croissant help
Hi all. I'm attempting to make croissants but the first two tries ended up being layered biscuits instead. The first time I made several mistakes like the butter not being shaped correctly, so I wasn't able to fully enclose it into the dough. The second time, which is today, I made sure to square the butter and I was able to envelop it in the square though, but the problem came when trying to roll it.
I am not able to roll it very thin without the dough tearing and butter bursting out, even though the butter is cold and not melty. So I ended up with a very thick dough. After the second fold, it became too thick and no matter how long I left it in the fridge to relax, it would resist and shrink back. So I ended up just cutting them into rectangles and attempted to turn them into pain au chocolat, but that failed too. Like yesterday, pools of butter melted when baking, essentially turning them into buttery biscuit bread, which isn't so bad but is not the goal. When I researched about this problem (pools of butter) they mentioned that it would mean the dough is underproofed, and the first one I only let rest for an hour (in a warm kitchen) so today I proofed for around an hour and forty five minutes. The dough was very puffy then and I think they were overproofed.
At first, while I was rolling out the dough, I thought my dough was too thin since I can still see hints of the yellow butter underneath, and when I did make the dough it was very soft, so I kneaded it until smooth and let it rise for an hour before refrigerating overnight. There were lots of air bubbles which I think are also the culprit for it "bursting" and letting butter out, so that I wasn't able to roll it out flat. But as I got to more folds, I got to thinking that maybe it was the opposite and the dough was too strong. I'm thinking maybe next time I'll only knead briefly (but am not sure how long; I knead by hand as I don't have a dough mixer) and skip the rising stage and put it straight to cool overnight in the refrigerator, but I also read that underdeveloped gluten can cause the tears in the dough when rolling out, since the dough is weak it can't stretch out very much.
What do you recommend I do, in a warm climate? Should I knead until smooth then put it straight to the fridge overnight, or should I knead only until incorporated then let rest for a while (maybe an hour) before refrigerating overnight? Some people recommend not kneading because rolling the dough would be like the kneading process and developing the gluten, but some people also knead it for a long time for a strong dough that can stretch without tearing. How would I balance out those two? Is there a test for it like the windowpane test? Maybe if I knead it a lot then don't let it rise for a lower gluten development? I'm using AP flour. My butter has 82% butterfat.
Recipe:
- 1/4 tsp yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup + few tablespoons flour (the tablespoons I added until the dough wasn't wet, smooth but still slightly tacky to the touch)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp butter
I'm following this but I reduced it. Next time I won't do it because I think I messed up the recipe.
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tl;dr should I knead my croissant dough and if so, how much and if I should let it rise before refrigerating overnight? Also, why was my dough too thick to roll flat to make proper layers, probably resulting in the pools of butter melting in the oven?
You will find txfarmer's articles on making croissants helpful throughout the entire process. Here is the first in a series. Others deal with variations, e.g. sour dough.
See her blog for an index of her articles. Go to the section on "My obsession for laminated dough:"
gary
That is very helpful, thank you! Her version is kind of similar to Weekend Bakery's, so I've been wanting to try skipping bulk fermentation and according to her article she said she doesn't think it's suitable for home bakers. Still nervous my dough would end up too weak to properly roll though.
Keep in mind that the roll-outs are an almost extreme form of kneading. It actually creates a very strong gluten matrix and combined with the rests, the larger problem is the dough becoming too strong.
gary
Yes, that's why I was considering skipping bulk fermentation but afraid it'll get too weak if I do. But I did it that time and it was too strong, so I was asking how I could somehow get a dough that isn't too weak that it would tear when rolling, but not too strong too.
There are two factors here. First, freshly worked dough has high elasticity, that is, it tries to snap back like a rubber band. Second there is extensibility, which describes the dough's ability to stretch without snapping back, or at least not too much.
When you rest the dough, extensibility is favored even while more gluten is formed. If your dough is too elastic, put it back in the fridge for more rest. If you have done even a short mix/knead, your dough will not be too weak, unless you're trying to use a very low protein flour. Consider that you may be trying to roll the dough too thin too quickly.
I don't strictly do a long bulk ferment. Instead, I do a short mix, roll out for my initial shape for enclosing the butter then refrigerate overnight. Enclose the butter and back in the fridge for an hour. Do each roll-out, fold and back in the fridge. A weak dough just isn't an issue.
g
Would that mean that resting the dough overnight in the refrigerator would let it form enough extensibility to roll flat enough, even with very minimal kneading (say, nowhere near passing the windowpane test) Sorry for too many questions!
