Comments on: croissants 1 (tartine)

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:02:23 +0000

I think using the pre-ferment adds to the yeasty taste. As to the melting butter, I’ve never had that problem. It does tend to ooze out while they’re baking but they suck it right back up once you let them cool for a bit, and in any case the amount that comes out is negligible. I’ve used Peter Reinhart’s recipe (from Artisan Breads Every Day), and they’ve been perfect every time. You have to let the dough do a slow ferment in the fridge overnight prior to laminating with the butter. The key to the dough is patience. Everything needs to be at room temperature and you have to give the dough time to relax. After making 4 batches or so with 3 letter folds, I’ve started doing 4 folds (so 243 layers, as opposed to 81). The result is incredible, even airier and fluffier that before. Just have patience and be gentle with the dough and they’ll turn out great!

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:30:55 +0000

I know this is an old post but I just wanted to say THANK YOU for posting the Tartine croissant dough recipe! With it, I baked their infamous morning buns this past Saturday and they turned out fabulously. Happy Baking!

By: bridget

bridget — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:43:21 +0000

kevin – No worries, I already have the book. I haven’t made Tartine’s morning bun recipe, but now I’m curious! I’ve made a few other croissant recipes since this, and they all have about the same ratio of flour to butter, so I don’t think the Tartine recipe uses an exceptional amount. Maybe the extra melted butter in the morning bun recipe put it over the edge!

By: kevin

kevin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:10:28 +0000

At least twice now I have tried the morning bun recipe from Tartine which uses the croissant dough recipe from their cookbook. Both attempts ended in utter failure. The bun recipe calls for an additional stick of butter that you then tack onto the laminated dough. I’ve had the morning bun from the Tartine bakery and, trust me, it looked nothing like what emerged from my oven. I too have found other croissant dough recipes online which seems considerably less complicated and don’t call for near the amount of butter. I’m not anti-butter, but I think the recipe is off. I’ve written a note in my Tartine cookbook (not a plug; don’t feel you need to buy it) to use less butter next time around . . . which won’t be soon. My ego is still hurt. Thanks for giving me a venue in which to complain.

By: bridget

bridget — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:13:22 +0000

Jay Paul – Interesting! However, I’ve now made two other croissant recipes, and those both oozed butter in the oven too, so I think it’s just a feature of croissants.

By: Jay Paul

Jay Paul — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:41:14 +0000

I too have come to this blog long after the original posting. I also had the problem of the butter oozing out of these croissants, although I did not have some of the other problems. I believe this is an issue with the recipe, not with the baker. This recipe calls for far more butter proportionally than any other croissant dough recipe that I have found; 625/975 equals about 64% by weight of butter to the weight of flour. That is higher than the recipe I used to use from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and also the richest one that Bernard Clayton offers in “The Breads of France” (from the S.S. France: about 45%). I intend to try it again with less butter. I found that keeping the dough cold (and using my professional heavy-weight rolling pin) helped with rolling the dough out. I did note that the recipe only called for 3 vs. 4 turns, but suspected that it might be made up for in the rather excessive lengths of the croissant triangles, and how many layers are created simply by rolling up a triangle of that length to create the final croissant roll shape.

By: April

April — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:02:37 +0000

Hi! I’m coming to this blog long after the original post, but I just made Tartine croissants at home, with some adjustments, and mine turned out pretty different. I put pictures on my blog: http://www.aprilgoldman.com/?p=950. Probably the biggest difference in my process is that I did NOT mix the butter for 3 minutes with the paddle. Instead, I pounded the butter out, basically following this video I found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxCE963K-FY.
Hope that is helpful!

-April

By: Kristin

Kristin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:17:52 +0000

I have made croissants many times (I’m a professional pastry chef), and I can tell you that the above recipe is missing at least one turn. All the recipes I’ve ever read (and I’ve tried several) call for either three or four turns (*not* counting the initial fold to enclose the butter block.) So I’m sure you’d have a better final product if you rolled and folded the dough out one more time. If you only fold the dough three times total, including the first to enclose the butter, you will only end up with nineteen layers of dough (and eighteen layers of butter.) In culinary school they had us fold three times after the butter enclosure, and in two other recipes I’ve tried it was four times. Three folds would give you fifty-five layers of dough, and four would give you 163 layers. Try this and see if you get a better croissant. Also, the proofing method makes a big difference in the butter-oozing-out problem. A cool proof might solve this.

By: bridget

bridget — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:53:29 +0000

richard – They are similar, but in my experience, puff pastry is easier. Since croissant dough is kneaded, it has more gluten development, and so the dough is more elastic. When you roll puff pastry dough out, it pretty much stays rolled out, but croissant dough springs back.

By: -richard-

-richard- — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:43:46 +0000

Would I be wrong in saying that Croissant dough is essentially the same as a puff pastry dough with yeast added. I have made puff pastry but never croissants… I have been thinking about it and think ill give it a try now. Thanks.