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?

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3 Comments

luna8916mo ago

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

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christopher_sullivan6mo 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.

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alice_kim6mo ago

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

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