20h Proofed Viennoiseries
The dough
In order to create our perfect viennoiseries, we start by carefully selecting the flour, as well as, our butter. The flour is key to determine the strength and elasticity of the dough, whilst sourcing butter is as important for the fat that will melt in your mouth. As such a combination of strong and elastic flour is used. This causes the viennoiserie to have a crunchy outside whilst remaining soft on the inside. Our butter consists of at least 85% fat and creates all the taste.
To start the viennoiserie process, the water and flour are mixed together. Once mixed, we let it rest a first time to let the water break down the flour. This process is called autolyse.
The layering
After the autolyse the dough as a whole rests for 12 hours in the fridge until it has gained the desired elasticity. Resting is a big part of the process for our viennoiserie. In total the dough will have rested and proofed for 36 hours.
The layering of the dough is one of the most intense techniques that can only be achieved from years of experience. The dough and lamination butter are folded together however they can not melt together, or there will be no layers to be seen when our products come out of the oven.
Temperature of both needs to be controlled very precisely.
For the layering we use a dough sheeter. A machine that rolls the dough down between two rollers to flatten the layers all together. This rolling creates heat and therefore a lot of focus is needed by the baker to not warm the dough to much. This would result in melting the layers together and a viennoiserie that has lost all its fluffiness inside.
The shaping
When the dough exits the layering, we immediately start shaping them into the desired forms. Triangles for the croissants and rectangles for the pain au chocolate.
The technique for rolling our croissants after they are cut is to make a small incision in the middle of the base of the triangle that will be our guide for rolling the points outwards. The rolling needs to be done very carefully in order to not press the layers together especially on the sides. This will guarantee the most beautiful result of the layering when they are baked in the oven.
Once shaped the croissants and pain au chocolats will proof for about five hours into the proofing room.
Time to bake
The final step is to take the viennoiseries out of the proofing room and quickly eggwash them. Meaning, that we will paint over them with a mix of eggs and milk before they go into the oven. This small extra step will ensure that no cracks will arise on the viennoiseries due to the oven temperature.
As soon as the oven reaches its desired temperature of 180 degrees the viennoiseries will go in the oven. Twenty minutes later, delicious and crunchy viennoiseries will be ready for degustation and delivery to your doorstep.
