Go to the Article: All About Laminated Doughs
I have been trying to master croissant for the past 2 years, so thank you for this! Resources are always helpful! Have you guys experienced the butter cracking/breaking inside the dough? I often have that occur, and I assume its because the butter has gotten too hard. I reduced the resting period between turns to 30 minutes, but this still occurs. How do you prevent this?
Fantastic guys... 1 thing... in the video you have flour in the butter sheet process but nothing in the recipe it'self.. How much should we add and can you tell me why you add this? does it act as a stabilizer??
I'll let the chefs chime in on why to add it, but we had forgotten to include it in the written recipe—You should add 20 g of pastry flour to your butter block. I just fixed the steps. Thanks for reading closely!
Cracking butter has always been the bane of my laminated dough making. I reduced it happening when I did two things. I stopped being terrified that the butter wasn't cold enough. Recipes stress this to the point where most bakers leave the butter too cold. I learned that as long as the butter wasn't so soft that the layers could absorb the butter, I was fine. And the other thing I did was start using a higher fat butter. I noticed that when I used butter that hovered around the 81% range, my butter blocks almost always cracked like a broken mirror trapped between two sheets of dough. I started using an 84% butter (or somewhere in that range) and haven't had it crack since. I also like the taste better when I use a cultured butter. That won't make a difference on performance however.
I use Plugra and I seriously rest the dough for 30 minutes...which is the least amount of time I can get away with, considering the gluten needs to relax. I can usually prevent the butter from cracking during the first 2 turns...but that third one is where I get, almost always, a shattered layer of butter. I wonder if I'm sheeting it to thinly....
You don't necessarily need a croissant cutter. You get the same result cutting the dough into elongated triangles. Roll from the short and curve the dough, end side down and pinching the ends together.
I add this to help hold onto the water in the butter just a bit while softening and molding. I find that the tiny amount helps the butter not to split and therefor not weep water into the dough.
Ok, encouraged by your amazing videos, I decided to give croissants yet another try. And yet again I was defeated :-( I made the dough, laminated, rolled, cut, formed the croissants, proofed and baked. They look a bit too flat, but the actual problem is the inside. The texture turned out to be pretty open actually (last couple times they turned out to be much more dense), but they're pretty greasy and doughy, not nice and flaky. The part of the croissant on the left bottom corner seems to be going in the right direction - looks dryer and more well defined - however the rest is just oozing with butter. My plan is to bake those suckers until they turn out ok (and this way I can reuse all the scraps of the dough that I get during lamination!), but I would really appreciete any help on getting them right! Thanks!
here is the thing: there is two ways of making pate feuillete, traditional one and pate levee feuilletee inverse. With the traditional you knead the dough, chill, and fold in the beurre de tourrage, which means you wrap the dough around butter- the butter is inside. With the inverse way you make the opposite thing- the butter is outside- the dough is inside. This is most used way of making puff pastry in France. With this way you prepare the butter"block" like so- mix butter and flour in kitchen aid with the hook attachment. It will be like a paste. Then wrap the butter paste in plastic film,but not cling film, in a long rectangular shape at about 30x15cm and chill well. Then you put the dough inside the butter and follow the same steps of folding. Normally with the inverse way you make 1 time double fold-30 min fridge,1 time double fold- 30 min. fridge,1 time simple fold- 30 min. fridge. With the traditional way- 2 times simple folding-1 hour fridge, 2 times simple folding- 1 hour fridge,2 times simple folding- 1 hour fridge.The secrets for the succes with the croissant dough are two. The strenght of the flour- must be strong flour. And the baking temperature. The formula of gettin 1000 layers is: (3*3)*3)*3)*3)*3=729 which is layers of butter x2, because we have dough from both sides is equal to 1458 and this is the layers of dough! The good formula for pate levee feuilletee is: Farine T55-500g,Eau- 120g,Lait-170g,Sel-10g,Levure-20g, Sucre-40g, Beurre-50g. Mix all the ingredients for 3 minutes on low speed. then 5 min on high speed.We making this because we want to strech the gluten on maximum. Wrap put the dough into fridge for 30 minutes to rest, or freezer for 15 minutes. In the meantime. Prepare the butter- take a 250grams of butter 84% or if you cant find 84 82 % fat will do. Take a rolling pin and smash the butter. Use a plastic sheet, but not cling film, you will need quite hard plastic because you will hit hard and you might tear the cling film.Make a rectangular shape 20x20 or 18x18 cm. Cool. Very important is both dough and the butter to be at the same temperature! Make the turns. Its better with the sheeter always, but it works well by hand too.After the last turn roll out one sheet 40x60cm. Fold it in two and make 2 sheets 40x30 cm.From the 40 cm side you will make 5 cuts by 8 cm at the bottom and the top. Now you will have 9 triangles 30 cm long and 8 sm wide at the base. You will have 2 halves as well.Roll the croissants from the wide side to the point. when you putting them into the tray - always pointed side down! Cut with very sharp knife! Always use cold dough! Egg wash 2 times- very gently! Egg wash- 70 grams of yolks and 30 grams of full fat milk.Bake@175°C for 15 to 17 minutes depending how full is the oven. Good luck! hope that helps!
