u/Nomadic_PhD

This was my pending weekend project since ages. I've never had a croissant (or any of the amazing baked viennoiseries) despite living in France for almost 8 years, just because I don't eat eggs!! So I had no first hand experience of how a croissant tastes.

I came across a Claire Saffitz video about making croissants at home and decided to give it a shot during the weekend while trying to make sure the rising temperatures weren't going to kill my project.

I didn't have an ideal start because the détrempe exterior was quite smooth, until I added the butter, after which the dough started tearing on the slightest bit of stretch and I couldn't develop that window pane effect (I've been making Neapolitan pizzas with about 10-12% higher hydration levels and knew how it should look). The situation didn't change even after refrigerating the dough. Since I was already involved, I decided to continue with the next steps anyway.

The air temperature was around 22-23°C so I had to make sure I didn't let the butter melt in the dough and work quickly, but the dough wasn't as perfectly smooth as it was supposed to be, and the edges were quite frayed and remained uneven throughout the folding process unfortunately. So a lot of tugging and pulling was part of the process.

I let the final sheet rest over night in the fridge and baked the next morning after cutting and proofing the croissants.

The separation of layers on the exterior was a little encouraging, but the cross-section of the first one I cut, had a deflated and a collapsed core. Assuming that the entire batch would be the same, I was surprised when the second one showed an intact core (of course the layers were relatively thicker and visible with not as much of the prized honeycomb structure). Fortunately there was no leakage of butter while proofing or baking (I'll take that as a mini or win, yay).

Coming to the taste, my partner says they were more buttery and a bit more greasy and less airy than those they've had at good bakeries in France. So I'll have to take their word for it. Maybe if I ever make them again, I'll prefer doing it during the winters.

This was my pending weekend project since ages. I've never had a croissant (or any of the amazing baked viennoiseries) despite living in France for almost 8 years, just because I don't eat eggs!! So I had no first hand experience of how a croissant tastes.

I came across a Claire Saffitz video about making croissants at home and decided to give it a shot during the weekend while trying to make sure the rising temperatures weren't going to kill my project.

I didn't have an ideal start because the détrempe exterior was quite smooth, until I added the butter, after which the dough started tearing on the slightest bit of stretch and I couldn't develop that window pane effect (I've been making Neapolitan pizzas with about 10-12% higher hydration levels and knew how it should look). The situation didn't change even after refrigerating the dough. Since I was already involved, I decided to continue with the next steps anyway.

The air temperature was around 22-23°C so I had to make sure I didn't let the butter melt in the dough and work quickly, but the dough wasn't as perfectly smooth as it was supposed to be, and the edges were quite frayed and remained uneven throughout the folding process unfortunately. So a lot of tugging and pulling was part of the process.

I let the final sheet rest over night in the fridge and baked the next morning after cutting and proofing the croissants.

The separation of layers on the exterior was a little encouraging, but the cross-section of the first one I cut, had a deflated and a collapsed core. Assuming that the entire batch would be the same, I was surprised when the second one showed an intact core (of course the layers were relatively thicker and visible with not as much of the prized honeycomb structure). Fortunately there was no leakage of butter while proofing or baking (I'll take that as a mini or win, yay).

Coming to the taste, my partner says they were more buttery and a bit more greasy and less airy than those they've had at good bakeries in France. So I'll have to take their word for it. Maybe if I ever make them again, I'll prefer doing it during the winters.