Croissants - In Pursuit of Perfection

Good Texture inside - shame about the outside

Croissants are my baking nemesis.  I've tried various recipes, been on courses, practised multiple times but only once managed to produce any I was remotely pleased with.  The overnight rise time plus 4 or so hours of work makes them not an insignificant undertaking and so much can seem to go wrong: too much kneeding, butter to cold/warm, rolling out doesn't work, butter breaks through layers of dough, sizing, shaping, over/under proving, proving temperature too high/low, oven temperature not working etc. etc. etc.

Yet I love trying to make them.  It's partly the challenge of getting it right but also the knowledge that something with that much butter in them is always going to be edible.

Today's attempt was better than last time.  Last time the dough was so difficult to roll that the butter broke through the dough, destroying the layers and then melted whilst the dough was proving so we got something more like brioche (but still very nice). So this time I worked the dough less before its overnight rest in the fridge and left it to prove in a cooler place.

This time the dough seemed to work OK until the final rolling out and there were clear signs of layers of butter and dough.  The final rolling out was still tough, the dough seemed to become so elastic it kept springing back. I wonder if the super strong Canadian flour is the problem, with too much gluten build up during the rolling and folding stages.  I made half the dough into pain au chocolate with the unshaped dough left in the fridge to rest whilst I shaped the croissants.  That additional resting time seemed to really help so next time I'll try using lower gluten flour and rest the rolled dough before cutting and shaping the croissants.

Then my oven seemed to screw up - far too hot in places which made the croissants colour in the first 5 minutes with predictable results.  Mr Vitty's comment when they came out of the oven that they looked 'a bit burnt' nearly got him thumped.  Not sure why I still gave him the 'snippets' as Richard Bertinet calls them (left over croissant dough, deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar)

Snippets and coffee - much needed as croissants were proving

The croissants may well be overdone but they didn't taste burnt and the texture was great - flakey outside and lovely honeycombed centre (much better than the brioche texture of the last batch).

They taste great : )

Stored in the freezer so Sunday morning breakfasts are sorted for the next month or so and then I'll have another go at perfecting my croissants.