try to use dry butter; 84% fat content... it works
.Cheers.
Gaah I just noticed the bag of pastry flour read 'whole grain' - of course I noticed it was grainier but it had been labeled 'organic' so at the time when I measured it out I hadn't realized it... since I obviously didn't cut the whole grain with white flour am I sunk tomorrow when I go to bake them? Will these be heavy and tough without white flour?
These did not proof well-- first batch
Second try. These had excellent crumb inside, and really good flavor because I left the dough in the refrigerator overnight. These were proofed in my cuisinart convection steam oven- I added a puff of steam by turning on the steam function to the oven -I left it on for less than 30 seconds and turned it off... the small amount of humidity provided this rise- I proofed about 2 1/2 hrs. I put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to solidify the butter - my regular convection oven at 370
Looks good! What did you do differently the second time?
hi there, normally you prefer to use the french terms, and here is one; its called 'mille feuille' and it means 'thousend papers'. its easier to spell and the usual term for the very technical 'yeasted laminated dough', dont you think so?
I did this too on my first batch! I was so furious at myself for not reading the bag properly. I had gone through all of the steps going "hm maybe this is a little off" and then FINALLY figured out what happened when my kouign amann came out more like bran muffins
Anyways, you're not alone, for what it's worth. And screw that brand with their non-obvious labelling.
The proofing with steam- otherwise the same
Hello Chef, I wanted to know if you recommend using a specific butter in the US, or is margarine also an option? Thank you
hi everybody i try this recipe at least 6 times all went to a complete delicious failure haha!!, my question is, its the ratio butter to flour right? i mean its almost 1 to 1 by weight, i try today the same recipe half the butter and they came out perfect!, so its my lack of skill to manouver all that butter or its the recipe slightly wrong?, just for the record the 6 times i tried it start to fail at the proofing process after shaping the croissants, the dough starts to brake (they were cover in plastic wrap and egg washed) and at the time of baking butter starts to flood out and then the dough reabsorb part of the butter creating a flat dense delicious croissant/cookie, any thougs?
by the way love the classes!
cheers
Anyone got an opinion on using lard instead of butter? Can I sub 1:1? My kid is allergic to dairy. Thanks!
May I know the ambient temperature of your workplace at the time of production? I'm from a tropical country (32 C and up) and I want to replicate the recipe here at our place but am worried that the temperature here would affect the overall result of the pastry. Thanks
Hi Rubén, I am not trying this recipe. I have adapted one from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, which calls for 2 parts flour to 1 part butter in the finished product. They turn out amaizing, melt in your mouth, golden and crunchy outside, and buttery soft inside.
I have recently tried a version of Kouign Amann based on Dominique Ansel's The Secret Recipes, which was quite similar to this one (except the butter block was only butter). The result was exactly as you describe your croissants.
I am trying to figure this out, and maybe proofing the final time in the fridge could be the answer.
Any advice on this, anyone?
