Testing Croissant Recipes - Kneading, Layers, Bake Times, Egg Wash, and More
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- I was curious why croissant recipes vary so much. So I did some first-hand testing and basically schooled myself in Viennoiserie.
This is the "Why" of croissants - to be followed up with the 'How" of croissants.
Resources and Citations
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Recipe charts and experiment tracking spreadsheet
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Laminated Dough Layer Calculator
observablehq.com/@mourner/lam...
Why baking stones don't actually stabilize oven temp
genuineideas.com/ArticlesInde...
Butter churning
www.uoguelph.ca/foodscience/b...
Recommended recipes:
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• Complete guide to clas...
My favorite recipe to work off of. Awesome instructions, just enough detail in tips without being overwhelming. Benny gets a fantastic end product.
• Perfect croissant tuto...
Unlike most croissant recipes, Yuval shows a very relaxed approach and makes it seem like anyone can make croissants. No fancy measuring, no precise times given, pure technique. And fast too, he goes from raw ingredients to rolling up the dough in just over an hour.
• Video
Excellent demo of kneading by hand. Shorter room temp rise makes a 1-day process possible. Great instruction.
buttermilkpantry.wordpress.co...
Awesome step-by-step guide and written instructions. Great video for showing lamination technique.
0:00 Croissants are amazing (sometimes)
1:50 What butter should you use?
4:14 How much kneading does dough need?
5:47 Room temp resting vs. overnight chill?
6:33 How much time to rest between folds?
7:39 How many layers do you need?
8:53 How long should they proof?
9:19 Baking time and oven temp?
12:08 Does egg wash on the sides really matter?
12:48 Do you need steam?
13:26 Conclusion 
Хобби
I squealed in excitement when I saw the spreadsheets!! Thank you so much for your research! Gotta love the scientific method. Subscribed!
Me too!!! The spreadsheets blew my mind and I immediately gasped. Such an amazing resource to share.
So grateful for people like you with the patience to do the work and get answers to the questions we all have.
This video is a pure gold, thank you for putting all this effort in croissant making and help us out improving our recipes
Dude ur research helps a lot as most of the content simply teach us what to do without explanations. Understanding the science behind every steps really helped me figure out my recipe according to what i wanted! You deserve more for such amazing contents keep up the good work man.
In just 14:50 I gain a lot of clue and knoledge about creating croissant for me.very imperative it's hard to make this kind of content I bet it takes 3 day above to finish this all not including the editing process it takes time and patience to give an idea to the viewers more effort is the key and needed to create this kind of content thank you very much
I teach baking and pastry in a highly respected culinary school. Believe me, croissant can be very finicky. I really admire your determination and approach in your attempt to demystify the art of the croissant. I really enjoyed your video.
i can see the effort you've spent to make this video. wow dude, your work is definitely underrated. thanks for sharing
This video deserves at least 2 million views!!!
This is one of the most exhaustive videos I've ever seen on how to make something. Incredible really, thank you! Now we don't have to waste our time and test out different methods :)
Incredible video and resource for croissant home baking! A literal gem. Fun idea you bring up in at 7:01 about a "blitz croissant", with the honeycomb crumb and texture turning out passable but lacking flavor of a fermented dough; a nice middle ground could be making the dough at night, letting it cold ferment overnight, and then the next day, do the grated butter technique for lamination, then shape, proof, and bake. While you could argue, if you're gonna wait for the dough to develop flavor, why not just go the full mile and do a proper lamination with a butter pad. But I think the grated butter lamination could be a fun, low stress way of making a fast croissant where the only wait time is letting the dough rise/cold ferment. I think I'm gonna experiment with that one myself haha.
My thoughts too
What a great video! It is exactly what it is: croissants are just a reflection of the baker. Some people like them more bready, denser, while others like them super flaky and light. This affects the flour you’re using, if you add milk or not etc... Some people even add eggs to the dough. At the end of the day, it’s your recipe :)
Being french, I would say though that a classic french croissants is just flour, water, butter, sugar, yeast and salt using T45 flour (or 00). T45 and 00 are the same btw, T45 is just the french denomination.
Thank you for sharing the information on French croissants as well as T45 & 00 flour. I've just started doing my own research and wondering about the equivalents to French flour. Merci!
