Croissant from our King Arthur croissant class.
Last weekend was packed with March Madness and SXSW, but when an email arrived announcing a last-minute opening in the Lofty Layers class at King Arthur Baking School everything else got pushed aside. The class had an unusual format: watch a video and make the base dough (détrempe) the night before, learn about locking in butter and start layering at 10:00-11:30 the next morning, then come back with your layered, refrigerated dough 4:00-5:30 for final shaping and making croissants. The instructor showed us a batch she had just baked off, but ours had to rise and went in the oven at 8:00 pm. The results, as you can see, were pretty good for a first try.
We experimented with various techniques and shapes in the King Arthur croissant class. The two rolls at the left are pain de chocolat; the squiggle in the middle is a treat for the chef composed of trimmings.
I’m not supposed to share the recipe or technique we followed in class, but this recipe should yield similar results. And you can watch this video which features Martin Philip of King Arthur (he was once a participant in our miche taste test) and his son following said recipe but varying the result to make pain de chocolat instead of croissants. You might also enjoy this video which has over 6 million YouTube views: yet another formula and method, but the same excellent result. And, once you’ve mastered laminated doughs, here’s a video featuring the most decadent and hardest to make member of the family, kouighn amann.
Here are a few tips and tricks learned in class:
*Why do croissant recipes always specify high-fat, European-style butter? Because more fat means less water, and excess water can play havoc with the layering process. Butter must have a minimum 80% fat per the USDA while European-style butters can go as high as 86%. That doesn’t seem to be a big difference but look at the flip side, 20% vs 14% water. An experienced baker will say that difference in water percentage can make a huge difference in results.
*Speaking of butter, we used Kerrygold which was recommended by King Arthur but the key is to look for grams of fat per serving which will be displayed on the nutrition chart; you want 12 grams, not 11 grams. By the way, “European-style” is not regulated; we found labels that labeled themselves European-style which were lower in fat than some domestic butters that didn’t claim the accreditation.
*Locking in the butter, by wrapping it in dough so all edges are completely sealed, is a critical step. If you have a little butter peeking out, fix it by stretching the dough to cover, or it will bedevil you in future steps.
*Next most important thing: roiling out your dough to an even thickness at each step. The instructor (Elizabeth) showed us how to do this from rolling from the center to top, then center to bottom, never allowing the roller to fall off the end and strike the bench.
*Nicely straight edges and nicely squared ends are key to a good looking final product. If your corners are rounded, roll in a diagonal direction from the inside out to square them. Then use your bench knife to push in the sides. After the last turn, use the bench knife to trim all edges so they will be able to expand in baking. (The scraps will become a mini-pastry for the baker to enjoy personally.)
*Rising the dough is a challenge because you want to do it quickly, you want to keep the delicate pastries moist, but you do NOT want a temperature above 80 degrees F or the butter might start to melt. Martin Philips uses one half sheet pan inverted over another to lock in humidity; you could add Elizabeth’s technique of a low cup of hot water (refreshed as it cools) to raise temperature inside the pans.
Now we can add King Arthur to our evaluations of online cooking classes. The verdict: pricey, but reliable instruction. A great benefit of any class at King Arthur is that you will be exposed to an exhaustively tested recipe and baking technique, so you can be confident your results will be good. This was important to us because we have had a probably unreasonable fear of the amount of time and work required in making croissants. Turns out there are quite a few steps, and they are spaced out over a day or more, but the actual preparation of the laminated dough is pretty straightforward.
Ze crumb.
This class promised a second instructor who would troubleshoot and answer specific questions in chat. That worked well though the troubleshooting included some technical problems that you would think had been solved by now because the class has been presented many times. Possibly they’ve moved to a new studio/kitchen, but there were several audio and video problems when the instructor left the primary prep bench to work around the oven.
