Croissants, Take Two

Croissants. Here we go again! Since I baked my first batch on Sunday, I started to be obsessed with the idea of baking the perfect croissant at home. These posts should be little stops on the way there, and mementos from this little adventure.

I baked my second batch today. I started working on it already Sunday evening by preparing a poolish for Monday's dough. The recipe, somewhat different from the first one, also comes from Michel Suas' book, one that he adapted for hand-mixed and hand-laminated croissants. While folding the butter into the dough, a little disaster happened. Being a little bit impatient, I didn't wait enough for the dough and the butter to reach the same consistency. The butter was still a little bit too firm and it broke in a thousand little pieces. I was pretty close to throwing the whole mess into the garbage, but I took a deep breath and kept going. And sure enough, in the end the results were not too shabby; in fact they were a lot better than the first time around!

I'm sure it wasn't the shattered butter that caused those results, but rather giving the dough enough time between each step. Also, last time I froze the shaped croissants, and baked them the next morning after proofing them overnight. This time, I decided to rather retard the croissants after shaping, got up in the middle of the night to take them out of the fridge, and let them proof at room temp till the morning. Despite the butter disaster, we had some pretty decent croissants for breakfast.

I dropped some off at our neighbours', since we are only a two-person household. They might have to eat a lot of croissants in the upcoming weeks, while I perfect the whole process.

I really liked the recipe I used this time, so I might stick with it for a little while and hopefully improve my technique further. Once I'm completely satisfied with the outcome, I will write it all down and share it in a final croissant-post!

For now, we decided we are so happy and proud with the results that we should submit our post to the Wild Yeast blog for their weekly YeastSpotting feature.

Cheers, Lisa

So Who Is This Autolyse Anyway

It has been pointed out to me that throughout our blog we use the term "autolyse" quite a bit without ever explaining its meaning. We also use the autolyse technique in pretty much all our baking. Let me try then to explain my own understanding of what autolyse is and what kind of benefits we get from using this technique.

The term itself is of Greek origin and literally means "self digestion". In biology, it refers to the destruction of a cell through the action of its own enzymes. In bread baking, it has to do with the transformation of flour due to the action of enzymes present in the flour itself.

For the purpose of bread baking, the term "autolyse" was coined by the late professor Raymond Calvel. Calvel is credited with developing or improving many of the bread baking techniques used nowadays by artisan bakers all over the world. He also had a large contribution in reviving French-style bread baking ... in France. Yes indeed, it's hard to believe, but good quality bread baking was all but extinct in France, following almost a century of decline in quality.

In the process of dough mixing, the autolyse technique consists in an initial mixing of flour and water (without the other ingredients), followed by a rest period. After the rest period, the yeast, salt, and all other ingredients are added and the dough is mixed to the desired level of gluten development. In a variation of the above process, only the salt is held back and added after the resting period. Either way, the main benefit of the autolyse is a better hydration of flour (by not having to "compete" for water with the salt and other dry ingredients), as well as a head-start for enzyme activity and faster gluten development. Doughs produced with the autolyse method result in loaves that are easier to shape, have more volume, and improved structure.

Try this technique on your favourite bread formula and you should see dramatic improvement. Also, if you get a chance, check out Raymond Calvel's ground-braking book The Taste of Bread. It's very hard to come by these days, but it's quite an eye-opener.

Happy baking!

Oh, là, là!

I've experimented with laminated dough for the first time this past week. I was so looking forward to freshly baked croissants for Sunday morning. And that's exactly what we had. For a very first try, I found the results quite alright, but there is definitely a lot more practicing to be done, and a lot more to learn to achieve the perfect crumb. Making croissants might turn now into a project for the upcoming weeks (or month?). It should give me something to play with, and I will keep you posted about the journey.

The formula I used was taken from Michel Suas' Advanced Bread and Pastry; there are a number of interesting croissant recipes in his book. I chose the most basic one for the time being.

Hope all of you had a great Sunday!

Lisa