How to get my croissant flakier and bigger? Is it possible to get a hollow inside?

Croissant purists state 32 is the "perfect" number of layers a croissant should have.

In this link seeking the croissant perfection, you can find:

NOTE11, I had the misconception that the more folds, the more layers, the flakier it will be. Wrong. With too many folds, butter layers would be thinner and thinner, and it will be more likely for the butter to melt and leak. Even with perfect rolling, too may layers would mean smaller honeycomb "holes" in the crumb. With no sheeter and TX weather, I find 3 folds sufficient, any more it's risky.

You can get up to 27 layers if you make 3 3-folds. Doing one more folding would make 3^4=81, too many layers.

It's not compulsory, but you can get those 32 layers doing 1 normal-folding and 2 book-foldings:

(image source)

Another reason your flakes are not large enough is the flour used.

• Croissant dough usually has butter in it, and long fermentation time; so a strong flour (high W value) should be used.
• In order the dough doesn't stretch back, and the layers of dough won't beak (letting butter from 2 layers get toghether), a value of p/l?0.5.

That's something in common with pizza dough, as I wrote in this answer, so if you don't find flour specific for croissant, you can try with pizza one.

If you are only proofing your shaped croissants for 40mins, that could be your problem. Proofing croissants takes a lot longer than proofing bread.

you should be proofing the shaped croissants at 78degreesF/25~26degreesC for 2-2.5hours at HIGH humidity. If you don't have a high humid environment, then put one coat of egg wash on right away before you proof (this keeps the butter from running). The shaped croissants (after proper proofing) should be puffed up like "jabba the hut" and have a "jiggle" to them when you tap the baking sheet.

If you want to have the beautiful holes in the inside and the flaky layer in the outside here I'll give you some advice:

1. Use high gluten flour.
2. if you don't have the specific enviroment to grow the croissant you can put the croissants in a baking sheet and cover it loosely with plastic, so the croissant can grow freely. With the plastic we are making sure that the outside of the dough doesn't get dry. If a rising bread get dry in the outside it would not grow.
3. Make the croissants in the night (7-8 pm) and the next day bake them.
4. Remember puff pastry and croissant pastry are not the same, puff pastry dosen't have yeast and in many recipes doesn't have sugar either (27 layers, no more no less).
5. When you are rolling the triangles make at least 4 rolls.

Try and let me know!

Yeast brand is important too. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts and retains water (hence your sugar canister will often have lumps in the humid summer months) and fat encapsulates and traps water (see how much water is in a block of butter when you melt it down). Hence regular yeast will be sluggish as it fights with the sugar and fat to gain access to whatever water is left. For croissants and Danish dough, you need to use Osmotolerant Yeast, developed by the French to thrive in low hydration. That yeast is sold in the US under the SAF Gold label. I buy mine from Amazon but KA Flour stocks it as well.

Proof for at least 1,hour, use wax parchment 2 knead doe to a medium gluten consistency, use hands. 3 use two different brands of yeasts, and let sugar, milk yeast mixture stand before adding to flour