piper stevens
gnosh
recipe index

croissants (attempt 1)

Croissants hold a special place in most bakers’ hearts. They are intimidating and exciting and persnickety and embody success in baking, at least to me. There are so many elements at play in a croissant recipe. To begin, the dough is yeasted, so managing the kneading and rising is one element. The dough is also laminated, which adds another challenge of choosing the right butter and properly rolling the dough. Then there are considerations of shaping, filling, and baking the croissants. Managing timing and temperatures and protein contents and yeast is both daunting and exhilarating. I think mastering your own personal croissant recipe and technique is something most bakers romanticize. The croissant can easily become an obsession. It demands and deserves respect. And you know what? I think the final result - a beautifully risen, flakey, buttery croissant, is absolutely worth the hype. That is why I have titled this post attempt 1, because there will no doubt be many more attempts as I lean into this obsession. I am hoping that this blog will provide me a place to document each attempt and keep notes on my techniques and what needs to be changed in future iterations. That being said, here are the key notes and decisions I made in this iterations and things I would like to change in the next go around.

positives

  • great separation of layers
  • brown color (from double egg washing)
  • buttery flavor
  • dough texture, easy to laminate and no butter breakage
  • two overnight rises, I think this really helped to create defined layer separation

improvements/notes for next time

  • size - too small both height wise and length wise (4 inch base next time)
  • slightly overbaked on bottom
  • filling ratio- ham and cheese filling overwhelmed the size of the croissant
  • flour ratios - need to test 1/2 AP flour and 1/2 bread flour to see how it effects the dough texture
  • need to buy a brush to remove excess flour from dough and a pastry brush for egg washing
  • experiment with active yeast versus dry yeast
  • perform entire second proof in oven with added humidity

INGREDIENTS

  • 5 g active dry yeast
  • 120 ml whole milk
  • 250 g flour
  • 5 g salt
  • 30 g sugar
  • 8 g honey
  • 50 g cold butter
  • 125 g butter with high butter fat (at least 84%) for lamination
  • egg Wash: one egg whisked with a splash of heavy cream

METHOD

recipe: Ferrandi Pattiserie (1.5x dough) recipe

butter: Plugra, 200 g

flour: all Costco bakers flour

mix dough: 10 minutes on low, butter added cold after dough came together.

1st proof: 30 minutes at room temperature then overnight in fridge

lamination: 1 single and 1 wallet turn with 20 minutes chilling in between.

shaping:

  • rolled to baking sheet size, chilled for 1 hour.
  • divided in half and along the short side attempted to roll each rectangle to be 24 cm x 32
  • cut 8 croissants from each rectangle, measuring a base width of 8 cm.
  • stretched each triangle and gently rolled into croissant shape. Transferred to a baking sheet lined with parchment
    • 8 croissants per sheet = 16 total.
    • dough felt very stiff at this point and did not stretch very easily

filing: placed 1 tbsp of this moray sauce (1/2 recipe) on the base of 8 croissants. Topped with 1/2 slice of ham and 2 slices of

2nd proof:

  • egg washed then covered in plastic to prove overnight in refrigerator.
  • next morning (starting at 4 AM): proofed for 3 hours (2 hours at room temperature and 1 hour in an oven with boiling water for humidity)

bake: transferred croissants to fridge while oven preheated to 375°F. Egg washed a second time, then baked for 20 minutes on center rack, rotating halfway through.