I've been practicing baking croissants for a couple months now. I'm getting the hang of it (I feel) but I'm missing a crucial step that I cannot master and can't put my finger on how to fix it. I'll share my process below and I'd appreciate advice on the process. I like being an 'exact' (nearly science) cooker, so to understand my process, ingredients and temperatures. Please feel invited to be critical!
Ingredients: - 300g flour (10.7g protein / 100g), - 150g french butter - 150ml/g water - 10g sugar, 8g salt, 8g dried yeast
Step 1: I mix the dough and kneed it for about 5 minutes. The result:
Step 2 I roll the dough to a (near) rectangle with a thickness as shown by my finger.
Step 3 I place the slab in the fridge for about 40 minutes, after which it emerges quite hard, but still sufficiently foldable. Three-quarters or two-thirds of the slab is coated with the butter (all 150g of the butter)
Step 4: Starting of lamination I fold the dough as such, followed by rolling it out to a thickness of 1 cm again, and then another fold as also shown below:
Step 5 I let the dough rest for 40 minutes in the fridge, and then perform another double fold, followed by 40 minutes, and another fold.
Step 6 I let the dough rest in the fridge overnight, using a partially wet towel, or other semi-air tight cover
Step 7 In the morning (+8 hours), the dough is taken from the fridge and feel fluffy and soft, as expected with a risen dough. I roll it out to a final thickness of 1 cm as shown:
Step 8 I cut triangles using a regular kitchen knife and add the little cut at the long end to start rolling (shown in front):
Step 9 This is what they look like after rolling. I let them rise for another 30 minutes before entering the oven, pre-heated to 230 degrees C, or 450 Fahrenheit. There's also eggwash on top for a nice brown tan.
Step 10 After 20 minutes, they emerge as such:
Examining The taste is great, really. But I'm not content with the structure. It's too bready and I feel croissants should have a web-like structure with very thin layers within.
In particular with the result, I wonder what has happened. What I observe is:
- The oven tray is quite wet after the croissants emerge from the oven. Is it the butter that ran out? Why?
- Even though the top of the croissant has great flaky-ness, the inside feels more like a regular bread but with butter infused into it.