What I've Learned From Making Croissants
and other life lessons
that I learned while perfecting the art of making these little pieces of s*%t.
I’ve done a lot of relatively difficult things in my life; ballet, contortion, take care of people with alzheimer's, traveled around the world with few belongings, but nothing is as frustrating as learning how to make a French croissant. I am not a trained chef, everything that I have learned has been with cookbooks and the internet. French Patisserie is a beast that looks like a pretty grey kitty from far away, but once it approaches closer, you see that it is really a momma black bear that is ready to take your head off as if you kidnapped one of her cubs.
Now people, I feel as though I have jumped over the larger obstacles that have prohibited me from producing a high level croissant. But of course I am always tinkering and improving my technique of lamination (layering of the butter into the dough) and also flavor. In 2018 I set out to improve my croissant, and finally after my France trip at the end of 2019 I was able to have some exceptional bakes that were major improvements of ones that I did right before my trip. I was disappointed with my bakes in Fall 2019, the croissants were heavy, the layers were not distinct and the flavor didn’t reflect a profile that I was desiring.
There was a lot of testing, math (yes math, lol), researching online - especially French bakers and reading some cookbooks. There were common tips that many American and French bakers were using, and although some were quite elusive or partial with their explanations, I was able to decipher some invaluable techniques which I then implemented into my recipe. My mantra when making croissants the umpteenth time during the year has been:
“Keep going Onisha, you are so close to where you want to be. Eventually you will have a
croissant that you will be incredibly proud of.”
Did I mention that I am severely stubborn? This stubbornness has aided with my end goals, but it definitely threw me off-path for awhile. You see, once I have an idea of how a recipe should be constructed, I rarely change it. I am very hesitant to change a flour or quantities if the recipe pans out well. This issue is what led me down a bigger rabbit hole than what was necessary, because if I had just changed the flour in the damn beginning, I would’ve saved a lot of time and frustration.
So here is finally all the tips I learned on my croissant journey, which I humbly know is far from over.
Use a high protein percentage flour. Bread flour is sufficient and bonus points if the company tells you the protein level. I have found that the higher protein flour helps support the butter fold-in and gives extra strength with the third envelope fold. I was using T55 flour (which is the french equivalent of all purpose flour), but my pastries were not able to sustain structure after their final proof and bake.
High-percentage butter is crucial to produce a flaky and flavorful croissant. Historically in America our butters have had more water than French butter (their standard is 82% fat). Nowadays you can find high fat butter - I’ve seen 85% recently in grocery stores. Also, when you add a quality butter, you don’t have to use so much in a recipe which gives you a lighter product. So my butter fold in ranges between 30-31%, which is still high compared to some bakeries (usually they are trying to cut costs as butter is expensive) but not nearly as high as my original recipe - a whopping 45%!
You can use fresh or instant yeast, but I don’t mess with active-dry. The whole croissant making process is trying to keep the dough relatively cold. When using active dry yeast you have to activate it and I just don’t have time for all that. With instant yeast (which is what I always use), I just throw it into my mixer with my other ingredients and begin the mixing process.
You could do an initial bulk fermentation but I am not quite sure if its really doing much. The initial thought was that it was adding more strength to the dough and also more flavor. But the jury is still out, check back in later.
The technique of folding in your beurrage (butter block) into the detrempe (dough) is very important. Therefore, I cannot emphasize the practice of it. Get a sense of temperatures, how the dough feels as your laminating the butter into the dough (is the butter shattering, is it melting, is it rolling out to the ends?), is the butter pliable or cracking before rolling in? All of these techniques cannot be taught, you must get your hands onto the dough and get a feel yourself. The better your technique gets, the honeycomb pattern of the final croissant prevails and shows to your audience the skills you have accumulated during your croissant journey.
Final tip for now is to let your viennoisserie complete a real final proof. Here in Northern California the outdoor temperatures have been relatively cold (38F - 65F) the past few months. Where I live there is no central heat so my kitchen stays cool. This means that the croissants take a lot longer to proof than what any book will tell you. With ambient temps around 68F outside it takes my croissants 4-5 hours to proof. There are shortcuts to speed up the process, but I’d rather let my croissants take their time than overheat them. Sometimes I use a plug in heater, but the process still takes a couple of hours. The most important thing is to look at the croissants not the time! The dough should be almost doubled in size, you can see the layers of butter and dough and the croissants jiggle when you shake the sheet pan.
Did any of this info go over your head? No problem. To summarize it I am basically saying is to not give up. Happy 2020 all! I really hope this year is better than the last, lol.
Below are some photos of my croissant journey.
Hey, you gotta start somewhere. And if you have any questions about lamination, bread and French pastry, I’m here to help. I appreciate comments below! xoxo
