Hi everyone, first time poster. I've been working on baking croissants at home, and made them for the third time this weekend. I am following the recipe from Claire Saffitz and using King Arthur AP flour and Kerrygold butter. While I was thrilled with the results the first time I made them a few weeks ago, the crumb could be better, and I haven't seen much improvement over the subsequent bakes.
Here is a picture from the most recent one:
My thought after the first two times baking them was that they were underproofed; I proofed between 2 and 2.5 hours after shaping them (in the oven with a skillet of steaming water at the bottom, making sure the temperature doesn't go above 80 F). They did increase in size, but probably not to double the size, and there was a bit of a wobble but not as pronounced as I see in videos. So this time around, I proofed them for longer, about 4 hours and 15 minutes. Perhaps they increased in size a bit more; it's hard to tell; there was a bit of a wobble, but still not as dramatic as in some videos. But I'm still not seeing as much of the honeycomb crumb and thin separated layers as I would like, and it's hard to tell if it has improved much from the first two times.
My next hypothesis is that maybe I'm pressing down too much on the dough when I'm rolling it out. I have been making an effort to push away from me when I roll rather than push down, but it gets hard not to apply some force, especially when rolling it out to a big rectangle the last time (before cutting and shaping). For this last batch, I had to pause and rest the dough twice in the process of rolling it out for the last time because it was taking so long. I think I've been doing a decent job controlling the temperature (I haven't let the dough get warmer than 60F while rolling, and I cover with ice blankets and refrigerate when it gets in the high 50s).
Does anyone have thoughts on what I could improve? Is the issue still the proofing? Or is it that some of the butter is getting absorbed into the dough because I'm pushing down too hard? Or is it something else? If it's how I'm rolling it out, any videos or references to info on rolling technique would be very welcome. Thanks in advance, and apologies if this is a common question here!
Here is a picture from the most recent one:
My thought after the first two times baking them was that they were underproofed; I proofed between 2 and 2.5 hours after shaping them (in the oven with a skillet of steaming water at the bottom, making sure the temperature doesn't go above 80 F). They did increase in size, but probably not to double the size, and there was a bit of a wobble but not as pronounced as I see in videos. So this time around, I proofed them for longer, about 4 hours and 15 minutes. Perhaps they increased in size a bit more; it's hard to tell; there was a bit of a wobble, but still not as dramatic as in some videos. But I'm still not seeing as much of the honeycomb crumb and thin separated layers as I would like, and it's hard to tell if it has improved much from the first two times.
My next hypothesis is that maybe I'm pressing down too much on the dough when I'm rolling it out. I have been making an effort to push away from me when I roll rather than push down, but it gets hard not to apply some force, especially when rolling it out to a big rectangle the last time (before cutting and shaping). For this last batch, I had to pause and rest the dough twice in the process of rolling it out for the last time because it was taking so long. I think I've been doing a decent job controlling the temperature (I haven't let the dough get warmer than 60F while rolling, and I cover with ice blankets and refrigerate when it gets in the high 50s).
Does anyone have thoughts on what I could improve? Is the issue still the proofing? Or is it that some of the butter is getting absorbed into the dough because I'm pushing down too hard? Or is it something else? If it's how I'm rolling it out, any videos or references to info on rolling technique would be very welcome. Thanks in advance, and apologies if this is a common question here!
