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Sourdough croissants with rye starter

January 20, 2018 - 10:53pm After many agonizing croissant batches here's a bake I can say I'm pretty happy with. I'm finding that sourdough croissants are a little more fun than their commercial cousins. These like the last batch I did were inspired by txfarmer farmer using a blend of her techniques and Louis lamour (youtube baking artist extraordinaire). I mixed mixed in about 10-20% rye starter into my levain and let that sit for about 4 hours - this time the dough was considerably more sticky and took much longer to bulk up than usual and entire experience was much different - lamination for example required addition freezer chills. There's something about a wild yeast starter that just gooifies dough bit in this case seems to have really helped with the 'honeycomb' style crumb most croissanteurs strive for. The very first batch of croissant ... 6+ months ago was like looking at white bread and slowly (with some steps forward and some steps back) these suckers just like bread begin to do what you want. Now the question is can it be repeated ? January 20, 2018 - 10:57pm
Some additional snaps

I might add cutting through these have an immediate impression something was different.  Knife just sort of fell through.  Here's some pain aux chocolate s with pistachio as well - January 21, 2018 - 6:35am
Super ! Great crumb!

You're approaching the dream! What's your room temperature while laminating? The layers look so defined. January 21, 2018 - 9:29am
Getting close !

Tks and yes they are opening nice and wide now and didn't take too many tries (maybe 20th batch by now).  The temperature is low as in 69-70 f at max.  A few things to note.  First use the same butter each time something you like in my case I like presidente unsalted - not too stiff (ala plugras) and not too soft (like kerrygold).  From here infind that putting both the dough and butter slab,I. The fridge means the butter will be a bit too hard so right before folding I place the dough in the freezer and the butter on the counter for 5 minutes.  This brings then both to a very similar softness / hardness and at this point you can roll out the layers quickly and don't even need to fully seal the butter.  Some methods instruct you to completely wrap the butter but I don't like this because the more dough around edges the more wasted layering so this little step allows creating an initial slab where the dough is simply folded once over the butter with 3 open sides but you will have much less off cuts this way.

It took a few experiments but yes the layers turn out really nicely this way (its like architecture or engineering) January 21, 2018 - 7:13am

These look great!  I've only made them once after taking a class.  Looks like you are coming close to your sweet spot.  I would make them more myself but don't want to gain back all the weight I lost last year :) January 21, 2018 - 9:31am

I demolish them but just can't gain weight bit one thing is that once the dough is mixed you just start craving them - I get it they are bit evil ! January 21, 2018 - 4:35pm
There you go. That crumb is Krossant Killer

Very nice indeed.  Well done and Happy baking! You tackle the hard stuff first. January 21, 2018 - 4:52pm
Any kudos,from dabrownman is accepted

Thanks dbm ! I recall just several months ago getting with butter and trying,to laminate these dang things using your (and my) favorite butter Kerrygold.  I've since nix'd the kerrygold in favor of presidente and will keep the kerrygold for spreading.  So,with that said just saying for lamination, Presidente is really great - not too soft, not to hard and distributes really nice - check out this double fold and nitice how even the butter layer is (ignore the off cut fillers) 


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