Morning 3 - Shape, Proof, Bake
I'm wondering how my end product would be affected if I were to stretch the process over 4 days. Specifically, I made my dough last night (Evening 1), planned to have fresh croissants on Morning 3, but realized I actually need them on what would be Morning 4. Would it hurt the dough to rest in the fridge for 48 hours before lamination versus 24 hours? Or if I go ahead and laminate tonight (Evening 2), could it rest in the fridge for 32ish hours before shaping/proofing/baking versus resting just overnight? Just wondering if this might work out, or if I should just make a new batch of dough tonight so that it gets baked on Morning 3, as usual.
Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!
I follow the recipe at https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/classic-french-croissant-recipe/ pretty closely, and it is spread out over a course of three days. I've had pretty good results using it. The length of the process isn't normally an issue and actually works quite well with my schedule. Maybe one day I'll try an abbreviated process like yours, but not until I perfect this one. Anyway, just looking for insight into whether extending my usual process by a day (either by keeping the dough in the fridge or utilizing the freezer) would negatively affect my end result.
Ought to be fine. I make make all of my croissants for the week M-Tues and then bake them as late as saturday, keeping all the shaped ones in the fridge until then. I also freeze them on occasion and use them the following week.
Okay, great! I may try it then! I went ahead and made a 2nd batch of dough, because I wasn't sure I wanted to risk messing up a good thing. But it's good to know that I could have more flexibility in the process. Thank you, MichaelLily.