Thank you so much for this! You addressed many questions I've had while watching all the videos on youtube. I like the way you've looked at several recipes to find the similarities and differences. I suspect that like so many other foods, the rules for a recipe have been passed down by word of mouth with the attitude of "do it this way, don't ask questions". Thanks for asking questions.
Omg...ty for your time consuming hard work! VERY informative and a major help for us novice bakers.
✌️👁️👄👁️✌️
Can’t believe that this video have only 47k views!
Your deserve thousands of subscribers & a million of views only for this amazing well researched video & your hard work.
Thank you so much brother
Just found this video when looking up how many layers of butter croissants usually have, and within the first minute, I subscribed. The amount of detailed information you gave in such a concise and understandable way is amazing. After I watched the whole thing, I checked out the rest of your channel, and I just have to say you make great content!
There always seemed to be some issue with my croissants. I cant say I understand them, but the process is becoming more natural to me and ive had succes on the last couple tries.
I now do a recipe including a poolish. Which is a preferment. Like sourdough starter, but from yeast. I let this ferment overnight and the next day I do all the steps in one go and finish the final croissant the same day.
I now beat the cold butter in between parchment paper with a rolling pin hitting it super hard. Once flattened, fold over itself and beat and bang it flat again. This is to make the butter flexible when cold, so when laminating it doesnt break in the dough. I then put it in the freezer to cool, but no more than 5 minutes.
RECIPE makes Croissants +/-6
Units in grams
88 poolish/preferment;
-44flour(13%)
-44water
-pea sized bit of fresh yeast, or 1/16 tsp dry yeast
180 flour(13%protein)(caputo, cuoco)
48 whole milk
20 water
29,6 butter(82% fat. Get quality, not generic butter)
25-29,6 sugar
4 salt
7,1 fresh yeast or 3,5 dry yeast
Try to get fresh yeast! Works better for me.
Laminating butter
136 gram
FOR PREFERMENT:
Mix water + yeast, once dissolved add flour. It should be very wet. Rest covered for 10-12 hours.
For DOUGH:
Make water+milk lukewarm (25-30celcius) and dissolve yeast into it. Then mix this with 10hour old preferment and sugar. Combine with the flour and butter. Knead for 4 min. add Salt only now and knead another 1min 30sec. (Do all this by hand). Stay on the lower settings of the mixer if using.
Let rise in tupperware at 25celcius for 1 hour. I use oven preheated at 150celcius convection for 1min.
Then roll dough into rectangle. Dimensions dont matter too much as long as butter is 1/2 size of the dough.
Chill 5 min in freezer. Then transfer to fridge for 15min minimum.
Meanwhile beat the COLD butter with rolling pin in between parchment. Put in freezer for 5min. If not cold/firm enough put it a little more in the FRIDGE.
Then do following laminations:
Simple/Letter (III),
Bookfold (IIII),
in-half fold (II).
Laminating with water spray may help adhering of dough layers. I do it.
Every edge of folding dough cut open.
Dough flipped upside down every couple passes during rolling with rolling pin for even lamination.
Cooling in between folds:
Dough cooling 5 minutes freezer maximum. And Fridge 10-15 minutes more.
Final dough rolled out to 4-5 mm.
Croissants cut triangles 9cm width 23cm long(roughly).
Put into freezer for 5 min only, if tacky or it gets softer/warmer.
Triangles rolled looseley at base. To promote honeycomb. This could help against dense center after baking.
Also with rolling croissants i use water spray. It helps layers adhere. So you don't end up with a spiral, where its visible how the dough was rolled.
Eggwash:
Eggyolk + 5-6 parts water.
Applied before and after rise.
I rise final croissant in the oven. I get a pan with water and heat it on the stove till its properly warm, but not near simmering and put it on the floor of the oven. If too hot butter will seap out of croissants during final rising. The warm water provides temperature and humidity. Humidity makes the croissant able to rise freely.
You can additionally put the oven on 150 celcius for 1-1,5min. But you do need humidity.
Risen for 2 hours at 25-28celcius(1h50m + 10min oven preaheat).
