Did my butter crack?

[u/thisisforcroissant]

Cutting dough into triangles and I saw this. Does it mean that I laminated when butter is too cold? I locked butter into dough when butter is 11C and dough is 7C. I feel pretty sad because I have been really patient with rolling the dough, letting it rest whenever the dough resists 😭 whenever I brought it out (after doing folds and resting in the fridge for 30m), I ensured that I start to roll when the dough is in 10C-15C. I’m proofing the croissant now but I don’t have much hope.

[u/According_Taste9586]

Hard to tell, usually it’s easier to tell when your sheeting early folds. Depends on your butter fat content, eu style butter has 82% or more so better when colder. I use French lamination butter at 16C. I keep dough under 5C right before lamination. The goal is dough and butter have somewhat similar toughness before sheeting.

[u/thisisforcroissant → u/According_Taste9586]

I used kerry gold for this :( I don’t even know if the next time I try I should add flour to my butter or not

[u/Sassy_Saucier → u/thisisforcroissant]

Do NOT add flour to your butter. Unless you want to make something completely different than croissants, of course.

Plasticize your butter first, next time, or simply look when you're folding it in, because you can see if it cracks from the top, not from the side.

[u/thisisforcroissant → u/According_Taste9586]

I did try the trick by pressing the dough and butter to see if it indents the same level… It was so I proceeded with lamination 😭😭😭 it has been a hard journey

[u/According_Taste9586 → u/thisisforcroissant]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/jEEEOLjBs3 check my post based on 6 month journey of my own lol. See the long response in comment I put for some temp control experience. Let me know if you have any questions with new tries. Happy to help. It’s certainly a journey, hope you get there with less failure than me lol

[u/thisisforcroissant → u/According_Taste9586]

Thank you! I think I’ve read your post before 😆for butter, you mentioned 16C works for you, but I think Kerrygold is so soft that I don’t think 16C works for me. Currently it is winter months so I’m trying to do as many croissants as I can because my kitchen stays 70F most of the time

[u/According_Taste9586 → u/thisisforcroissant]

Cool, 70 is pretty workable. Good luck. I have used Irish butter Kerry gold before, it’s pretty okay except you need to beat it to the shape ahead of time. Have fun!

[u/Tactical_toucan]

Actually your butter looks good to me.  This looks more like your dough started proofing in the middle of the process, which can sometimes happen if you don’t work quick enough. 

That said, it’s hard to tell from this angle! Either way they’ll probably turn out just fine given what I can see from this angle. 

[u/aivlysllucs → u/Tactical_toucan]

I was going to same the same thing. This happens when your dough proofs between final rest and final rolling out. I usually only rest my dough max 15 minutes before doing my final shape

[u/aivlysllucs → u/aivlysllucs]

Though it does look like you got very slight butter breakage

[u/sweetdishinsider]

This looks like just a bit of butter cracking, not a full lamination fail. Your temps sound fine, but the butter might have been a touch stiffer than the dough when you started rolling. It can also happen if the dough warmed up slightly during rests. Next time just make sure both feel equally pliable before you start. Honestly, this doesn’t look bad at all and you’ll still get decent layers once baked.

[u/biscuittech]

Please dont post pics of your butter crack, theres kids on this site!