Tried cold fermenting my croissant dough for 48 hours and ended up with flat greasy puddles instead of layers

Left my laminated dough in the fridge way too long on a recommendation from a blog and the butter completely broke down into the dough, so has anyone else ruined a batch by over-fermenting or did I just mess up my lamination technique?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarwright26d ago

Wait is this really that big of a deal though? Look I get being bummed about wasted ingredients but you're acting like you killed your starter or something. A 48 hour cold ferment on a croissant dough is honestly a recipe for disaster unless you're working in a sub-35 degree fridge. The butter doesn't melt from over-fermenting alone it melts when the dough warms up too much during lamination or your fridge temp is off. I bet your lamination was fine but your fridge was just a few degrees too warm which turned that butter into a puddle. People get way too dramatic about this stuff like it's some tragic baking failure but really you just learned a lesson about fridge temps. Throw that dough in the trash and try again with a shorter ferment next time, it's not worth crying over.

sanchez.robin26d ago

Hold up but 48 hours in a properly cold fridge is actually perfect for developing flavor though. I've done it tons of times without issues, sounds like your butter quality or lamination technique was the real problem here.