Pastry Chef School: Croissants, Bialys, Popovers, Ciabatta
“Croissants make your morning butter”
This week in pastry school we baked off croissants, bialys, ciabattas, popovers, pretzels and more. To bake off our croissants we had Jorgen Carlsen, Head baker at Jane Bakery, come and teach us about croissants in what was an amazing class. Croissants make your morning butter.
These Croissants looked and tasted great. They’re made from a croissant dough with that had 1 single turn and 1 double turn (more on that dough later).
To shape croissants we used a 5-pronged pastry wheel to mark every 2" and cut triangles 2" wide by 8" high. We then hold up each triangle upside down holding the wide part up and stretching the triangle down using the other hand. The trick is that if the triangle doesn’t get stretched enough the final croissant won’t have as many shoulders as it should (2–3 shoulders on each side is ideal); and if we stretch it too much the dough might tear. Once the triangle is stretched we roll it from the wide part up maintaining symmetry.
Croissant dough is an indirect intensive laminated dough. Indirect because it has made from Poolish preferment with a 1:1 ratio of bread flour : water and 0.1% yeast . Intensive because we’re looking for the dough to pass a window pane test for full gluten development. Laminated because we create a european butter block 25–30% of the weight of the main dough. The dough itself contains bread flour, ap flour, milk, salt, gold yeast, sugar, butter, malt and the poolish. The dough then bulk ferments over night developing rich acidic notes.
Look at those beautiful croissant layers. Once the butter block is covered in the main dough we start folding and turning. Some croissant doughs received a single turn (3 layers) followed by a double turn (4 layers) for a total of 12 layers; whereas other croissant doughs received 3 single turns for a total of 27 layers. The dough with 3 single turns got 30% butter and the dough with 1 single turn + 1 double turn got 25% its weight in butter. For proofing the croissants after shaping we’re looking to see each of those layers, for the product to be about 80% of its final size after baking and to have just a little spring back.
These pain au chocolat look and taste great. To make these we used a single+double turns dough sheeted to 4.5mm high. You can literally count all 12 layers in the photo above.
To make the filling we made chocolate battons made from 3:2:2 ratio of praline : 55% chocolate : milk chocolate. Everything is melted, combined with an immersion blender, poured 7.5mm high, and cut into 7.5mm high & wide bars that are 8cm long.
To shape the pain au chocolat we make 3.5"x5" elongated rectangles from the dough. We then place two chocolate bars, roll up, egg wash and proof until 80% of final size and little spring back. To place the chocolate bars we either place them at 25% & 75% of the rectangle and roll both sides towards the center; or place the bars at 20% & 80% and roll all the way up. See side-by-side shaping below:
These almond croissants taste like a dream. First we make a frangipane, pipe it in long lines, freeze and cut 4" wide sticks of frozen frangipane. The dough itself is a croissant dough with a single+double turn sheeted to 4.5mm high and cut into 3.5"x5" elongated rectangles. We then take two frozen frangipane bars and place them like we do pain au chocolat. Egg wash and proof to 80% of final size. Before baking we egg wash again, pipe frangipane on top and sprinkle with almond slices. Bake at 350°F convection; if burning drop to 325°F.
The Frangipane is a 2:1 ratio mix of almond cream : pastry cream. The almond cream is just butter, sugar, eggs, bread flour, almond meal, almond extract and rum.
These pain raisin was a Rum-Raisin Spiral made from croissant dough. To make these we used the single+double turns croissant dough sheeted to 3mm.
To shape pain raisin cut away the edges to make a large rectangle from the dough, cover with pastry cream using an offset spatula, liberally sprinkle with rum-soaked raisins, add one straight line of rum-raisins on the bottom to make sure the center get raisins, and roll up without stretching the dough. Freeze the log and cut 1.25" long spirals. After baking decorate with a rum syrup glaze.
This Raspberry Danish w/ Croissant Dough was so flipping good. It’s made from the croissant dough that got a single+double turn sheeted to 4.5mm. The dough is then cut into squares, folded over to make a triangle, cut and shaped into a danish. It’s then proofed, shaped as a danish (about 1.5h), has the bottom piped with frangipane, 4–5 raspberries, almond crumble and almond slices.
The Almond Crumble is a mixture of ap flour, sugar, almond flour, salt and soft butter. We paddle that until lumpy but not overmixed and freeze until needed.
These Ciabattas turned out great. It’s an indirect improved development dough. Indirect because it has a poolish made from 1:1 bread flour : water + 0.1% yeast that ferments over night. It’s a simple dough made from bread flour, water, salt, yeast and poolish. The hydration for this dough is about 70% which is quite high so it’s a very wet dough.
How to shape ciabatta? flour table with a layer of flour (using a sifter with flour), gently place fermented dough on table, make a rectangle by cutting away edges. Cut a loaf sized piece from the dough, don’t weigh and quickly move to a heavily floured couche. Decorate with the cut edges. Proof, move to a floured flipping board and directly place in 470°F oven.
These Onion-Poppy Bialys were such a great version of bagels. It has the texture of a bagel and also has a filling. The bialys are made from a direct dough with bread flour, water, salt and yeast that’s fermented for 2 hours, divided to 3oz pieces, rolled into a ball and let to proof on a layer o flour.
How to shape Bialys? Press the center of each ball with both thumbs, and like a pizza work your way to the edges creating a 1.5" flat circle in the center, pat down surface again to assure it’ll stick, add filling (translucent onions and poppy seeds) and bake on 480°F for 8–10m.
These multigrain pretzels tasted great. They’re made from an indirect improved development dough. Indirect because we soaked a 7 grain mix overnight in water and then combined with the main dough the next day. The main dough had bread flour, whole wheat, water, the soaker, butter, salt, yeast and malt. After bulk fermenting we shaped 100g torpedoes (mini-baguettes with tapered end) and retarded those overnight in the fridge. These are considered “pretzels” because we dipped them in a 3% lye solution after proofing.
How to add filling to these pretzels? Are dipping them in lye we used a Lame (bread scoring razor) to make a single cut top to bottom. We then filled that cut with onions and cheese, and baked off.
We made popovers four times this week until we got to a recipe we liked. Personal story: One of my best culinary experiences was at Wayfair Tavern and to this day I can tell you the shape, taste and texture of their popovers. That’s what I was aiming for.
What’s the popover recipe? Combine ingredients using an immersion blender, pour into oiled & floured muffin tins, let rest for 30m, bake at 450°F convection for 15m and drop to 350°F for another 10m until the right colour. Yield 24 popovers. We tested using popover tins and muffin tins and muffin tins worked out best.
Read more about y adventures in pastry school by reading about last week’s brioche:
