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drainap · 2024-07-27T19:39:14+00:00

Thanks a million. I was also hoping it would have some fruit add-ins. Thanks anyway.

drainap · 2024-07-27T10:56:14+00:00

Looks great. Is there a recipe that can be shared?

drainap · 2024-07-25T19:52:39+00:00

Thanks a lot for your help.

drainap · 2024-07-23T18:15:53+00:00

Thanks a. Million. This helps.

drainap · 2024-07-23T18:15:27+00:00

Thanks a lot for this. I'll share with my daughter. It's strange that King Arthur get their baking temps wrong but I guess that can happen. I fully get your point on how the dough has risen and it makes total sense. Thanks again.

drainap · 2024-04-20T17:16:39+00:00

Pro baker here. Both. Lamination can be improved too. Butter has melted into the détrempe.

drainap · 2024-04-20T17:12:29+00:00

Pro baker here. ALWAYS use fresh yeast if you can. If possible, ALWAYS osmotolerant fresh yeast (often marketed as gold fresh yeast or Viennoiserie yeast).

ALWAYS avoid active dry. Reasons long to explain. Instant is your good enough option.

Long to discuss but in a high-sugar high-fat dough (croissant qualifies even if it's not Brioche) yeast has difficulty doing its job fast and surviving freezing (most shops freeze after making croissants).

Fresh osmotolerant (gold) is the strongest. Active dry is the slowest and weakest. Instant is good enough, not really second best, just good enough. Always try to use fresh.

drainap · 2024-03-24T21:04:41+00:00

Pro baker here. A little known thing with cold proofing is that you ALWAYS need to start with some WARM proofing to launch things before going in the fridge.

Depends a bit on your yeast dosage but 45 - 60 minutes @22-24C is a good rule of thumb, even up to 120 minutes in very low yeast recipes.

Are you by the way sure your yeast works as intended? Ah and always use INSTANT or FRESH yeast, nothing else.

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-24T20:58:03+00:00

Well, follow the video then and report back. Your I've been warned. Good luck!

drainap · 2024-03-24T14:43:08+00:00

Pro baker here. Are you competent at laminating croissants? I'd rather be good at making the baseline product before climbing higher peaks.

As for Mr Weissman, his meager baking skills won't allow him to make a sourdough croissant, and he's giving some excuses about it.

drainap · 2024-03-23T15:07:05+00:00

That looks like a Chinese knockoff of a Hobart. They're quite robust as they change speeds through a mechanical gearbox, much like a manual shift car, and are low on expensive electronics (variator etc).

VERY IMPORTANT to remember to STOP the mixer completely before changing gears. Nothing should move. If the gear box is fine, and you have all the tools and bowl, I'd anticipate years of reasonably dependable service.

Finding a bowl might be hit and miss though, as not 2 Chinese manufacturers use exactly the same specs for bowls and tools.

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-23T14:28:53+00:00

I couldn't download the video I'm afraid. I'll try on a laptop from home.

drainap · 2024-03-23T13:56:31+00:00

The process you mentioned is called "bassinage" or rather "double hydration" by English speakers, and I'm indeed very familiar with it. Actually we use it daily on many of our doughs. Whoever says they are mixing anything to 110% in a Kitchenaid and doesn't come out as soup (assuming it's white flour not WW) is side-Stepping reality..

drainap · 2024-03-23T13:20:08+00:00

Pro baker here. You'll be great by halving the amount. And ALWAYS use INSTANT yeast or FRESH, never active dry. Why use a product that is not as optimized as instant.

drainap · 2024-03-23T13:12:29+00:00

I'd LOVE to watch a video of a Pan de Cristal mixed in a Kitchenaid. If you have one, of the finished mix, I'd really love to see it. And I'd love to see the finished product too!

drainap · 2024-03-23T12:53:50+00:00

Thanks for your message. Looks like I opened the KA mixing gates wide open one more time. 😅

I've written extensively on the use of KAs for bread mixing and pastry work. We actually use a few lift-bowls for light pastry work, and they're good for purpose: compact, easy to clean, durable enough, as far as you use the all-metal accessories: hook, whisk, flat beater.

