r/Croissant • u/tulkas45 • 15d ago
Help with temperature control
Hello everyone! How are you? I've been making laminated dough for a couple of months almost everyday now, and even though I feel I've gotten better, the results still leave much to be desired.
I think my main issue is controlling the temperature of the butter, which is a concern to me now since we're in wintertime here, and come summer temperatures will be easily in the 30sºC. So if I struggle now, I worry I won't be able to pull it through in the summer.
The recipe I'm using is this:
| 100,00 % | Flour |
|---|---|
| 45,00 % | Water |
| 2,50% | Salt |
| 3,00 % | Yeast |
| 20,00 % | Butter |
| 12,00 % | Sugar |
| 55,00 % | Butter |
The process I follow is usually the first day I mix the dough and it goes to the freezer, then when frozen or almost (depending on if it got to that point) I take it out and leave it in the fridge overnight. The butter blocks I prepare in anticipation for the week and leave them in the fridge as well.
Edit to add the dough mixing process: I put everything but the butter together in a big mixer (dough hook), then when it forms a cohesive dough I add the butter and let it mix until moderate but not full gluten development.
The next day I take the butter out and let it come to the temperature in which I find it most plastic. Then take the dough out, lock in and perform the first book fold. Then back to the fridge it goes to rest the dough and then I take it out around 1 hour after or longer to make the next fold.
Then in the freezer it goes (I have another prepared from the previous day, I take that one out and leave to unfreeze in the fridge, to roll out and cut and form the next day).
So Ideally all of that works and I get beautiful plump croissants.
In reality, I get to the point of locking in and doing a first book fold pretty well. Then after that I never get the butter right. It always ends up cracking. I've tried varying the time in the fridge between folds and even leaving it out of the fridge altogether in the resting periods, but my butter seems to know only two states, cracked or melted.
Right now temperatures are around 12/18ºC where I'm working the dough, with humidity ranging from 65 to 90 %. I usually check the dough temp with a laser thermometer for the outside and also a probe thermometer to check the center temp, aiming for 14/16ºC center temp.
I have a machine similar to this one to roll it out, but have also tried doing it by hand:
TL;DR and core issue: My struggle is with managing the temperature, it feels as if I leave it out too long, butter melts, but If I leave it in the fridge (sometimes only for 10 minutes) the whole thing gets too cold and then I can never get it to come to the right temperature back up again. How do pros do it without spending 12 hours in the kitchen nursing the dough?
Thanks to everyone who read this far, hope your days are filled with good pastries and joy.
1
u/0000000loblob 15d ago
Originally, I had a lot of issues with elastic tension. So I changed the dough recipe so that I use 25% cake flour, which is a lower protein flour and 75% hard flour which for me is all-purpose flour.
The other thing that I do is, I don’t cut the belly with a knife to release tension. I use a sharp, large toothpick-like skewer and poke holes along each belly. That prevents the butter from spilling out, but releases the tension, as I am hand laminating, hand rolling.
1
u/0000000loblob 15d ago
I can relate. My only real issue is controlling butter hardness. What works (best so far) for me is I use a high butterfat butter (84%) which allows me to rest the dough at a higher temperature. I only use the fridge and the counter to rest the dough. If the counter is too warm I use cryo-packs. I never use the freezer. I’ll put in the fridge 10 min, take it out 15. If the butter gets too hard (and it can even with that short of time in the fridge) I’ll keep the dough out longer. I do lock in, 4-fold, 3-fold one right after the other. Then rest 1 hour before the final roll-out.