# Croissants ripping themselves apart when proofing



## Jing Nan Cheong (Oct 9, 2020)

I just started making bicolored croissants. I don't know why, but they are ripping themselves apart when proofing. They look perfectly fine just after shaping. Before the attempt in the pictures I had a previous batch which was actually worse. I thought I perhaps was shaping the croissants too tight, so these are a little looser. The holes in these pictures are smaller than yesterday's, but it doesn't excuse the fact that they shouldn't be there at all.










This had never happened when I made regular croissants. Then again, I used a different method and a slightly modified recipe to make them. It'll be great if I got some expert feed back on what I'm doing wrong.

For these croissants, I needed the dough until smooth and let it rise for 1.5 hours before degassing and retarding it overnight. Before this, I pulsed my dry ingredients in a food processor with butter, then kneaded with the cold liquid ingredients until just combined, then chilled in the fridge overnight. The lamination process remains the same in both.

Here's my list of ingredients for the original recipe (which wasn't a screw up):
-188g AP flour ~9% protein
-187g bread flour ~ 13% protein
-37g sugar
-4g instant dry yeast
-8g salt
-46g unsalted butter
-112g milk
-112g water
-180g lock in butter

And here's the recipe for the bicolored croissants:

-128g AP flour ~9% protein
-30g wholemeal flour
-30g rye flour
-187g bread flour ~ 13% protein
-37g sugar
-4g instant dry yeast
-8g salt
-46g unsalted butter
-112g milk
-112g water
(Made 1.2x recipe, used 0.2 as color layer)
-180g lock in butter


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## Pat Pat (Sep 26, 2017)

Looks like the flours are not strong enough to handle the kneading and turning process.

I've seen this problem when either the gluten is not strong enough, or the gluten is overworked (as in when the dough is kneaded too much during the initial mixing, or is not rested enough during the turns).


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

Like Pat Pat says, I also think it's the flours; specifically the fact that your colored croissant dough contains wholemeal flour and rye flour (why? pre-ferment?). Imagine that wholemeal flour acting as little razorblades, slicing your delicate gluten structure, as well as the addition of the low gluten flours in and of themselves reducing the gluten content of the dough overall.


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## Jing Nan Cheong (Oct 9, 2020)

chefpeon said:


> Like Pat Pat says, I also think it's the flours; specifically the fact that your colored croissant dough contains wholemeal flour and rye flour (why?). Imagine that wholemeal flour acting as little razorblades, slicing your delicate gluten structure, as well as the addition of the low gluten flours in and of themselves reducing the gluten content of the dough overall.


Just wanted to see if it was possible in the first place 😅


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

Jing Nan Cheong said:


> Just wanted to see if it was possible in the first place 😅


I would suggest if you make changes to a formula, just change one thing at a time. That makes it easier to nail down causes should you run into any issues as you did here.


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## Jing Nan Cheong (Oct 9, 2020)

chefpeon said:


> I would suggest if you make changes to a formula, just change one thing at a time. That makes it easier to nail down causes should you run into any issues as you did here.


Okies 😂 thx


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