Croissant Dough Formula

Croissant Dough Formula

Bread Flour 100%
Milk 23%
Water 38%
Sugar 13%
Salt 2%
Yeast 1.2%
Dry Malt .5%
Butter .5%
Total Dough 181.7%

Butter,Roll-in 25% of total dough weight

For the butter slab:

Combine everything for the détrempe in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle. Beat on low for about 1 minute until a dough is formed. Switch to the dough hook and knead on mediums speed for about five minutes until the dough is smooth and only slightly sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about an hour. Refrigerate it for about 2 hours or overnight.

About half an hour before you’re ready to roll the pastry, take the butter out of the refrigerator. Let it sit on the counter for about twenty minutes to soften slightly (less time will be required if it’s warm in your kitchen). While you’re waiting, make two double-layered pieces of plastic wrap. When the butter has softened slightly, place it on one of the plastic wrap pieces and sprinkle the flour over it. Lay on the other piece of plastic wrap and begin pounding the butter with a rolling pin, beating, folding and mashing as demonstrated in the How to Laminate Dough post under the Techniques menu. You want to end up with a large, flat slab with all the flour incorporated.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and proceed according to the How to Laminate Dough tutorial, making your butter and dough envelope. Give the dough two “turns” — letter-style folds — one after the other. After than, cover the dough and let it chill in the refrigerator for an hour. The last turn is a style not shown in the tutorial, but it’s call the “book” turn. It’s not difficult, it simply involves folding each edge of the sheet in toward the middle, then folding the one side over the other, closing the dough mass like a book. The end result is that the dough is folded into four layers.

The folding done, return the dough to the refrigerator and let it chill at least four hours before using.