u/unravellingpattern

Update on my previous post, where I asked for help with troubleshooting my sad, dense croissants.

You guys are truly the best! Huge thanks for everyone’s input, it really transformed my labor intensive biscuits to something that has potential to became a proper croissant one day (I guess when I reach those 10 000 hours of lamination? heh).

I listened, took notes, watched more videos, and implemented changes suggested. Obviously my lamination still sucks, but it’s day and night from what it was before (see last photo).

The recipe I am currently using is from Melanie Persson’s Gluten Free Feasts. This is what I learned since my last post:

Biggest shoutout (plus a virtual hug) goes to u/katydid026 - she suggested a couple of things that are 100% spot on. #1 I am using wrong kind of rice flour: I switched Bob’s Red Mill/ Goya rice flour to water ground rice flour from asian store (Erawan, with three elephants, made in Thailand). It’s super finely milled, def. transformed the dough texture. Secondly I bought an infrared thermometer and oh boy, I was so off with my guesstimation, what is an actual workable temperature of my dough and butter. In my case it cut the time (I am able to work with my dough) to roughly 3 mins. For now I didn’t switch psyllium I am using, because it works well with my other bakes, but will be buying Terrasoul next, when I’m out.

Another shoutout goes to Faux Pain, and her YT channel. I learned not to scrutinize over perfectly proofed croissants (until they are jiggly). I let them proof for 2.5 h in my warm kitchen, they def. puffed, but not to an extreme, like a dough with gluten would. Plus she chills her pastry for ~20 mins before bake, and that was another AHA! moment for me, I think it helped to stabilize the butter inside. I still have butter leakage, but nowhere near the previous attempts.

There are still things I have left to explore from your suggestions, but I thought it’s time to share my progress with you.

BTW. they were def. more lightweight than any of my previous attempts. They had some crunch, some flakiness and even some air pockets. I was sitting the whole time by the oven and was super excited to see the layers puff up and see through it. I still need to learn a lot to achieve better honeycomb, but now I see the potential, thanks to you! They are less sad and less dense now. Huge thanks to everyone, for your time to comment and reassuring me it’s possible! And yes, if you think I am still doing something fundamentally wrong, or have more thoughts to share, please let me know :)

1st, 2nd pic: after final bake, chilled
3rd photo: my excited (celiac) friend telling me I have to show you this
4th, 5th photo: almost finished (I put them in the oven for 10 more minutes after taking this photo)
6th pic: my second attempt making GF croissants - ended up with sad dense biscuits

Hello fellow bakers, I have burning question: has any of you ever achieved GF croissants, that are very close to “regular” croissants? I truly feel like I hit the plateau, and I am not sure if it’s lack of my skills, or if it’s simply not physically possible. I consider myself skilled baker, I love Loopy Whisk recipes and thanks to her book (Elements of Baking) I am able to bake everything I want gluten free, but croissants. (I am refreshing her website like maniac every week to see, if she already released GF croissant recipe 😅)

My dear friend is celiac since early childhood and he wants to experience eating real- like croissant his whole life. He always praises airiness, texture and “weightless” feel to gluten croissants. And then we have this. Sad dense croissants. We tried many GF bakeries, but non of the GF croissants were close to regular ones. Photo is one of my first attempts, and since then I baked another ~ 10 batches, changing one variable at the time. The results are slightly better, but they are still very far away from those beautiful, honeycomb structured croissants. I am currently using Hungry Coeliacs’s recipe from Gluten Free Feasts, and tried 3 batches, but the results are nowhere near to pictures in the book. I feel like I’m following the recipe to T, and it’s still bad.

My friend will be celebrating his 40th birthday soon and I’d love to learn how to bake proper flaky GF croissant, that would make his eyes watery. Any input is appreciated, please feel free to share your experiences. Is it possible to achieve croissants at home, without an industrial dough sheeter? My latest attempt failed on my fixation of letting the rolled croissant rise about 75% (amount described in the book). I activated my yeasts beforehand, but non of my GF dough is able to get such crazy rise. Am I doing it all wrong? Should I master regular croissants first? Any input, help or even pointing me to a direction is highly appreciated.