Croissants baking general

[Anonymous No.19886313]

I recently started making croissants for the first time in my life and I’m still learning.

Pic related was the best ones I made from the second batch I made, however I had problems
with the dried yeast that was super weak (I used 10 grams for 500 grams of flour) and basically died after I froze the shaped croissants before the final proof, that’s why the inside isn’t airy and developed as I wished.

Now I’ve switched to fresh yeast (25 grams for 500 grams of flour) and will try the same recipe again while adding some extra tips I learned by watching other recipes and tricks by professional bakers.

I have a two fundamental questions:

>At which step should I freeze the croissants if I want to defrost and make them fresh when I want to eat them? Before the last proof just as they’ve been former? When they did the final proof before baking? When they’re baked?

>Why do my croissants leak butter in the oven when I bake them? I tried everything from using higher temps in the oven (up to 210ºC fan forced) to placing the proofed croissants in the fridge for 1 hour to chill the dough and gave them a thermal shock in the oven, but the butter leaking was still there, although minor.

Post your croissants and discuss, thanks.

[Anonymous No.19886327]

This was the evolution of my ‘sants in a 1 month timeframe.

I’m happy with the results, but I worked with flawed dough since I had the yeast problem, so final proofing times have been the results of different tries because of the ultra low surviving yeast (the best ones in the op picture proofed in the fridge for 8 hours starting from frozen and 5 hours at room temp covered in the oven).

With active yeast in correct doses it should be done in 2 hours once thawed, right?

[Anonymous No.19886333]

be original

[Anonymous No.19886336]

>>19886313
>At which step should I freeze the croissants
Why the fuck would you ever want to do that ? They will taste like shit. Just buy them fresh from a bakery when you want some.

[Anonymous No.19886340]

>>19886336
You’re wrong, I did that and they still tasted super good.

[Anonymous No.19886375]

>>19886340
That's how a croissant should look like, not your dense frangipane looking ones. Freezing them is cassos-tier.

[Anonymous No.19886381]

Looking good bro!! I don’t know how to help you but I would like to add that I am impressed and would definitely eat those.

[Anonymous No.19886527]

>>19886375
>that’s how they should look like

I know anon, it was a problem with the yeast and I’m fixing it in the next batch as I said, by using fresh yeast instead of the dry bullshit.

>freezing them

A French guide told me that I could do this and let the croissant thaw at room temp 1:30 hours + 2 hours proofing.

>>19886381
Thank you anon

[Anonymous No.19886536]

>>19886313
I don't really like croissants. Can you make pain au chocolats or kouign amanns instead?

[Anonymous No.19886550]

>>19886536
Nope, I need to properly learn how to make good croissants and then I could move to the next recipe.

I tried making brioches but since I used the same fucking piece of shit yeast I had the same results, however I know how to make these so it’s not an issue, but still I’m mad.

[Anonymous No.19886554]

>>19886527
>A French guide told me that I could do this and let the croissant thaw at room temp 1:30 hours + 2 hours proofing.
I wouldn't buy such a croissant and I would know. The french guy was a cassos, many such cases, sad. You know what ? It's 4:11 am here, at 6 I'll buy some fucking croissants beurre (and a pain au chocolat).

[Anonymous No.19886556]

>>19886550
Look at this bullshit

[Anonymous No.19886563]

Italian man tries. Fails. Blames yeast.

[Anonymous No.19886574]

>>19886554
Are you suggesting making 2 croissants from scratch every time I want to make them? It’s too much work…it’s more convenient to make a batch of 10 and freeze them, I don’t care if it’s optimal or not because I ate them and they taste heavenly.

The problem is, and answer despite of what do you think this is right or not, that I need to understand when to freeze them. I’m scared of freezing baked croissants because I do that with homemade bread and it tastes worse and the crumb detaches from the inner part when it’s thawed and reheated, so…but then again freezing before final proofing seems that it killed the dried yeast. Now, maybe fresh yeast is stronger and will survive, but I’m asking because I don’t want to “waste” another 10 croissants that will be consumed in 2 weeks.

[Anonymous No.19886577]

>>19886563
Back to /ctg/ and yes it’s the yeast as you can see because the exterior of the croissant is good.

[Anonymous No.19886582]

>>19886550
Do you know how to test your yeast? Add a bit of yeast to water plus a bit of sugar. If it bubbles high then it's good to go.

I bake quite a bit and I've never come across bad yeast, just bad technique on my part

Why do you need to learn to make croissants?

