Best butter for croissants
I am looking for what the best butter for croissants may be with regards to flavor as well as providing for that light airy crumb. Some are "too melty" and some "break apart." I see a lot of people recommend Plugra, but I was put off by the "natural flavor" ingredient and I didn't think the taste was all that special. Is this recommendation more for texture? Kerrygold tastes much better and is just "cultured pasteurized cream" but how does it perform with creating flakey layers in the croissants? Does the flavor get lost or carry through baking? Has anyone tried higher end butters such as Celles Sur Belle (recommended here: http://joepastry.com/2011/is-there-a-best-butter-for-pastry/ ) or Sevre & Belle? Lurpak was recommended here: http://www.tastebook.com/blog/all-about-butter/ . I am typically a fan of Straus dairy products but their European style butter was found to have good flavor but weigh down pastry flakiness here: http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/When-Put-to-the-Test-Here-s-How-Butter-Brands-3236719.php . I've read that if the butter content is too high then steam doesn't evaporate to elevate the layers? Anyone else have thoughts on butter or experience with different brands?
From everything I've read, it's the butterfat percentage. i.e. whatever brand it is, you will be better off with 83% "european" butter than normal U.S. 78% fat butter. The parts that aren't fat - milk solids and water - freeze harder than the fat and reduce flexibility of the butter layer. So, use that percentage as your metric.
I've only recently been really working on my own croissants, so I'm repeating what I've read rather than quantitatively tested - but it does seem to help when shaping the butter. The higher-fat butters do taste better, in my experience.