What are the most common mistakes when making croissants? (2024)

FAQs

What are the most common mistakes when making croissants? ›

Under or over-proofing the croissants

1 Wrong ingredients

Using salted butter instead of unsalted butter can affect the flavor and texture of your croissants, as salted butter has more water and less fat than unsalted butter. And using too much or too little yeast can also affect the rising and proofing of your dough.

Croissants can turn out flat for a couple of reasons: The protein content in the flour was too low (see "Perfecting the dough" above) The croissants were over-proofed (they are ready to be baked before they reach double in size)

Again, you can test to see if your dough is overproofed by gently pushing on the dough with your fingers. If the indentation stays, it is overproofed. It should spring back some.

Towards the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 425°F. Brush each croissant with an egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven's temperature to 350°F and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until deep golden brown and no raw dough is visible where the layers overlap.

A classic French croissant has 55 layers (27 layers of butter), achieved with a French fold followed by 3 letter folds. Less layers will mean a different texture (less tender, more chewy, with more defined layers). Too many layers bring a risk of the butter getting too thin and melting into the dough.

When under-proofed the butter tends to leak out from in between the layers and you end up with a butter puddle. There's so much butter in these croissants!

When the dough and butter are laminated together, the butter is enveloped inside the dough. Inside the oven, the heat causes the moisture in the butter to steam, creating beautiful pockets of air. These pockets give the croissant its signature flaky texture and irresistible mouthfeel.

The most important point is that your dough should be about 3-5mm thick. First plot out what you are thinking about making and then roll the dough to the size that will work best. In our croissant classes, we are making several different shapes from one piece of dough.

Proof the croissants for 95 to 100 minutes in a proofing oven between 26 and 31°C depending on the type of butter used for the lamination. Check your technical sheet to get the right temperature to proof. The time allowed for proofing depends on the percentage of yeast and on the temperature in the proofing oven.

How long can you leave croissants out to rise? ›

Loosely cover the formed pastries and let them rise until at least doubled in size, 2-3 hours. Often I end up shaping the croissants at night, then they spend the night waiting in the fridge, and I take them out for a final two hour rise in the am before baking.

Too much flour can dry out the dough and cause it to tear 6 - don't overwork the dough. Too much gluten development can lead to the dough tearing and difficulty rolling it out homemadecroissant.

Under or over-proofing the croissants

Failing to proof your croissant dough for long enough is a common mistake that most commonly results in croissants leaking butter while baking, a tight crumb, and a flat, undeveloped flavor. Inversely, over-proofing croissant dough presents its own set of problems.

Your croissants were probably under-proofed. Just let them proof a bit longer so they get wobbly and increase visually in size. When under-proofed the butter tends to leak out from in between the layers and you end up with a butter puddle.

The large amount of butter used in croissants does make croissants high in saturated fat, with typically-sized butter croissants containing 8 to 12 grams of saturated fat. The high fat content in croissants is due to lamination.

Nutritional Drawbacks

Croissants are made with relatively large amounts of butter, and significantly boost your saturated fat intake — each large croissant contains 14 grams of total fat, with 8 grams coming from saturated fat.