It’s the start of a new year, we’re out of the Teens and into the Twenties, and I have continued my tradition of starting the new year off with a delicious bake. The tradition started several years ago when I realized there were several things I liked to bake that spanned 2 or more days of prepping/baking. This meant I could start whatever bake in the old year and enjoy it in the new year. It was amazingly symbolic to me, and just felt like the right way to start a new year. Because we are also usually on break, croissants just seemed like the perfect fit. New Year’s croissants for everyone!
The Problem (and Initial Solution)
This time around, I wanted to fiddle a bit with the recipe and baking of the New Year’s croissants because I keep having issues with the bake. I get great flake and lamination, but the middle inside is thicker and looks underdone. After searching for my issue, it seems like the cause of the weirdness in the middle of my croissants is because of either under proving or under baking. Easy enough to fix, right??
So, I screwed up. I changed too many things at the same time, and ended up with the same results as before. What did I change? Well, for this New Year’s croissants, I used fancy European butter both in the dough and for the lamination. Then I decided to use the convection feature of my oven. I also decided that I would prove the croissants until I saw the layers and the wiggle that says they’ve had enough time – even if that meant letting them prove way longer than the recipe called for.
New Solution
I decided to make a whole new batch of croissants using the same fancy butter, and doing all the proving, but changing the baking temperatures and times. I’ve looked at probably 2 dozen or more croissant recipes, their ingredients, their oven temps, and bake times. My first thought is that my oven is probably too hot (425). I also discovered as I went to make the dough this second time around that the instant yeast I used last time had a best-by date of July 2019. Oops. It was the end of the jar, so I had a brand new, fresh jar ready to go for this round anyway.
Honestly, I’m not sure the rise was any better on this round. They did seem to rise more definitively, but the layering wasn’t that much more pronounced. Anyway, after rising, I started them in a 410 F oven. After 10 minutes, I swapped and rotated the pans in the oven, dropped the temp down to 375, and baked them for 8 more minutes. After checking on them, I added 2 more minutes.
The Result
The first thing my husband noticed was how much more even the color was on this second batch. He’s right – they were all more evenly brown. In previous batches, some were almost burnt while others were perfect. Yay! Hope!
Okay, so upside? This new batch of croissants looks a little better in the middle, not quite as clumpy and underdone. Unfortunately, they are still clumpy and underdone looking in the middle. What does a girl have to do?? Google is not super helpful, at least not with the keywords and phrases I’m using. How do you troubleshoot croissants without making a million (rather expensive…butter – even regular stuff – is not cheap!) batches?
In the mean time, we will be eating New Year’s croissants for the next several months (especially since they freeze well). It’s a sacrifice, but one my family is willing to make. Yum. Yep, I want a croissant now.
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