10min preheat 200 celcius fan/convection
Croissants baked 180 Celcius fan/convection
21m47sec
These are absoluteley heavenly. I am baffled myself at these croissants. Soo so light😇.
I’m from Brazil and I’m pretty sure that I just learn english to watch your videos, thx so much . Awesome, awesome!
Dude ive watched your croissants videos constantly the past few days! Its been so helpful as i got a huge learning curve
OMG!!! I have being making and studying croissants now for the past 2 months. I have made 2 dozens different types of recipes. Funny I came across your video. You must have worked so hard to nail it down to 15min. Amazing work!!
I love the video, it's like a super summary of every YT Croissant recipe, lots of work! thank you!
You are so generous with information. Thank you! I will support you.
Thank so much for your time and effort. This is really helpful and very generous of you.
Thank you so much for putting such extensive efforts and works! Making croissants could be time consuming in itself, and to add on top of that, are all your experiments, monitoring and observations. Thanks again!
Excellent video! Thank you for all of the legwork you shared here.
This was fascinating, thank you so much! I am trying to find my perfect croissant recipe (replicate a life changing croissant I had) and this is very helpful and explains why ever recipe is so different!
Good research! You put in alot of effort,very detailed. Sure knowledge is power. Thanks alot. 👍
Man, you really break it down. The effort is appreciated.
Your impression of Hugh Jackman in "Kate & Leopold" made me laugh! Good job, bro!
extremely informative!!! especially for someone who is just starting his "croissant journey"!
All I can say is thank goodness for you as I was ready to chuck the towel in 👏
Oh wow I love all this "nerdy" info. Been searching like crazy for it. THANK YOU!!!
I have made a lot of croissants over the years with variable results. Much as I wanted to go all out till I reached perfection, there is a limit to how many pastries we can eat.(or should!) so it has taken a while to get to know what works for me. One thing I found, was that in using the same recipe and basic method, the TYPE of yeast made a difference. For example, if I want to make a dough and cold ferment in the fridge over night, I have to use fresh yeast. It seems to kill off the instant yeasts. Worth noting too, is that there are instant yeasts designed for enriched doughs. Regarding the kneading (by machine such as a Kitchenaid or Kenwood). Time depends on the flour you are using. If you are using bread flour with a protein content of around 13% as I do, kneading to window pane test will lead to a dough that is almost impossible to roll out and tough croissants. You might have to knead it for longer if you are using pastry flour (around 9% protein) because it just does not have the gluten in it, but a five minute knead only for the strong stuff. Here in Spain, with European butter, I too have noticed a difference between brands and although I am not fussed which I use, some melt a lot quicker than others. I have methods for summer (where you only have to look at dough for it to go soft on you) and winter, where the final proof can take most of the day but the rolling and folding is much easier because the kitchen is cold. Yuval Ayalon has a great video on a simplistic, one day method, which I find works really well in a cold kitchen, (for a warmer kitchen, chill dough between folds). If a beginner, I would advise not hastening the proofing because it is so easy to make things a bit too warm. If you are going to use anything, hand hot water only, not boiling. On the folding, while a book fold gives you more layers at a time, it can be hard to roll it out flat again without going to hard on it - which ruins your layers, so maybe the letter folds are easier in that respect, even if you need one more. If you really want to give it a try but want more detail, then I recommend a video by Boulangerie Pas à pas (How to make 6 Croissants) it has subtitles and who doesn't like a French accent? The small quantity and details about the size of the rolled dough make it a good one. For those without jewellers scales (yes, I have those!) 1 level tsp instant yeast is about 3.1g. I make a lot of breads, so I buy mine in 250 or 500g packs, open it and store in jam jars, I find the sachets too pricey and annoying. Any recipe you find that is using a second temp of over 180c, is NOT likely to be using the fan/convection setting as doing so will lead to VERY dark/burned pastries unless your oven is running on the cool side. If at the end of all that, you only have what amounts to a Brioche, heck, that tastes good too and you can always use them for Bread and Butter Pudding.
Thank you for all your testing. These all what I like to know.
