The great butter block disaster of last Tuesday

I was trying to make croissants for the first time, following a recipe that said the butter block should be 'pliable but cold'. My kitchen was a bit warm, maybe 72 degrees, and every time I tried to roll it into the dough, the butter would either melt into a greasy mess or crack into sharp pieces. I must have tried six times, starting over with new butter each time. I even put a marble slab in the freezer for an hour to use as a surface. The whole process, which the recipe said would take 20 minutes for the lamination prep, ended up taking me almost three hours. I finally got it right by chilling the dough for 15 minutes between every single fold, not just every other. Has anyone else found a better trick for keeping butter at that perfect, bendy temperature?

3 comments

3 Comments

luna89114d ago

Pliable but cold" is such a frustrating description, right? What kind of butter were you using?

christopher_sullivan13d ago

That Cook's Illustrated test from last year said European butter is often too cold straight from the fridge. Their trick was grating it on a box grater to get it pliable fast.

alice_kim4d ago

So which brand did they test? That seems like a key detail.