[Anonymous No.19886596]

>>19886550
Ive never made croissants before but I bake often. I'm familiar with the basic concept, but do you have any tips?

[Anonymous No.19886602]

>>19886574
> It’s too much work…
That's what bakeries are for... I wish you luck.

[Anonymous No.19886617]

>>19886574
They are saying to let them unfreeze at room temp during 20 minutes, leave some space between them to let them rise when they bake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWuKfg8FD8w

[Anonymous No.19886629]

>>19886617
Check at 28 minutes, he's giving advice about gluten and fat (milk and butter). It seems that you are using too much fat, that's why the croissant doesn't rise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4C1Ur-OZA

[Anonymous No.19886675]

>>19886582
I always had best results with fresh yeast during the years, that is.

Pic related; left brioches with dead yeast and right brioches successfully proofed

>>19886602
The problem is that bakeries don’t make croissants as good as mine, they use few butter and basically 1 every 4-5 of them makes them “good”, so I may as well make them and be at peace.

>>19886617
I also followed this guide: https://www.enviedebienmanger.fr/conseils-cuisine/viennoiseries-maison

>>19886629
My recipe calls for 80 grams of butter in the dough and 250 grams for lamination, for 500 grams of flour.

[Anonymous No.19886696]

>>19886675
>500 grams of flour.
What kind ? I need to go out, I'll check what he's saying in the vid and post in this thread later.

[Anonymous No.19886736]

>>19886696
Garofalo W260 type 00

[Anonymous No.19886828]

>>19886313
I make thousands of croissants each week and I can tell you that freezing them works perfectly fine, though it can affect the butter. Freeze them immediately after forming/rolling them into their final shape and then let them thaw and proof before baking. We let our frozen croissants thaw and proof for about 12 hours, then bake after an egg wash. We use active dry yeast bloomed in warm milk, only using about 6 grams per 500g flour, using primarily bread flour. I have to say I've never had bad yeast, though I often work in batches large enough that small inconsistencies would not be as noticeable.
Leaking butter is common and caused by a lot of things, typically your butter being too warm when it goes in the oven or the lamination being fucked up. It's not a big deal unless they're swimming in the pan, and even then they get an interesting crispiness from being fried, though the overall consistency suffers.
Your lamination looks pretty good, but your crumb is looking a bit cakey which I've never actually seen in a croissant before.
>>19886340
Is this yours before or after being frozen, it looks a little wet and glossy which is unusual unless you're getting condensation or something from being frozen. What is the black grain in your dough?

[Anonymous No.19886844]

brunha a good recipe. should be on the archives or his site

[Anonymous No.19886894]

>>19886828
>We let our frozen croissants thaw and proof for about 12 hours

You put your frozen croissants in the fridge for 12 hours or in the oven for 12 hours (or a mix of both)?

>lamination

Thanks, so the picture you’re quoting is a thawed and proofed (although it grew like 10% from its frozen and unproofed form) croissant from the first batch, so the very first ones I made when I fucked up the lamination by breaking the dough and leaking butter on the table as I was doing the folds.

The second batch, pic related, didn’t have this problem (just some flour residues that I couldn’t clear off the triangles before rolling).

>black grain

Vanilla seeds.
I tried dry vanilla artificial extract and now I bought natural liquid vanilla extract with seeds because I think that using bourbon vanilla seeds from the berry isn’t optimal for baking, it’s better suited for creams and such. Imho.

As for the internal texture, it was dense but at the same time soft. It’s not what I aim for, of course, but then again the croissants tasted supremely good.
I may want to try using less butter when I properly learn how to make them because 330 grams on 500 grams of flour is a fuck ton of fats, I can’t eat these everyday like I do with brioches for breakfast. :(

[Anonymous No.19886896]

>>19886844
Warosu doesn’t work sadly :/

[Anonymous No.19886903]

>>19886894
Ps. Thank you

[Anonymous No.19886947]

>>19886894
We proof them in an insulated cabinet. Since we fill it with frozen dough it quickly drops in temperature and gradually rises to room temperature over a long period. That said, we didn't have that when we first opened and just proofed them at room temperature and it worked fine. If that second pic is your dough after proofing, you might need to proof for longer, or you're resting at too low a temp for your yeast to really get to business.
For butter content it's going to be fatty as fuck no matter what you do, that's the nature of the laminated pastry. If you want something with less butter try wrapping a traditional bread in a thin skin of laminated dough. I make a baguette like this and roll it in everything bagel mix and it is pretty popular and I think they're quite good.

