Too much water in the butter!

[Patissiou]

Ever since I've been doing criossant at work we have got New Zealand butter, which is really nice! How ever yesterday my supplier was out of it and gave me 4 blocks of Australian butter.

As I was cutting it for folding into my criossant this morning I could see that it had too much water in with the butter. Now I've heard that some people throw their butter into a mixer and beat it until the excess water separates.

I have also heard that you can mix the butter with a little flour. I like the idea of this, but I was wondering how much flour should I add?

Am I the only one who gets %&#@ butter? What do you guys do?

Thanks!

[thechef]

you should add about 5% of bread flour to your butter, if that still is not enough you can go up to 10%, it really depends how much water the butter has.
happy cooking-baking...
thechef

[mudbug]

I would choose to beat the water out. It's pretty easy and quick with a paddle attachment to the mixer and then I'd have no worries about any flour in between my layers.

[Patissiou]

I tried 5% flour today and I don't think it did enough. I dont think I'm prepared to go to 10%, so I might just try and beat the water out. Thanks for the input guys!

[Suzanne]

At Dufour Pastry Kitchen, which makes some of the best puff pastry in the United States (imho, even though I no longer work there ), they work flour into the butter (obviously, US butter; don't know the water content).

Actually, I'm surprised that it would be a problem. Don't you want water in the butter, to create the steam that makes puff pastry puff? (Can you tell that I was not in pastry production there? )

[mudbug]

Butter inherently has water in it, 19% on average. But too much to me means that several potential problems could occur. Excess water would leak out and combine with the flour developing the gluten resulting in a tough pastry. Or the layers would be too damp to dry properly and you wouldn't get an optimum flaky texture because the water would evaporate at a different time than the fat. Water combining with the flour could cause problems when booking the dough. If I'm going to commit the time and effort into making puff pastry from scratch, I'd want to do my best to avoid any potential problems from the beginning.

I'm sure it's possible to combine flour with the butter if you work with the butter enough and experiement with the recipe long enough to figure out what will work, but if you can switch purveyors to one that provides a butter without issue to begin with, seem like less work in the long run.

[Patissiou]

If we're talking about full puff, I've got a recipe that calls for a portion of the flour to be mixed in with the butter. It works out perfect, but I was unsure as to the application to criossant dough. I can post the recipe of you guys want?

[mudbug]

The difference between classic puff pastry and croissant dough is in the amount of yeast (croissant has bit more for height and flavor) and uses fewer folds.

[Patissiou]

Thanks for the confirmation. I am aware about the differences between criossant and puff, I just didn't want to screw up 6 x 14kg blocks of croissant by putting too much flour into the butter.

I phoned my rep the other day and he wasn't completely sure but suggested that I add about 10% flour to the butter and subtract that from the flour of my dough (like an inverted puff is suppose).

It's not like my customers can tell the difference, but I like to push myself everyday and learn as much as possible

[felixe the dog]

Are you confusing the issue with the "fractionised butter"?
Some NZ manufacturers produce fractionised butter sheets specifically for the production of puff and croissant pastry which does not shatter in the dough and eliminates the need to add flour to the butter you are using for lamination.

[Patissiou]

Not sure what fractionised butter is?

No I've just got crap australian butter with too much water in it. It cracks when I beat it and when baking, the pastries leak out butter onto the tray.

[mudbug]

Originally Posted by Patissiou

...I've got a recipe that calls for a portion of the flour to be mixed in with the butter. It works out perfect...

Sounds like unless you get better butter, this is your only choice so go for it and let us know how it turns out.

[felixe the dog]

The butter isn't crap. You need to either use a fractionised butter plate (such as the one you were using when you bought NZ butter) or add some flour to your butter.
The butter is leaking out in baking due to poor lamination because the butter is cracking when you try to laminate your dough.
I have used duck river/ringarooma daries, Anchor and girgar butters and none of them are crap, all can be used succesfully.
If you are unsure on fractionised butter, you will need to go back to your college/TAFE library and do some research.

[dak690]

I have been having problems doing porffiteroles in a good size batch, as well as the outside becoming a little to hard for my liking,any recomedations ? Thanx!

[Patissiou]

Thanks felix, I'll do some research!