I really need some help here. I have tried twice today, failed miserably during the lamination part. The butter just crack and lump of butter just went thru the dough and got everything wet and messy. First question, when I put the dough into the freezer, i notice there are condensed water formed on the plastic wrap when I took the tray out of the freezer, is that normal? I'm in Malaysia, average temperature here is around 33 C, do I need to get the butter or the dough to be slightly colder so they work properly?
Butter temper...freeze your butter block and then let it come to room temp from frozen before using.
Hi Team Chef Steps. I'm in the middle of making my croissant dough for the first time. I'm actually doing two batches to make Kouign A's from one and croissants from the other.
I've never made laminated dough before and immediately I'm coming up against problems:
1. My dough was so runny, based on the recipe, that it was incredibly hard to handle (any flour I put on a surface just gets soaked up by the dough and then it sticks to the worktop).
2. Upon retrieving it from the freezer, I noticed how crumbly the dough was, on the edges, in particular. It was similar to very short pasta dough. Did I over freeze it? The dough in the video looks silky and very pliable.
3. My dough "rectangle" looks MASSIVE in comparison to the one in the video at 10x7in!!!
It's about to come out for roll and fold #2 so here's hoping everything holds together. I suspect the butter will break through the dough before too long - is there a sweet spot between too cold and too warm??
Final question - Freezing Kouign A's - I get that you freeze them once shaped in the muffin tin, but is it advisable to dust with sugar just before baking or upon freezing?
I'm really curious as to why you used sugar in your butter block -- could you elaborate? I've never seen sugar added to a butter block. Generally it's just a little flour that's added to indeed absorb some of the moisture from the butter.
My theory is that you're creaming the butter and sugar together to incorporate some air -- can you confirm or deny? Thanks for your great videos, descriptions, and illustrations!
I requested gluten free recipes and I found this one for 'croissant dough.' Is this recipe really gluten free?
Hi Laura, no, this recipe is not gluten free. Apologies!
The one thing I've learned over years of doing this is that if your butter and your dough are not the same softness you will get cracking in the butter layer or it will try to ooze out. So even though you temper and freeze your butter, bring it up to a softness that is the same as your very deeply chilled dough. If both are equal then you won't have problems during rolling. Also, don't beat up the dough when you're rolling it out. Don't bang on it, or otherwise roughhouse it. Just be patient and roll it smoothly. Also, proofing with moisture is always going to give you a better end result. There are proofing boxes to do this but they're kind of expensive. If you don't have a convection oven your end result will also be different. I don't have a convection at home and although I don't get the same rise in baking, they are still delicious. You sort of have to work within your limitations. And also... believe it or not... in France, at some point in time, there were no convection ovens for croissants and puff pastry. They survived. You will too
Hi ChefSteps,
for the second time I threw the dough.
After the first turn the butter inside release much liquid and make holes in the pastry, the smell is 'sour', and it is impossible to knead.
What was wrong? were is my error?
Thank you
Fabrizio
Hi Fabrizio, this is definitely hard dough to work with! It sounds like maybe your temperatures are a little off. The butter and the dough need to be the exact same temperature when you're working with them. We hope this helps and please let me us know if you have more questions (help@chefsteps.com).
Catherine, I can't quite pin this down either! My guess would be that it's a way to increase (or maintain) the overall sweetness of the final product since the yeasts probably can't access the sugars not in the dough. And/or residual sugars contribute to more maillard reaction and thus giving more flavors and aromas.
I've been reading through these comments, and Chefsteps has given some good advice. The dough and butter temperature need to be very similar. That really is the key, that advice and at the right temperature. I've worked with laminated doughs 100s of times and the sweet spot seems to be 67-69F. Colder and the butter is hard to work, warmer and the butter melts.
Also, laminated doughs are not for the faint of heart, so you will need to practice. Plan to make a mess the first few times. Throw out the result and start again.
Finally, this is a dough that really responds to your touch. If the dough is tight and not elastic enough you can only work it so much before it tears. This is one dough that feeling your way through really makes a difference. Sorry, no shortcuts here.
