Name: What Flour Do I Need to Make Croissants? | Knead Rise Bake
Brand: kneadrisebake.com
SKU: kneadrisebake-com-1
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

What Flour Do I Need to Make Croissants? | Knead Rise Bake

preview

Skip to contentI recently fell in love with the art of the croissant, or more honestly, I fell in love with the taste of the homemade croissant. Amazing! I was hooked after our first batch. As good as they were though, they were far from perfect. I had a long way to go and a lot to learn (still do).So, I’ve been tackling croissants like I do every bread that we take on. I dive deep into the ingredients, steps, and tools it takes to make it; starting with the ingredients. And what better place to start than the ingredient that makes up the bulk of any croissant recipe, flour. Specifically, what kind do I need?Simply put, for homemade croissants flour that is finely ground with a protein content of around 11-12% protein content is ideal. Several all-purpose brands like King Arthur AP flour or bread flour will do a good job in meeting this need, but a “00” pizza flour that hits the 11-12% protein range is a great choice as well.It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that, but it’s a good idea to have an understanding of these three types of flours and why you might use one over the other.After spending time looking through countless recipes it became clear that there was a wide range of suggestions out there. I saw everything from low protein (gluten) content like cake flour and pastry flour all the way up to high protein (gluten) content like bread flour.Those flours have very different characteristics, and it would have left me quite confused in my early days of baking. Thankfully I have developed a pretty good grasp (for a home baker anyway) of flour types and how they differ from one country to the next. The differences between countries is key in understanding this one.I saw many recipes that recommended using pastry flour because that is what French bakeries use for croissants. But I knew those would not work for me, even though intuition says to use pastry flour for a pastry. Why? Because American pastry flour and French pastry flour are a bit different when it comes to protein content. I won’t go into great detail here, but American pastry flour tends to be lower in protein (gluten) than French pastry flour. To get a flour similar to a French T45 pastry flour (at least in the states) grabbing something other than pastry flour is needed. The closest thing here in The States is likely a high-quality All-Purpose flour because of protein content differences.Outside of European countries, pastry flour tends to have a protein content of only around the mid-single digits. The resulting dough will be too fragile and not hold up well to all the rolling, folding, layering and shaping needed for croissants. Pastry flour tends to produce flat croissants because of the lack of protein content as well. For French-style croissants (if not using French flour) stick with an 11%-12% protein all-purpose type of flour or if you can find it a finer ground 00 flour in that same protein range. Bread flour could work as well, but as mentioned above it can be hard to find one that isn’t too high in protein or without hard toothy flour types.This is why suggesting a specific type of flour is likely not the most helpful when it comes to making croissants. Instead, recommending the qualities a flour should have is likely a better way to go about it. Don’t worry though, I’m not going to get overly technical with W scores, or P/L ratios, or ash content. There are a host of things that could be discussed if we were professional bakers writing for professional bakers, but at the end of the day, we are home bakers writing to home bakers. Getting into all of the ultra-technical stuff isolates too many people who do not have access around the world to flours that grade their ingredients this way.As I mentioned above, look for around 11% protein content, and a fine ground flour and you’ll be just fine. If you’re worried that AP flour will result in a biscuit or a roll instead of a croissant, don’t be. All-purpose flour is a bit of a wonder flour, in that it combines the right elements of soft and hard wheat to get a flour that can go in two directions. It can produce a nice flakey pastry and an airy yet chewy bread. However, when you want to push the limits in either direction you’ll want to venture away from AP flour. But for croissants, it is one of the best options here in the U.S. as it will produce the best results for most home bakers. Airy and flaky. Yum!But do be sure to pick a brand that is on the higher end of the protein scale for AP flours. King Arthur AP is just right at 11.7%. You’ll avoid flat croissants this way.I personally think bread flour tends to produce a croissant that has a crust that is a bit thicker and crunchier than AP. I know a lot of folks use bread flour for croissants, but the texture seems a bit more on point with AP in my opinion.Additionally, bread flour tends to create a dough that has a strong spring-back, making rolling out dough a bit more work than is ideal. In warmer environments, this will almost certainly cause melting of the butter and tearing of the dough as you struggle to roll the dough out enough to fold. Time is key when you’re racing against temperature, and excess friction from excess rolling is certainly not helpful either.AP or “00” is just easier to work with during rolling, which ultimately is why we don’t use it as our first option. However, you can produce great croissants with bread flour. Many folks do!If you can find “00” flour in the 11% range it will allow for more extensibility in your dough while keeping enough elasticity to hold its shape. Elasticity is often confused with extensibility amongst home bakers. We hear that protein equals gluten which equals elasticity, and wrongly assume this means a stretchier dough. This isn’t true. For stretchy dough we want extensibility. The more gluten and thus more elasticity dough has the tighter dough becomes. That is great for ensuring finished loaves of bread and croissants hold their shape instead of just flattening out while proofing. Which is why not enough gluten in dough results in flat bread due to its floppy nature. However, dough too heavy on gluten will also end up quite dense and flat because it will resist rising with all its elastic strength.The same is also true in the opposite direction, too much extensibility and not enough elasticity will result in flat and formless bread as well. It’s a balancing act of sorts with all things baking. We need enough extensibility to allow for nice airy rises with enough elasticity to hold a shape to give it a chance to rise.For croissants with American flour, “00” tends to do a great job at blending elasticity with extensibility. Which is the biggest advantage of working with this flour. When rolling out “00” dough, it will be less likely to snap back (extensible). This means we will get better lamination and layers because we’re working more efficiently. The less we work/roll the less likely our butter is to melt and the dough is then less likely to absorb it. But unlike low protein pastry flour that has great extensibility, “00” dough will have enough protein to hold shape resulting in an airy croissant (elasticity).We cannot make that distinction for you. There are just too many variables at play when it comes to brands of flour. Just look for that 11-12% range and a fine ground flour and you will be pleased with the results!Okay, I’ll cave. But, I’ll keep it short. As a starting point and in general we saw lots of recommendations and boiled them down to this: a strength score of ~ W300 and a P/L Ratio of ~ 0.6 is ideal and protein content between 11-12%. But, we don’t have easy access to flour that gives us those ratings. So we just stick to what we have access to. Primarily, the protein content. 🙂This is a pretty common question, one that is ever-pressing in the western world. After all, sugar is added to nearly everything found in supermarkets, and health-conscious individuals these days are...Continue ReadingIf you've ventured down the lamination trail, as we recently did, you probably need a hug. Bring it in. Don't be shy. It's a long road to mastering the art of the croissant. To be honest, we are far...Continue ReadingHi there! We are Chris and Carrie, a married couple that has developed quite an obsession with baking bread. It has been quite a revelation for us to learn just how simple homemade bread can be. This is a place where we share what we have learned and what we are learning as we grow as home bakers.To be completely transparent with our readers, we wish to inform you that we support this blog in a variety of ways. This means we sell our own products or suggest useful items for the home-baker. You will see a few items and resources scattered about our site that you can purchase either from us or via links to amazon.com. In the event that you choose to purchase anything through a link we provide, we will be awarded a small commission as we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.

Skip to contentI recently fell in love with the art of the croissant, or more honestly, I fell in love with the taste of the homemade croissant. Amazing! I was hooked after our first batch. As good as they were though, they were far from perfect. I had a long way to go and a lot to learn (still do).So, I’ve been tackling croissants like I do every bread that we take on. I dive deep into the ingredients, steps, and tools it takes to make it; starting with the ingredients. And what better place to start than the ingredient that makes up the bulk of any croissant recipe, flour. Specifically,...

What Flour Do I Need to Make Croissants? | Knead Rise Bake

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS