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Breaking butter issue with croissants

post #1 of 6
7/4/09 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Hi
So I'm going a little crazy. The butter in my croissants is breaking, causing leakage during baking. I'm ensuring that the butter and dough are the same temp by keeping them together in the fridge, which is at 7deg C. I am doing four turns, using my reversible tabletop sheeter. Still the butter breaks, which is making me frustrated. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Bob
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post #2 of 6
7/6/09 at 5:15pm
Your butter is breaking because it is too cold. The dough and the butter need to be the same CONSISTENCY rather than temperature to work best.

I've always made sure that my butter is cool and pliable, not cold and brittle when rolling out croissant dough. You will find that this temperature for butter is warmer than the temperature for your dough.
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post #3 of 6
7/7/09 at 4:43am
Thread Starter 
Thanks so much for that reply. Unfortunately my fridge won't go any warmer than it is; I've tried:

Taking the butter out ten minutes prior;
Turning the fridge as warm as possible;

neither seems to work. However I just watched a PBS video of Julia Child doing croissants and they proffered the idea of whipping the butter before the first turn in the mixer with a paddle. I'll try this too. Thanks again for your response, and do you have any further advice you might be able to offer?

Thanks!
Bob
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post #4 of 6
7/7/09 at 6:35am
how big do you roll the butter to? are you making a triangle?

The other advices are right. Most important- pliable butter.

Roll it to a triangle, put in the cooler but not let it be very cold.
The dough should be cool for sure. I do it by hands since I don't have a dough sheeter.
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post #5 of 6
7/7/09 at 10:30am
No need to whip the butter, and messing with the temp of your fridge isn't the answer either.

However, I do mix the butter with a little flour on the mixer before I form it into a square and then I refrigerate it for thirty minutes. Mixing the butter with flour helps absorb some of the moisture in the butter. I find mixing the butter with flour and then refrigerating gives it the perfect consistency.

The key is, that your dough and butter need to be as close in consistency as possible. If you remove your butter from the fridge and wait ten minutes and its not pliable, then wait longer. Use your judgement to determine when the butter is pliable, not the clock.
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post #6 of 6
7/9/09 at 6:52am
Thread Starter 
Thanks chefpeon and Galit for your advice. I'll try it and come back next week after I see the results!

Bob
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