[Anonymous No.19886963]

>>19886947
>If you want something with less butter try wrapping a traditional bread in a thin skin of laminated dough

That sounds really interesting. Do you have any pictures of that?

[Anonymous No.19887014]

>>19886963
I'll try to get some pictures at work, don't have any of the baguettes ready to go but I think I'll have some time to fuck around tomorrow and some people have been asking for them.
I started making them by request of my boss who used to live in New York, the Arcade bakery there used to make them and they were her favorite so she asked me to try to recreate them for her. Picrel is the Arcade one, mine isn't quite as nice looking since I don't do normal breads that often and don't have specialized baguette/filet pans.

[Anonymous No.19887017]

>>19887014
Neat, I might try this since I dont really like croissants. I also don't really like baguettes, do you think this method would work with something like a sandwich bread?

[Anonymous No.19887051]

>>19887017
Probably, though remember most laminated dough doesn't hold up well at the higher temps normally used for breads. The baguette is nice for this because of the shorter cook time makes this easier to manage. You'll want a bread dough rather than a pastry dough for your laminated wrapper, and you may need to cover it if gets too dark. You'll have a unique crust at the very least, perhaps too soft even if the bread is already rather airy. I think I have some small loaf pans somewhere, maybe I'll try one.

[Anonymous No.19887067]

>>19887051
Based explainer. I’m not OP but it’s nice to read the thoughts of someone with expertise, appreciate you taking the time to provide detailed info.

[Anonymous No.19887271]

>>19886313
>>At which step should I freeze the croissants
Freeze them after you bake them and they'll be fine. Don't freeze them while you're still trying to ferment them and risk killing your yeast. If you absolutely have to wait, then just shove them in the fridge until you can bake them. I've stored pizza dough for like 3 days during their second fermentation, pulled them out, brought to room temp, and they were fine, so your croissant should be o.k. as well.

>pic related
My crouissants

[Anonymous No.19887935]

Monitoring this thread

[Anonymous No.19889233]

Retard proof recipe for four croissants and three pains au chocolat.

https://www.meilleurduchef.com/fr/recette/viennoiserie-facile.html

[Anonymous No.19889362]

This thread is making me monstrously hungry for pastries at half past midnight

[Anonymous No.19889536]

>>19886736
Is this flour good bros?

>>19889362
Wholesome

[Anonymous No.19889547]

>>19887271
Ok thanks.

Also another question: does the egg wash have a technical function other than making the outside of the croissant glossy?
I saw people using egg yolk + milk, other use egg white + sugar and other just milk.
I tried every one of these methods and honestly I liked doing it with milk only, I don’t care for the gloss effect, however I don’t know if doing the wash does something important that I don’t know about.

[Anonymous No.19889571]

>>19886596
>tips

The most crucial part of the recipe is the butter lamination and the folds, it’s not that hard provided that you work with a cold, flat and square or rectangle shaped slab of butter and shape the dough with the correct measures by working with a ruler each time you use the rolling pin between the folds. You also need to always refrigerate the dough after each set of foldings to prevent the butter from fusing with the dough.

I supposedly did a good job on the second try, so watch as many videos on YouTube you can and get used to how to do it, then you’ll be fine.

[Anonymous No.19889578]

>>19886313
Shape and immediately freeze, assuming you have a proofer will take around 3/4 hours from frozen, otherwise play around with your own home's temp, leaving it outside to proof or even overnight in a fridge and bringing it out an hour or two before baking. I would bake as soon as it's done proofing.

Croissants leaking butter is most likely due to over proofing, giving it a light squeeze you should feel lots of air bubbles burst and it be slightly jiggly not overly so.

t. Pastry chef

[Anonymous No.19889600]

>>19889578
Thanks.

I don’t have a proofer, my kitchen temperature ranges from 20ºC at night to 22ºC during the day so I was considering 1 hour at least to thaw them at room temp + 2 hour at least proofing, but this was with active yeast, that I didn’t have.

My best croissants, the ones in the op, have been thawed and kept in the fridge for a total of 8 hours and then rested in the room temp oven for 4 hours.

The last ones I made were thawed and rested in the fridge 6 hours + 9 hours in the room temp oven (covered with a towel) and they were a bit dry externally after so many hours, however despite not coming out with so many layers as the ones in the collage, they were easy to digest that way.

[Anonymous No.19889705]

>>19889547
>egg wash have a technical function other than making the outside of the croissant glossy?

Between the egg and sugar / milk sugars, the wash helps the exterior brown up, which adds to presentation and taste alike.

[Anonymous No.19889819]

>>19889705
Ty