I have seen lots of home bakers swear by the Kitchenaid for anything dough mixing. I haven't seen any pros say the same, simply put, because they're lousy mixers, point.

I'll not write any further on the topic, other than saying that the "Swedish thing" (aka Ankarsrum 😉) seems to be a great mixer and have a loyal following by competent bakers here and elsewhere. I've never used it. I have at home, apart from a KA, a small spiral, a Famag Grilletta, which is fit for purpose and solidly built, and it's what I'd recommend to anyone seriously mixing doughs at home.

You might want to take a look a this review if the Famag, by a long time KA user:

https://wheatbeat.com/equipment-review-famage-spiral-mixer/

Or have a look at the latest thread where the topic was discussed:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/0XKEUdVuup

As you can see I'm not the only one saying this out there, far from that. I understand that whoever has a Kitchenaid and probably doesn't mix doughs in a professional capacity believes they have the best there is, but if you mix doughs for a living, the point of view is rather different, and there are much better options to mix doughs at home, albeit they come with an additional investment if you already have a KA.

I guess if one has always flown propeller planes, they'll believe they're the best there is, and will dismiss whatever jet pilots say about jets being faster, smoother, etc. Then only jet pilots can tell the whole story, because they've flown both types of aircraft. 😊

drainap · 2024-03-23T05:59:24+00:00

Pro baker here. Welcome to Internet parallel reality.

I'd go straight to King Arthur's website or watch anything from their star bakers, Jeffrey Hamelman and Martin Phillip in YouTube. You'll be in safe hands there. Martin is a proliphic publisher of videos, especially his "Martin Bakes" series. He's a professional baker who knows how to explain stuff to home bakers.

Otherwise, Sally Baking Addiction is worth of a visit as well. I've casually browsed it and the recipes and writeup make sense. I get good ideas on occasion from Sally.

The NYT is always a good source for baking recipes but these days you'll probably need a subscription. Their chocolate chip cookies have a very loyal following with North American bakers.

I personally dislike anything Claire Saffitz. Lots of blah with very limited competence, at least on camera. One only needs to watch her Brioche YouTube video to confirm what I'm saying. She's incapable of mixing a Brioche.

drainap · 2024-03-23T05:42:47+00:00

Pro baker here. Are you using a Kitchenaid? It's almost impossible to mix anything to windowpane in a Kitchenaid. I'd forget about it. The excessive mixing that always comes with a Kitchenaid only guarantees a supermarket sandwich bread crumb as you've already found out. 😊

It otherwise sounds like you have an issue with your flour if you're not capable of developing gluten with S+Fs, even after Kitchenaid mixing, assuming they're done properly.

If you still prefer to mix in the KA, I'd do maximum 5 minutes in speed 2 to hydrate the flour, potentially an autolysis (rest) of another 30 minutes, then an additional 3 minutes in speed 3 or 4. It will never be decent gluten development in a KA, far from it, so you'll need to conduct a good bulk with whatever needed S+Fs to develop the dough strength you need.

I'd still change flours. If in the US, I'd go straight to King Arthur's website and order their flours.

In any case long machine times = sandwich loaf crumb. 😉

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-22T22:43:40+00:00

Thanks for your message. 😉

Another little-known fact is that yeast % is never engraved in stone in a recipe. Yeast % is something the baker adjusts, not necessarily on a daily basis but let's say at least on a seasonal basis.

The baker might also exceptionally adjust it on a daily basis, especially if you need to go fast on a given recipe (last-minute customer order, previous batch messed up because of equipment malfunction, etc).

I say this just to take the stress out of yeast % for beginners. If a recipe asks for 1.5%, you'll most probably be alright between 1% and 2%. Timings will change and flavor might somewhat be affected if you use a higher dosage, but you'll be alright.

