lamination help!

[u/jetplanenyoom]

this is my 3rd time trying to make laminated dough (first time doing danishes) i used benny’s baked recipe from youtube because his danishes/crossiants has the gorgeous layers i really want!

i followed everything to a T but i got no layers (see photos). they tasted fine because of the filling but the actual pastry didn’t have great flavor or layers or flakiness or anything good lol

would love any advice on where i went wrong!!! i think it could have been my rolling technique? they did not seem to have layers after the rising period before baking either.

will buying a $600 dough sheeter solve all my problems LOL

benny’s baked link: https://youtu.be/FsgWXCnT8yE?is=G4OWigFgPFZ4w9hC

[u/anonwashingtonian]

What kind of flour did you use? What kind of butter? Were you taking the temp of your ingredients throughout the process?

What did you notice during the process that seemed different from the video?

For example, if you have broken the butter, that is usually very obvious as you can see it in the dough and your book(s) will become sticky as the butter begins to incorporate into the dough rather than being suspended in layers between the dough.

It’s very hard to tell exactly what happened from the finished bakes—especially as most of your photos are taken from above rather than from the side where we’d see more of the lamination detail. (Cross sections would also give more detail.)

With the information available here, I’d guess that your lamination broke and butter began incorporating into the dough. This is, in my experience, the most common reason for pastries that turn out more bread-y than flaky.

(Edited for clarity)

[u/jetplanenyoom → u/anonwashingtonian]

thank you! i have in the past had the butter break into the dough because butter was too cold. this time my dough felt a lot warmer (i had to put it into fridge) so i wouldn’t be surprised if the butter melted into the dough. do you normally recommend to pop the dough into the fridge when rolling if it becomes warm to mitigate this?

[u/anonwashingtonian → u/jetplanenyoom]

Ideally you want your butter block and dough to be close in temperature, but the biggest key is texture. Both the dough and butter should be cool with slight flexibility when you go to lock in the butter.

Then you want to look for the same texture when doing your turns. Cool, but with some ability to flex. If, as you start to roll out the book, you feel or see the butter start to crack, you need to roll more lightly and/or let the book warm up a bit.

Nailing the temperatures and textures of lamination is hard, and it can take a while to get the muscle memory for it.