Hi! Finally I embarked on this journey of baking Croissant.
I am using this recipe:
Active dried yeast: 2g
Water 155g
BF flour with 13% protein content 330g
Sugar 30g
Salt 4g
Butter 20g
Which is total of 46% Hydration
I followed the recipe to T. Except I up the hydration to 50%, but I find it hard to roll as my dough is tearing, to the point the butter is leaking out, hence I proceed to bake it so here is my first attempt
The texture is crispy,light,flaky and crusty outside, the taste is pretty similar to bakeries
So today, I did my second attempt still using the same recipe, but this time I up the hydration up to 60%, it was joy to roll but the problem I encountered this time I rolled the butter while it is still cold which resulted to breaking to pieces, which did not distribute well to the dough which resulted to dense and not flaky crumb
In terms of taste and texture, I preferred my first bake..
So the question is, what is the proper hydration for croissant? Any tips as well? Thankss xx
Proper hydration is all in who you ask. Most recipes I see are between 50% and 65%. I use half milk and half water which will also soften the crumb. I don't know if you had trouble with rolling on your last attempt, but I also prefer to use a lower protein flour.
My first attempt I used AP flour all water, the second batch is half milk and water.
They said if it's low in hydration, it delays the fermentation, I don't see the correlation because from my understanding, as long as the percentage of yeast is low, the fermentation is also slow no matter the percentage of hydration.
And also they like it low in hydration, as it was better to roll in butter, but I feel like sticking to 60% although it is still too stiff for me, I'll try the 65% as well
Higher hydration will speed fermentation and will also make the dough more extensible.