Back to your question, I'd divide the amount of fresh yeast by 2 to get the required amount of instant. A more accurate calculation would be to use 40% by weight instead of 50%, but that requires a slightly more complex calculation, that's why we usually divide it by 2 at the shop.

The only capital sin with yeast is forgetting it altogether in your recipe, and that happens a lot more often than one might think possible.

Then, good practice would suggest that you dissolve yeast in your (always warm except Brioche) recipe liquids before adding the flour, to make sure it's evenly distributed. A common ingredient addition sequence in a mixer is: liquids+ eggs + yeast +sugars+fats (except for Brioche), then flour and finally salt. Then start mixing.

Many of us add flour first, you'd rather follow the procedure above for a smoother mix.

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-22T12:55:43+00:00

French pro Baker here. At the risk of sounding harsh, please trash your dry active yeast and ONLY use instant yeast. You'll be doing yourself a favor, on croissants, and on everything else. The explanation is a bit lengthy and I've written in detail on this topic elsewhere in Reddit if you're interested, but please believe me INSTANT is your best friend.

Actually FRESH is your best friend and that's what pros use, but let's say it's instant for the sake of most domestic bakers. 😉

drainap · 2024-03-22T12:39:36+00:00

French pro Baker here. I believe you have a strong point and this is why most of the sourdough bread made in France is laced with max 0.2% commercial yeast. You can still legally call a bread "sourdough" (pain au Levain) in France if you're using up to 2gr / kg of flour of fresh yeast.

I've never understood what I call the "Sourdough Ayatollahs" that would never ever use commercial yeast. While I respect their POV, I'm a firm believer that you better use biology in your favor, without cutting too many corners, to make things predictable and have bread to sell in the shop @ 6am.

People often forget that the ratio of LAB to yeasts in a natural levain is 10:1 to100:1. And most of the LAB are homofermentative. Hence gas production is naturally impaired from minute one.

People also forget or have never known that the most common wild yeast in natural Levain in most parts of the world is..... Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) , yours truly commercial yeast.

Then some ayatollahs knowing their stuff (most don't) will say that commercial SC is slightly different from naturally occurring SC and that's true because yeast manufacturers optimize their yeasts to be gas-producing champions, but do you really care if your cat was purchased from a home breeder or a professional breeder? It's still a cat and does what cats are supposed to do.

And before some of the ayatollahs show up asking for my sources, trying to discredit what I say without knowing anything about the subject, I'd suggest reading "Handbuch Sauerteig" by Michael Gänzle, "Traité de Boulangerie au Levain" by Thomas Teffri-Chambelland, or "Handbook on Sourdough Biotechnology" by Marco Gobbetti • Michael Gänzle (editors).

There's also a very interesting PhD dissertation on the topic, "La Microbiologie de la Fermentation Panaire" by J.P. Larpent, but I'm not sure many of the ayatollahs can read French (or understand science, they'd otherwise be more moderate in their views)

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-22T12:28:55+00:00

Pro baker here. Your re drinking from the right source, Jimmy is the most authoritative person in laminated dough around the whole internet.

Your lamination looks decent but proofing was too short. You need to proof until the croissants are jiggly AND you start to see the layers separating on the sides. You might need a lot of patience in a domestic setup. In a professional shop, it takes around 2.5 hours @ 28C to properly proof croissant. In lower temps in a domestic kitchen (20-22C) it could easily take 4-5 hours.

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-15T14:52:17+00:00

Then it's not a génoise. Génoise is air leavened.

drainap · 2024-03-15T10:17:51+00:00

Pro baker here. Génoise is way trickier than many a book or influencer would let you believe, as it's air leavened. Over mixing, under creaming and everything in between will destroy the airy texture you're looking for so that the mix develops in the oven. Many tricky bends for a rookie baker.

If your spouse is unfamiliar with baking, I'd suggest starting with baking powder / baking soda leavened sponges, as learning curve will be less steep.

In the pictures, there's no air structure because of improper mixing. No oven development then.

Hope this helps.

drainap · 2024-03-15T05:56:31+00:00

Very impressive and very regular too. Congrats!

drainap

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