Decided today to experiment with my proving length.
A while back I had inadvertently lengthened my proving time (at that point 2 hours) to 4 hours. Those croissants weren’t “ruined” and actually caused me to intentionally prove for that length of time for batches since then.
Earlier this week I saw an Instagram post by autumn.kitchen about experimenting with proving times. That led me to my experiment today.
I decided to prove one tray for 6 hours (+2 hours from my normal 4-hours) and the second tray for 8-hours (2X my normal 4-hours)
RESULT: I need to prove longer! I’m under-proving at 4-hours in my environment!
Here’s a comparison…
8-Hour 
6-Hour 
4-Hours
Overall the 8-hour proving had the best “honeycomb” in my mind. There was more visible separation in the layers overall.
All have been really tasty with great flakiness (e.g. whenever you cut into them you’re “murdering” the croissant with flakes and crumbs everywhere…there’s no hiding the evidence).
I had virtually no melted butter in the tray (unlike previous bakes).
Today’s Bake 
Previous Bake
Overall I’m very pleased with the outcome! I’m not scared to prove my croissants for a longer period and am confident in my results.
Always learning…
Baked By Bear Sourdough 