Nice Job!!! This research was incredible to improve any croissant recipe. It would be nice to create an additional plan with costs... Here in Brazil some ingredients are expensive and we need to promote changes in the original recipe. But anyway, congratulations for your amazing contribution. All the best. Gaspar
Love this!!! This testing must have taken so much work and time!!! Thank you so much!
... and cost
Just Wow! Amazing trial summary. Thanks a lot from southern Germany.
You’re approach is a nice companion to Sugarlogie channel.
Wow. Wow. Here goes my long weekend. Thats a lot of recipes to try out.
Absolutely amazing work and effort, much appreciated for sharing this well presented research
Great video, was really looking for a video like this. Really helped me to understand more the whole process of making this kind of pastry.
Thank you for trying & details… it does helps us alot to perfect our baking ❤️❤️
Amazing work! Simply Amazing!
Thanks for your efforts to make this interesting video about croissants.
Absolutely impressive work. Thanks for the video :)
Great effort, beautifully explained and it
Is the best way to learn how to make excellent croissants. Thanks a million.
It's really great.. you have a wide enough experience... I like you.. thank you for these detailed and accurate explanations
Such amazing work, thank you!
Completely Amazing experiments and video. You earned a new sub!
Thank you for sharing your experience! 🙂
Wish every recipe had this kid of "scientific" aproach, its so helpful, thanks man apreciate your hard work done here, insta subed.
thanks for your croissant nerdiness!
Thank you!!! I really needed this!
Great contribution to perfecting croissants receipe
Thanks for this video, absolutely the best!
Very nice video, I’ve learned so much 👏🏼😃
That was the best video ever thanks for the effort 👏👏👏
Thank you !!!! This is amazing!
Very good! Amazing
these are great videos. well done.
this is the best video ever !!!!!!!!!! thank you
Very informative and entertaining video!
Well done! Thanks.
This is the nerdiest baking video I've ever seen and I love it
Amazing video! Subscribed excited to learn
Awesome video, thank you!
Omggggg! I am planning to make croissant tomorrow and been extracting recipes and watched tons of tutorials and kept complaining to my husband that the varieties in the recipes and techniques are disturbing! Out of all the tutorial I watched LOVED your vdo the most! It really helps me feel like somebody understands my frustration 🤣After reading and watching tons of recipes, I made up my own recipe out of pure gut feeling, so wish me luck!
Nice video! it help me a lot, very informative, keep with the great work!
thank you for such a wonderful video
Very nice. Thanks !
Thanks for this outstanding video.
love this video
In general, 27 layers lamination dough and butter will work very well.
Most European butter will become pliable if hammered flat and folded a few times.
A general rule for laminated dough is that when making the dough, it only just need to be brought together so about 3-4 minutes a very low speed (no, don't use the dough hook) followed by 1 minute at medium speed.
You don't want the yeast to start to become active too much because it will work against the lamination.
When laminating, when the dough starts to contract stop the rolling and place the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes.
When getting used to the system, it's not really very difficult. The temperature when laminating and rolling should be fairly cool so the butter will not get too soft in the dough.
In Celsius when baking, it's a good idea to heat up to 230 degree C normal heat and when placing the baking tray in the oven, having a small bowl with granite gravel in the bottom is a good idea so a shot glass of water can be splashed into the gravel just before closing the oven door. Then immediately lower the temperature to 185 degree C hot air for 20 minutes.
These are general methods but the result will always depend on temperature in the kitchen, flour type, yeast type, stand mixer type, butter type and oven type. There are many variables.
Thank you for the video, it is very helpful!
this video is SOOOOO good THANKYOU
OMG thank you! Great video! Subscribed.
I spent the first half of this month doing croissant experiments but watching this video would have saved a lot of effort lol
You are the Croissant God - thank you so much as my croissant journey has been painful
Thanks mate! I was going to heat butter to evaporate water :D You saved that butter stick and my time! :D
Thank you very much!
thanks sir.
i learned alot.
You are amazing!
Best research ever
Excellent video!
NOTE: Just placing a pot of water in the oven does NOT create the needed steam for this. No wonder you did not see any difference.
You need a reservoir of hot mass (a tray of a couple of thousands of BB balls is common) and then spray water on it. This can create so much steam you might have to hold the oven door for a couple of seconds.