This was a master class explanation. Nice! I've always made pate feuillete in the traditional manner. Two points Tania touches are key - use a high protein flour because you need a strong dough, because you will be stretching the dough a fantastic amount. Work with dough and butter at the same temp.
So just to clarify as the Step numbers aren't correct.
After each "turn" does the dough need to be put back in the fridge, the Kouign-Amann video depicts the dough being folded for the 2nd time and then the 3rd straight after?
Also I found the butter was way too hard after being refrigerated for 2 hours (and initially for the first hour) it had re formed in to solid lumps that basically stabbed through the dough.
The previous post buy Joe mentions the temperature should be between 67-69F (20C) however this would require me to take it out of the fridge to heat up and soften first. Is this the correct process as the recipe doesn't make this very clear and implies it can be taken straight from the fridge, which for me is 4 degrees celsius and after an hour the butter has reformed into a solid block.
I suppose its possible my dough is not cold enough and therefore not resilient enough to stay in its layer while the butter is slowly squashed to be thinner, but the butter is very hard and didn't fold nicely like it does in the video, it tore.
Any thoughts, don't feel like wasting too may blocks of butter and flour to make a good batch
Took out my beautiful Kouign-Amann, waited thirty minutes, took a bite, and realized instantly that the recipe required unsalted butter. Damn...too salty. You live and you learn.
@chefsteps could a pasta maker be used as a substitute for a pastry sheeter?
I wish I had read all the comments before starting this recipe. But I saw the video and I was hypnotized to make it at that exact moment! It take some finessing the dough, and trial and error. Basically, all sorts of factors can change your results or wait times. The written instructions are off between steps 6 and 9, and was a little confusing. I missed the initial rolling out soon after letter-folding the butter and dough together. To compensate, I folded and rolled out an additional time. I also found that letting it chill in the fridge for 2 hours made the butter too cold, causing my butter to break in chunks in my dough instead of roll out in a thin layer, and decreased the wait to 1 hr. But that part is probably because my fridge is too cold.
I continued on with the K amann recipe, and rolled it out to the instructed 1/4" thickness. I found that if you roll it out to 14x14 you can probably get a good 16 k amanns out of it. Then again, I didn't try, but its something to consider if you want to maximize your dough. Off to K amann page I go!
Hi!! I see people having problem and I have made this exact recipe a dozen or so times. Mine seems to get better every try! I follow exactly and measuring precisely! I use real butter.. Not spread ... Unsalted butter. I have also started making this dough into Danishes some w fruit filling. Often I braid the dough with a fruit center and people seem to love it!! Thanks
Dont put sugar in the butter block. You dont need it and the sugar will begin to weep. The added wetmess makes the dough even more difficult. There is enough sweetness already in the recipe, this just makes handling the dough even more difficult.
Keith, this makes it a challenge for you. I dont bother making this recipe in the warmer seasons and I am in a temperate location, Just north of Seattle.
Dont use margarine.
Is there any way to get brown butter in the layers? Is there a way to get a caramel/ dulce de leche center like pain au chocolat?
Hi, ChefSteps team! This is a reiteration, but there is a missing "Step 6" from the written instructions and it's unclear whether the dough needs to be cooled between each turn. Could you clarify, please?
You want your butter block and your dough to always be the same temperature so they won't break, so you would want to refrigerate both before encasing the block inside the dough and after each turn for 30-45 minutes
can i take this recipy as beef wellington's puff pastry?
Any special instructions if I'm using cultured butter?
You could, but it's not necessary. Making puff pastry is a much simpler process that does not require a butter block, so you might want to do that instead.
The butter and the dough need to be of the same firmness, not temperature. You definitely do not need to refrigirate the butter for an hour, it needs to be cold but pliable.
Try any European style butter. It has a higher fat content so it is more flexible at refrigerated temperatures.
No. Butter which contains water, is used to keep the layers separated, and the water in the butter acts like steam to puff the dough. For pain au chocolate round sticks of chocolate are wrapped in the dough.
Traditional puff pastry does require a butter block. "Blitz" puff dough is made not using a butter block and is easier to make.
That pain aux raisins looks heavenly and what’s the filling in those chaussons ?
