Three Hour Brunch Friend

A minor set back, but it’s nothing the home baker can’t overcome. The croissant journey continues.

These are my airiest batch of croissants yet, but they’re also the ones with the least layers. So, I can’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment as I write this post. I sort of knew it wouldn’t turn out well early on, because I could feel nubs of butter all over–the butter block shattered before I even started laminating the dough and I just couldn’t fix it in the end.

Well… The quest for the best homemade croissant continues on. Despite not looking right, they were fluffy and light as a cloud, and in the end, taste and texture matter more than looks. Right? Right?

Changes from previous batch:

• I used three different types of flour for the dough: bread flour for the poolish and a 50% pastry flour and 50% all-purpose flour  mix for the croissant dough.
• Longer proofing time (2 hours).
• Followed Bakers Journal’s suggestion to leave some space when shaping the croissant for better oven spring.

I’m not sure which of the three changes resulted in the significantly more “open” crumb of the croissants. The dough was easier to handle, but it definitely felt a little bit too soft, softer than my butter block even; I suspect the difference in consistency is what caused my butter to shatter so badly in the first place. I’ll probably decrease the amount of pastry flour next time.

If you have any tips for better croissant making, I’m all ears!

Read about attempt 1, 2, and 3.