Why are my croissants heavy?
I have been experimenting with croissants and found that, delicious as they are, they are dense, not light and fluffy. The layers are very close together, not open with vast pockets of air.
I have tried cranking up the oven to 550 when I initially put them in to get that "bloom", but that only adds a little.
One thing I have not tried is reducing the amount of butter and adding water - but I am following the recipes.
Also, what should the bakers' percentages be for a good croissant dough?
I have tried a dozen or more recipes, most from French bakers, but my dough usually turns out very dry, very stiff, nothing like that shown in the videos.
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Quick Answer about "Why are my croissants heavy?"
A fat that is too hard can break during lamination and can also rupture the dough. A fat that is too soft will absorb into the dough. So the wrong fat can translate into dense, crumbly, soulless croissants and unhappy customers.Why is my croissant not Airy?
A finished pastry with too few turns will have large, uneven layers and the butter will melt out during baking. Too many turns will destroy the layers: the butter will become incorporated into the dough, and you'll end up with croissants that aren't as flaky and nicely risen as you want them to be.How are croissants so airy?
When the laminated dough bakes, the butter melts and creates steam. This steam lifts the layers apart, leaving us with dozens of flaky airy buttery layers. Just like we do when we make a croissant bread loaf, We're going to laminate the dough 3 times, which will create 81 layers in our croissants.What happens when you over knead croissant dough?
Do not over-knead / develop the dough too much, too much gluten will not help during the lamination process. The lamination process itself is a kind of stretch and fold anyway and will strengthen the dough. So keep to the 3 minutes the recipe says.What happens if you overproof croissant?
Overproofing Dough Overproofed dough will not expand much in the baking process. This causes the dough to deflate and be super dense in texture. When it is overproofed, the gluten strands become weak and too much gas is released causing it to collapse.Vines That Butter My Croissant
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Thirdman, Valeria Lazareva, Furkan Tumer, Furkan Tumer