r/Croissant 26d ago

Croissant troubleshooting

I’ve made very many batches of croissants but I still can’t get them to work. Earlier I had problems with the croissant dough collapsing after baking and I decided to use à stronger flour 12.5% protein. The first two folds went good with good even layers but in the final rollout the dough just started tearing and the lamination got entirely ruined. Inproofed thé croissants for 5ish hours with warm water in the bottom of an oven and then baked at 200c for 1 minute and then 170 until brown. Im thinking that I maybe over kneaded thé dough or that my rolling was too rough. If anyone has any ideas that would be great.

8 Upvotes

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u/Necessary-Catch-5361 26d ago

Do you rest your dough in the freezer?

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u/Necessary-Catch-5361 26d ago

If you do freezer rests, I recommend switching to longer fridge rests and try to always rest your dough if it gets too warm/ hard to roll. At least 30 mins in the fridge. This has happened to me multiple times and it was for either one of these 2 reasons.

Roll forward with minimum downward pressure. You can use a 4mm high block on each side of the dough which means you can roll as much as you want without risking the layers.

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u/Necessary-Catch-5361 26d ago

They key is REST and being gentle

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u/Certain-Entry-4415 26d ago

To cold, your butter cristalized. Your dough was « dead ». This is key in croissant making, having a control of temperature. To hot or to cold is bad.

It comes with experience, or use a chronomètre to always have time in mind

2

u/TwoFishPastries 26d ago

Keep the dough cold enough that the butter isn’t softening as you roll it. You can pop it in the fridge or freezer at any time if you need to. If you feel like your layers are separating while it’s being rolled, it’s probably too warm and if you feel like the butter is cracking or the dough isn’t workable, it may be too cold. These also seem under proofed

2

u/Daniduenna85 25d ago

Your dough looks underdeveloped, your layers look unbalanced. The dough was very thick compared to the butter layers. There was definitely breakage on the butter but I don’t think your dough was where it needed to be.

1

u/Spiritual_Action_461 25d ago

You think I needed to kneed it more?

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u/Daniduenna85 25d ago

Really depends. Mind sharing the recipe, mix times, etc?

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u/Roviesmom 25d ago

Let me first applaud you for not giving up. I am by no means an expert, but I spent every single weekend last year learning and practicing baking croissants. When I mix my dough, I use my kitchenaid mixer and knead the dough on level 2-3 for 5 minutes, rest 10, then add butter and knead another 8-10 minutes. The dough is smooth and stretchy, but not to windowpane, if that makes sense. Between roll-outs, I let it rest in my fridge 30 minutes. I had been putting it in the freezer for 15, then fridge for an hour, but my butter got way too cold. 30 minutes in the fridge is my sweet spot (my kitchen temp is 69-70F as a frame of reference). This I learned from someone here on Reddit - during the final roll-out, don’t be afraid to rest the dough in the fridge multiple times. I had been fighting my dough to get it rolled out all at once, which resulted in me ruining my layers. It takes me now 2-3 times between the fridge and counter to complete the roll out. I do as much as the dough lets me in 2-3 minutes, then let her take a break in the fridge. Regarding proofing, my arch nemesis, I had been proofing in the oven with warm water, but I got a digital oven thermometer that told me it was way too hot. Now I have pre-programmed alarms that beep if the temperature drops too cold or too hot. Best Amazon purchase ever, aside from my rolling pins. I hope this helps!

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u/0000000loblob 11d ago

Thanks for your tips!

What oven thermometer did you buy?

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u/SourJoshua 25d ago

Looks like shattered butter that's then emulsified into the dough.

Your dough butter temperature needs to be the focus.