Homemade Croissants 1.3

In which the heroine nears her destination:
buttery mouthfeel croissants with the sought after flaky, shattering layers.

A few small, but highly effective  changes from #1 and #2:

• Using European-style butter. Butter with higher fat content, i.e. European butter, made a huge difference both in taste and the look of the croissants. (The higher fat content means they have less water and more likely to remain solid for longer–crucial when laminating dough.)

• Buying a marble pastry board. Aside from being very Instagram-worthy, marble offered a great non-stick surface when kneading and rolling out dough and it kept the dough cooler than usual.

I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of laminating dough. My butter block shattered a bit, but not as much…? The next area of improvement is the crumb. I’m still getting very heavy, dense croissants. This article from Baker’s Journal suggests using a “weakened” flour to help with the airiness.

Notes for next time:

• I used the standmixer to mix the dough and then hand kneaded it to avoid over-developing the gluten. It is more work, but the dough was easier to roll out this time and didn’t snap back as much.

• Do not put an egg wash on the exposed layers as it will glue them down, as you can see in lots of the shots above

Here’s to more future butter bombs!