Thank you for the amazing videos and so informative! Have you ever experimented with yeast? Fresh vs active dry vs instant? I can't seem to get a decent rise out of my proof and wonder if it's the yeast. That'd make an interesting video.
Hey!! Nice video, I'm your 1k subscriber!
Croissants are steeped in culinary traditionalism and the mysteriousness that comes with it; this is exactly where that question of "why" is so important. Without understanding and critiquing the methods, the methods themselves become madness; we insist that only this butter is acceptable, or you must have this many layers, or you must ferment overnight, or you must neurotically brush the tops with egg wash but avoid the delicate sides! The main takeaway from this video, for me, is that there are many right ways to make a croissant, and it depends on your goals, and overall they're way less finicky than pastry chefs might want you to think, and if making croissants can be a relaxing activity instead of an anxious delicate project, that's a win in my book.
Thank you veryyyyy much for the amazing information that you might have taken so long to gather. its a great information for any person or even a budding baker trying his / her hands on making croissants. there is soooo much information in the video and also in your data, but can i ask for one more information please " WHAT'S THE PERCENTAGE OF BUTTER TO BE USED FOR LAMINATION IN COMPARED TO YEILD OF THE DOUGH". OR DO WE HAVE TO TAKE IT IN RATIO TO THAT OF QUANTITY OF FLOUR USED
Nice!! I live in West Valley city Utah! I hope you doing good!
This is super valuable information for someone who just started baking the terrifying and intimidating croissants! Unfortunately my first batch didn't work out last weekend (using the recipe by Claire Saffitz). Disastrous butter leakage during baking. Super dense on the inside and very greasy. I assume they were underproofed but I had them in a humid (room temp) oven for well over 2,5 hours and just didn't have the time to proof them any longer.. I also definitely over kneaded the dough because I read somewhere that 2 minutes of kneading by mixer is equal to 10 minutes kneading by hand.. So yea, that was a lie. Good exercise though! Interesting to feel all the different stages the dough goes through. Even though I don't know what would be bad in the end about kneading it for such a long time, I'm sure it does something haha. The rise after kneading was tremendous though!
Excited to give it another go but perhaps with a different recipe.
Testing = Journey = Knowledge = Joy
I was hoping for the average of the first chart.
Cool video bruh!
I'm really enjoying the videos. I just suggest to add ºC measures, because it's internacional standard and I had to stop and convert ºF all the time.
The title of this video is number of layers in a croissant, which in itself is interesting. When I am 4 min in, I realize that you are addressing all my questions about gluten development, bench testing etc. I sent a list of questions to a King Arthur croissant instructor and she has t gotten back to me. Your video has addressed most of my questions.
I do have a few questions related to number of layers. I find that if I do less than 55 layers of D-B-D (dough butter dough), the croissants are very prone to butter leak. I also find that fewer layers tend to result in very buttery croissants, especially when they are frozen and reheated. What is your observation?
I also didn’t that even when the croissants pass the wobble test, they may still not open in the core.
In my recipe comparison, I did see 25 layers was more common for homemade, with 55 layers more common for professional kitchens. I suspect how thick the sheet is rolled out before cutting could be a big factor. I've seen some call for as little as 2.5mm or up to 6mm, that's sure to make a difference.
Also the amount of beurrage/butter varies enough that it probably has an influence too. Closer to 45% would make butter layers thicker and maybe leak more easily.
Someone commented on my other video with good insight that if you have fewer than 55 layers, you'd want to roll the dough thinner. My favorite recipe from Benny does his with 25 layers rolled out to 4.5 mm, so that's probably the max you'd want to do. Or you can also decrease the amount of roll-in butter to make the butter layers thinner.
This is good. 😀
Broski, the playlist has 5 videos but only 2 are watchable. I want to see the other croissant videos. Please please make them public. The experiments you said you wanted to do sound fun.
Wow after a year practising, i found your video... Made more than 20 times trial & error trying to get the lamination right , now it is time to use real 82% butter
I fail dozens of time and finally success at last . I watched alot of video of making croissants all is different and unique, i can give u some time on how to make a croissants
Wow.
pretty high production for such a small channel
Can you let me know what bakery in salt lake that has good croissants ? Your video is very thorough. Good job!