# Crispy croissants?



## oli (Aug 31, 2001)

I saw this video and he mentions how to make crispy croissants by mixing flour and water the day before.
What do you think?


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

oli said:


> I saw this video and he mentions how to make crispy croissants by mixing flour and water the day before.
> What do you think?


At 11;30 theres a fair amount of scrap from the cutter, its too expensive to throw it away ,
so its collected and mixed in the next batch.


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## oli (Aug 31, 2001)

Early in the video he mentions to make crispy croissants we mix the flour and water a day before. You see him pouring the wet flour and water dough into the big mixer.
I wanted to know if doing that will make for a crispy croissant?


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

oli said:


> Early in the video he mentions to make crispy croissants we mix the flour and water a day before. You see him pouring the wet flour and water dough into the big mixer.
> I wanted to know if doing that will make for a crispy croissant?


Its definitely not required to make flaky croissant.
He didn't mention a few things, eggs? ok whatever. Some bakers do that.
so wheres the milk?

Ask yourself this, do you think they throw the scrap dough in the trash or take it back into the next batch.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Welcome to world of baking.

First question: What is the purpose of mixing flour with water a day before?.

Bakers have been doing this for centuries. Why? For flavour. The ,onger starch ( flour) is in contact with water, the more starches are converted to sugars. This also helps with colouring with baking.

How to get crispy croissants?

Carefully, that’s how. The dough needs to be mixed properly, rested properly, rolled out properly. The butter needs to be the right consistency—as the dough. The butter needs to be folded in properly, the “package” needs to be rolled out carefully, DNA fold or “tour” given. This needs to be repeated several times-properly, the dough rested properly between folds, then rolled out to proper thickness, cut with a sharp knife, and rolled properly. Then they need to be proofed properly, eggwashed properly, and baked properly.

All in all, about 35 steps, from raw ingredients to finished product.

That’s how.


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## oli (Aug 31, 2001)

That's pretty much how I did mine, don't know if it was 35, but there was a lot and a lot of resting - 1.5 days before rolling out to make Pain Aux Raisons.


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## PastryAllDay (Jul 27, 2018)

You mix flour and water normally for bread. It's called an autolyse: helps with extensibility/reduced mixing time (as gluten gets to start developing): and then therefor better external color etc. (Carotenoids that color and flavor the dough get broken the more you mix). But for croissant it's not as necessary, bc in general the mix time is much lower/there's not the level of gluten dev that bread needs since you get that by folding. A 20-30 min auto won't hurt it, but it doesn't need to be a whole day prior. And idk if I buy that it makes them crispier: for me that comes down to hydration/correct proof/nice bake, and a starter base can help w that too. The article below is brilliant for proper technique. https://www.bakersjournal.com/quintessential-croissants-4586/


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

I thought “autolyse” was the 20 minute rest in between mixing the dough, and it’s main purpose was to help with hydration—so you don’t get a dry, heavy dough after mixing.

Mixing flour with water a day before adding it to the dough is generally called a “ poolish “, flour, water, and yeast mixed a day ahead and added to the dough is generally called a “ levain”. both of these are generally about 10-15% of the entire dough weight, and additional yeast is generally added..

“Crispyness” in croissants usually has a lot to do with the roll-in butter to dough ratio, and the amount of folds, or layers, than with the actual dough itself.


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## oli (Aug 31, 2001)

PastryAllDay said:


> You mix flour and water normally for bread. It's called an autolyse: helps with extensibility/reduced mixing time (as gluten gets to start developing): and then therefor better external color etc. (Carotenoids that color and flavor the dough get broken the more you mix). But for croissant it's not as necessary, bc in general the mix time is much lower/there's not the level of gluten dev that bread needs since you get that by folding. A 20-30 min auto won't hurt it, but it doesn't need to be a whole day prior. And idk if I buy that it makes them crispier: for me that comes down to hydration/correct proof/nice bake, and a starter base can help w that too. The article below is brilliant for proper technique. https://www.bakersjournal.com/quintessential-croissants-4586/


BOY, that was alot to read.
Thanks


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

foodpump said:


> I thought "autolyse" was the 20 minute rest in between mixing the dough, and it's main purpose was to help with hydration-so you don't get a dry, heavy dough after mixing.
> 
> Mixing flour with water a day before adding it to the dough is generally called a " poolish ", flour, water, and yeast mixed a day ahead and added to the dough is generally called a " levain". both of these are generally about 10-15% of the entire dough weight, and additional yeast is generally added..
> 
> "Crispyness" in croissants usually has a lot to do with the roll-in butter to dough ratio, and the amount of folds, or layers, than with the actual dough itself.


to me, flake is everything, perfect recipes and classic techniques don't make the flakiest croiss.
Some rules have to get broke to get different results from everyone else .
I feel its a mistake to cling to a classic technique, its a fancy name for minimum acceptable quality, its a benchmark, but the idea is to go above and make better, not work down to a set standard.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

The owners are set on “their” recipie, but that’s doesn’t mean I don’t experiment with trends and different approaches,—if it works, it works.

Are you using a poolish? If so what %? What kind of flour(s) are you using? 10-15%hard flour blended in your roll-in butter. Malt? Rest periods between folds?

I’ll snaps some pics of tommorow’s bake off and post them later on in the day


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)




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## oli (Aug 31, 2001)

I have prepared them and are ready to be baked. How long can I freeze the ones I am not going to bake?


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

The owners are “ vary French” and like their items “ well baked”. Egg wash before proofing, egg wash after providing, They gave a beautiful deck oven with stone decks and steam to work with.


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## dueh (Mar 4, 2015)

I agree that the enzyme activity will help break down starches into sugars, and help with the carmelization of the end product ( something I do for baguettes). egg wash also helps with color, but usually not as much on texture.

It is all about technique! the care in mixing, retarding, laminating, proofing and baking. All the little steps that add up all while controlling the fermentation.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

oli said:


> I have prepared them and are ready to be baked. How long can I freeze the ones I am not going to bake?


The yeast loses a percentage every day frozen, around 10% every 7 days, depends on the dough and the freezer itself. first couple of days they're hard to distinguish, after a week you may need a tire inflater to pump them up. There might be a specialty dry yeast that works better for freezing.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

foodpump said:


> The owners are " vary French" and like their items " well baked". Egg wash before proofing, egg wash after providing, They gave a beautiful deck oven with stone decks and steam to work with.


Nice, the rich color prevents them from tasting like soap.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

??? Why would they taste like soap?


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## PastryAllDay (Jul 27, 2018)

Wow! It’s been a minute on this thread:

What we do is pretty close to the article I posted, and we are really happy w flavor. But by being really careful about fermentation/ keeping our dough super cold, we can get really good results. We use LeSaf dry yeast, freezes well first week, but ok up to two weeks after. It’s a little expensive, since I didn’t want to give up hydration for layers, so we have a higher butter %. But I think worth it.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

PastryAllDay said:


> Wow! It's been a minute on this thread:
> 
> What we do is pretty close to the article I posted, and we are really happy w flavor. But by being really careful about fermentation/ keeping our dough super cold, we can get really good results. We use LeSaf dry yeast, freezes well first week, but ok up to two weeks after. It's a little expensive, since I didn't want to give up hydration for layers, so we have a higher butter %. But I think worth it.


Thats a very good result for dry yeast. Well done.


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