Refrigerating croissant dough with low ambient temps

[jedovaty]

Hi:

Do I need to refrigerate croissant dough between turns if the ambient temperature in my house is low, i.e. 19C (66F) or below?  For example, it is 15C/59F right now in my house.

 

Rest between turns is important to let the dough "relax", and generally people put the dough in the fridge to keep butter from melting and absorbing into the tough since homes are usually over 22C/70F.  If it's this cold here won't it be better to leave the dough out for the sake of the butter?  Or perhaps it is even too cold for butter to actually get soft enough to roll out?

 

I may give it try, because last time I had a little difficulty rolling it out smoothly.  The butter cracked and look like a turtle shell under the dough, and I thought I was rushing it, despite waiting 30 minutes or so after pulling dough out of the fridge following a rest.  But now it seems like maybe it's just too cold for the butter to be at the right temp to roll out... hmmm.  My results were still pretty good, maybe smooth butter rolling isn't as crucial as clean edges and proper final proof.

 

Thanks for your time!

Edited March 25, 2020 by Smithy
Capitalisation (log)

[teonzo]

The resting time is important for gluten, if you do the turns without rest then the dough becomes too elastic and it's almost impossible to roll it.
During the rest you want to avoid the butter becoming too hard or too soft. Too hard and the dough will break. Too soft and rolling the dough will seems like pressing toothpaste. So it depends on the butter and your fridge temperature. Not all butters are the same, there are harder butters and softer butters, this depends on what butter you buy, so you are the only one to know this and it takes a bit of experience. A couple degrees C of difference in the fridge temperature can lead to dramatic differences. If you rest one dough in a fridge at 3°C and a second one in a fridge at 1°C, then the butter on the outside of the second dough will harden much much quicker. If the butter on the outside hardens and the butter in the inside remains soft, then you will get a total mess with the following turn. Usually the ideal resting temperature should be around 8-10°C, so you should need to put it in the warmer side of a fridge set at 4°C. If your room is at 15°C, then better letting it rest at room temperature than in a fridge at 1°C.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[jedovaty]

Understood, thank you.

[jedovaty]

Hi: I ended up having to put laminating mass into the fridge because the dough became too soft, while the butter was correct consistency.  Refrigerating the dough with the recipe I'm using helped stiffen it and made the rolling better.

 

Most important take-away: the final proof is likely the most important element of this.  This time final proof pushed to 7 hours at 74F/23C - this is a sourdough leavened dough, with tiny amount of SAF gold.  Here's why I believe this to be the case: last night's practice batch was problematic during lamination, first because I used a new butter (fernani italian cream, 82%, it's all costco had?!), second, the butter did turtle-shell in the first rolling, third, the dough stretched further than expected, and fourth, at one point the dough cracked along the sides.  To make things fit, I cut the dough, but miscalculated and ended up patching things with left over scraps.  Some of the patching was messy, I was tired and frustrated.  Given the odd lengths, I did some variation of 2 sets of double folds, followed by a single tri-fold.  Prior practice batches were all three sets of tri-folds.  Baking was done in two batches: the first higher up in oven, however, the bottoms still burned.  The second, finally figured out what it takes to bake without burning: specific position, temperature, rimmed baking sheet on top of a cookie sheet.

 

Photo shows second batch mid-bake.. absolutely no butter leaking!!  Second picture shows crumb of three burnt-bottom croissants from the first batch.. the crumb isn't bad at all, despite all the laminating problems.  Therefore, I still believe the final proof is most important.  The rest of the technique is what will likely make them perfect, but I think I am going to stress less about the lamination, it just became far too frustrating.

 

[ElsieD]

I'd eat any of them in a heartbeat.

[retired baker]

On 3/25/2020 at 8:26 AM, jedovaty said:

Hi:

Do I need to refrigerate croissant dough between turns if the ambient temperature in my house is low, i.e. 19C (66F) or below?  For example, it is 15C/59F right now in my house.

 

Rest between turns is important to let the dough "relax", and generally people put the dough in the fridge to keep butter from melting and absorbing into the tough since homes are usually over 22C/70F.  If it's this cold here won't it be better to leave the dough out for the sake of the butter?  Or perhaps it is even too cold for butter to actually get soft enough to roll out?

 

I may give it try, because last time I had a little difficulty rolling it out smoothly.  The butter cracked and look like a turtle shell under the dough, and I thought I was rushing it, despite waiting 30 minutes or so after pulling dough out of the fridge following a rest.  But now it seems like maybe it's just too cold for the butter to be at the right temp to roll out... hmmm.  My results were still pretty good, maybe smooth butter rolling isn't as crucial as clean edges and proper final proof.

 

Thanks for your time!

 

 

 

Nope, you can do a straight process at those temps. Same for puff dough.

Chill the dough for 15 minutes before starting and start with cold pounded butter.

If the dough is cool and the butter is cold but malleable you will not have any trouble in a cool kitchen.

Heres 1200 layer puff dough in less than 30 minutes.

Can't be done the youtube experts say,  I agree...they can't do it.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by retired baker (log)