After making my dough again earlier, I'm starting to think it's the flour (I'm using AP flour) or I should adjust by adding more water. It's only 47% now, maybe I should up the hydration to 50% or so. The dough's skin kept tearing, so I'll only try using half of it tomorrow so if it still doesn't work I'll just turn them into loaves or buns. I do think I overworked them since I tried to get them to smoothen ?
After your short mix/knead, yes. Shape and enclose the butter, then refrigerate for an hour, roll out, fold and repeat.
47% hydration is way too low. No wonder your dough is tearing. I do bagels at about 55% and croissants at 60 minimum to 65%.
AP flour is fine. Bread flour may make the dough too tough to roll out without a sheeter.
g
Ahh, I'll adjust the hydration then, or I'll try another formula for now. I won't be making croissants today then, I'll try to find some other use for the dough. It's odd though since I followed a lot of the Youtuber's recipes and they seem to work, so not sure what happened with this one (it seems to work with her) Will try again with a higher hydration and hopefully it works! I want to actually go into making croissants already, haha. Thank you again :)
Great job on number 2 - it'll probably take a fee more tries. Regarding butter be sure to use a high fat euro butter. For dough you definitely need it to be well gutenized and relaxed during lamination. The next trick is to ensure the butter and dough are the same malleability and use thr freezer to add som extra chill to the dough. if the butter cracks then it's too cold, if it leaks it's too warm. You know you got that process down if and when you can laminate without fully enclosing the butter - ie just folding once to form your first fold. It's just a matter of doing it over and over - a good video is Bruno albouze's tutorial. Ps you lamination should look like this just prior to the final roll out -
How well glutenized should it be? Some recommend kneading until smooth and stretchy, while some only recommend kneading until it's not sticky to touch then refrigerate overnight, skipping the bulk fermentation.
Also, I have seen Bruno Albouze's video! It's very helpful and I wrote the whole thing down haha. I want to try that once I get the technique down, since he used a lot of butter and it'll be more painful to fail. That picture is also what I'm aiming for but sadly never got to that stage, my dough was too fat and I couldn't roll it flat no matter what I do.
I think you did really well for the first time.
It's hard to overproof croissant in a short period. It takes hours and hours to overproof this dough because there is so much yeast in comparison to other doughs.More likely you are underproofing and your butter is not spreading evenly when you roll. The butter not spreading evenly and then breaking is what I've noticed to be the case of almost every single person to say they have butter leaking excessively during baking.
I think probably your butter is too cold and hard and your dough is too warm and soft. The butter will not form a nice pliable layer beneath the dough and will break and may look like leopard spots. Your fridge may not be getting your dough as cold as you think if it is continuing to ferment that much. Not a problem though! degass the dough and roll it out to the size you want to use to fold in butter and then chill it for 30 minutes before enveloping your butter and doing your first fold. You might also consider to put the dough into the freezer for about 10 minutes. Not too long. And then move it to the fridge. You might also try taking the butter block (after shaping it) out of the fridge 2 to 5 minutes before you will encase it in your dough. Touch your dough as little as possible. In the video I watched, the person touches it a lot. If you are in a warm climate, try and not touch it at all if you can avoid it. Put your rolling pin in the freezer or fridge if you can. Before you start and during resting times. If you have granite or marble to roll on, put ice packs, bags of ice, or bags of frozen veg on the area you want to roll to help chill down the surface. All of these things can help if you live in a warm climate. however, if your house is always 25C and above it will be very very challenging to learn to roll out croissant. It can be done, but the learning process will be much longer as you are working at and even above the melting point of the butter.
Thank you for your insight, it's very helpful! I'll freeze the dough for ten minutes then refrigerate for twenty more minutes before enveloping the butter and try to chill my work surface.
I've been thinking to skip the bulk fermentation, and maybe knead less. If I change the recipe like that do you think it'll work, or would the gluten in my dough be too weak so I wouldn't be able to roll it properly? Since I couldn't properly roll it flat because I think the dough was too strong. Some recipes suggest kneading a lot and letting rest at room temperature before chilling, but some recommend otherwise because it would make the dough too strong at the beginning, and since that particular recipe is a hard dough it might make it tougher to roll out especially since I don't have much experience (I'm afraid I might roll it harder than I should and squishing all the butter)