Sourdough Croissants – Pushing the Envelope

Today I “pushed the envelope” on my final proof.

To be honest, this whole batch is going to be suspect. My head wasn’t in the game due to work commitments et al. Had a really difficult time focusing.

As a result I was impatient in my butter lock-in and shattered the butter. My folding/lamination was below par. Overall not my best effort.

So… why not experiment and push the prove?

Went for 4 hours (8am to Noon)

Boy did the “prove”… right to the wiggle and beyond! Starter to totally unravel. Totally ugly.

Note the really ugly spiral in the middle is scrap that I decided to bake. There are five “croissants “ on the tray.

Another (inadvertent) experiment was baking at 400°F (convection).

I had intended to preheat at that temperature but bake at 375°F (convection). I was doing that to adjust for the “ice cube effect“ created by putting in a relatively cold tray.

I forgot to turn my oven down.

Here is how they came out…

As well expected a bit darker. However, they weren’t burnt. The amount of butter in the tray was minimal which was nice.

Once cooled I’ll check the lamination and “honeycomb” structure.

The experiment continues…

UPDATE

Here is a cross-section view of the crumb. It’s so-so; but not as bad as I had imagined it might be.

As you can see the lamination or honeycomb is not wee developed. It has the spiral but looks a lot like bread or brioche. I thinks this may be due to my breaking of the butter. As a result dough touched dough without a layer of butter separating them.

Next time I’ll need to be more patient with my butter lock-in