Croissants

I don't think you can make croissants in a bread machine!

Basically the dough is thin layers of butter and "dough", folded and stacked higher and higher and higher and higher, finally formed into croissants.

Very labor intensive.

Someone who knows how to do it will probably let you know!

Some angry bread-machine user is about to point out that you can use most bread machines as a lousy stand mixer, so I'm just going to state that you could maybe use the bowl in the bread machine to mix the dough. But it's probably not worth it.

Exactly my thoughts. If you can't or won't make the dough by hand, you sure as hell aren't going to make croissants.

Take a look at this before you got too committed to the process:

However! If we extrapolate based on the nature of machine-bread vs. bread, and try to conceive of an automatic croissant maker for home use, wouldn't it be grand if you could just dump in the ingredients and a few hours later pull out a large cube of flaky goodness? It could be the next 'bloomed' onion! Just imagine, a croissant the size of a cantaloupe, that you can share with the whole family!

(Yeah, alright, not all that funny, but it's 8:30am and I've been at work for 8 hours, and will be here for one and a half more)

I'm sure it could be done. The machine would be the size of a double-wide trailer.

No, you need yeasted puff pastry, in other words a yeasted, laminated dough. Croissants are yeasted.

I think the original poster is more concerned about his bread machine than he is about whether or not he needs yeast.

Well, neither the OP nor anyone else should be under the illusion that croissants are made out of puff pastry, which is what you posted. Just thought I'd clear things up.

Has anyone tried making croissants from frozen puff pastry dough? It would seem to be an easy thing to cut triangles rom the dough, roll them, and bake. I have not tried it, as I just thought of it, but i would be interested in the input from someone with more free time. Mike Acord

I've done it with puff pastry and had very good results. I've used chocolate, fruit, and savory filling etc, all the same that you'd use for a croissant. It will not be the same as a crossaint however. It will lack the yeasty flavor and unique texture that a true croissant has.

The advantage of it is that you don't have the timing and temperature issues that you do with a yeasted croissant, i.e. there is no rising of dough, etc. The logistics are much simpler with puff pastry, but what you end up with is a puff pastry product, not croissants.

You wouldn't be making croissants. As has already been pointed out, croissant dough is yeasted and puff pastry is not. They are both laminated doughs. That is where the similarity begins and ends.

Howdy,

I would add that the best croissants are not risen with commercial yeast but instead use natural leavening (what many would call sourdough.)

All the best,

Sourdough croissants? If that croissant is in the classification of the viennese pastries therefore flaky, whether its bakers yeast raised or sourdough does not matter.The latter does not lend either to a good quality product. Besides croissants even with normal yeast takes some time to proof if that is leavened with starter( needs longer proofing than normal bakers yeast raised croissant),by that time its fully proofed for baking the roll in fat( likely butter) will have started to ooze out affecting the flakiness of the end product.Or there is the tendency that the descrite layering obtained by careful dough laminating process will be reduced due to the acidity which weakens the gluten and make it appear squat looking Therefore the more flaky and well laminated you want from that item its is sensible that the product must be not be standing in a proofer for a really extended period in order to obtain an optimum quality plump looking croissants. However if you are looking at croissant shape roll which can be appropriately called crescents with no or just minimal fat( no layering) then that will be desirable as the flavor of sourdough will give it and added edge. BTW, with the standard croissants dough ,even by adding and old dough will already confer some slight sourness to the product which makes the consumer think that is really made with sourdough. Best Croissants should have a distinctive buttery taste, flaky texture with nice flavor( not too sour but aromatic) .It should have a balance in taste with no overpowering acidic taste that is strongly associated with sourdough and less with such viennoisierre. Roy

You might want to make a Brioche dough, which is a buttered dough, and then laminate the dough, cut triangles and make croissants. You do not have the hassle of a puff pastry dough, and if you proof it long enough, the quality of those brioche croissants is acceptable.

-- Henry! Q. Why do some bands even have bass players? A. To translate for the drummer.

"Roy Basan" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Hi Roy,

There need not be any detectable sour taste to naturally leavened products, this, despite the American name "sourdough."

All the best,

Kenneth wrote in message news:...

news:...

Kenneth you might be talking about the french levain starter as the main leavening action and not the san francisco starter . Well I have seen a french style bakery who really did try sourdough leavened croissants and the products looks somewhat inferior looking just what I mentioned. Their starter, a european origin( notably similar strains as the french levain) which they used to make many of their bread. They also made a croissants made with bakers yeast and if you are sensitive you can taste the slight difference in flavor between the two products.Unfortunately IMO the overpowering flavor of butter tends to nullify flavor for such levain use in that particular product . In order to determine the long term feasibility of such sourdough leavened croissants; They hired an expert in sensory analysis together with a trained test panel to determine if there is such a preference for sourdough as that particular bakery is specializing in sourdough.They would like to introduce a special sourdough croissants if its found to be superior in the result of such test.. A sensory (triangle test / dou trio test) was done by a food technologist to see the difference if the trained test panel could really differentate preference for such baked product. It was then followed by a ranking and descriptive test and the result was also statistically evaluated through ANOVA( analysis of variance). There were two to four different croissant recipes assessed by 20 trained judges( taste panel). Two type of croissants for the triangle and dou trio ( between 100% bakers yeast and 100% sourdough)test and four different leavened doughs for the ranking and descriptive test namely: The bakers yeast raised( straight dough). The starter/bakers yeast combination, bakers yeast and old dough

100% sourdough starter raised. Well the sensory analysis results were in the following order of preference: 100% bakers yeast straight dough bakers yeast and fermented dough( from the same yeast) two stage ( sponge and dough) natural starter/bakers yeast combination 100% natural sourdough And with the triangle test/duo trio, there was the significant preference for the bakers yeast raised croissants and less with the naturally leavened croissants. One thing that make the naturally leavened croissants not appreciated was the inferior appearance and texture in the laminated structure( less in flakiness) than with the bakers yeast raised item).It is also chewy ,Which affect the appreciation of the product.Even if the ratio of the ingredients,( except for the biological leavening normal yeast or levain) the amount of butter and the level of sheeting and folding were the same.

With regards to flavor assessment, there was no significant difference when the result was statistically evaluated. Meaning, the flavor between the two product( sourdough or bakers yeast leavened croissants) are the same in such application. Meaning preference for such naturally leavened croissants is not significant and coupled with inferior appearance and smaller volume;and does not merit it to be a long term succesful product. In addition to that Extensive Customer survey and taste taste did not confirms such preference for naturally leavened croissants either.. Another thing is with the starter leavened dough the croissant pastry had slower proofing characteristics affecting the throughput when such pastry is being made. Therefore that bakery I mentioned ( after the sensory evaluation)and survey)prefer to use sourdough in their hearth baked breads but would rather use use baker yeast in other specialty goods such as their,brioche,babka/kugelhoft, sweet dough, croissants and danish pastries. From that I can safely conclude that with normal lean leavened dough a sourdough starter has better flavor but with rich doughs containing large amount of butter its not worth the effort,time and has no desirable benefit on the total quality of the end product. Roy