Laminated and Enriched Dough Production

Croissants and brioche are where a bakery shows what it can do. They're also where a small slip costs the most. Both doughs hold a lot of butter, and butter changes from firm to soft across a narrow range of temperatures. A few degrees too warm, and a whole tray of pastry turns greasy.

Laminated dough is dough folded around layers of fat. Enriched dough has fat, sugar, eggs or milk mixed right into it. You already know the basic steps for each. Here you'll learn to control them in production, and to read what went wrong.

What You Will Be Able to Do

• Work out how many layers a set of folds will give you.
• Keep butter and dough at a matching firmness through lamination.
• Proof laminated dough without leaking butter.
• Mix an enriched dough so that gluten forms before the fat goes in.
• Use cold retarding to fit these doughs into a production schedule.

How Lamination Works

Each layer of butter keeps two layers of dough apart. In the oven, water in the butter and dough turns to steam and pushes the layers apart. In yeasted doughs such as croissant and Danish, gas from fermentation helps too. The fat melts into the dough, and the layers set into a crisp shell.

For that to work, the butter has to stay in unbroken sheets all the way to the oven. Nearly every rule in lamination protects those sheets.

Many commercial croissant formulas use a butter block of about 25 percent of the total dough weight, though formulas vary. A formula with 3,750 g of dough and 1,250 g of butter is at that level, since the butter is a quarter of the 5,000 g total.

Layer Math

A single fold, also called a letter fold, folds the dough in thirds, so it triples the layers. A double fold, or book fold, folds it in quarters, so it multiplies the layers by four.

Classic puff pastry gets 6 single folds, which is where the 729 figure comes from: 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3. Croissant dough usually gets about 3 single folds. How you lock in the butter also changes the count, so bakers may quote different numbers for the same pastry.

More folds aren't always better. As layers get thinner, the butter breaks through the dough and the layers merge. A croissant with too many folds comes out more like soft bread than like pastry. Follow the fold count in your formula.

Controlling Temperature and Firmness

The most important rule is this: butter and dough must have the same firmness when you roll them.

• If the butter is too cold, it cracks into pieces and tears the dough. You'll see shards of butter and gaps in the layers.
• If the butter is too warm, it smears into the dough and soaks in. There are no layers left to lift.

There's no single number that works for every butter. Published targets range from the low 50s to the upper 60s in degrees Fahrenheit. One physics review of lamination puts butter's working range at about 59°F to 68°F, while suppliers of sheet butter often suggest working cooler. Fat content matters too. Use your supplier's guidance, and trust a hands-on test: bend the butter block. It should flex without snapping, and it shouldn't feel greasy or stick to your fingers.

Work in a cool room when you can. The bench matters too, since a hot oven nearby can warm one end of your table. In a warm bakery, take out only what you can sheet in a few minutes, and put the rest back in the cold.

Running a Lamination Batch

1. Mix the dough only lightly. Lamination develops gluten through rolling, so a fully mixed dough fights you later. Commercial croissant doughs often come off the mixer at about 72°F to 77°F.
2. Rest it cold. A long chill relaxes the dough and evens out the temperature. Many bakeries rest it overnight in the cooler.
3. Shape the butter block. Pound and roll cold butter between sheets of parchment into an even square. Keep the thickness the same from edge to edge.
4. Lock it in. Seal the butter inside the dough, with no gaps at the edges.
5. Roll and fold. Roll evenly to the size your formula calls for, brush off extra flour, and fold.
6. Rest between folds. Chill for about 30 minutes. This lets the gluten relax and firms the butter.
7. Repeat for the planned folds. Mark the dough with finger dents, so that the next person knows how many folds are done.
8. Final sheet. Roll to your set thickness, then rest it before cutting. A dough cut too soon shrinks, and the shapes won't match.

Brush off flour before every fold. Flour trapped between the layers acts like glue and makes a dry, tough pastry.

Warning: Dough sheeters can pull in hands and fingers quickly. Keep guards in place, use the machine's stops, and never reach toward the rollers to free dough while they're running. Federal child labor rules limit what workers under 18 may do with many powered bakery machines. Get trained on your machine before you run it alone.

Proofing Laminated Dough

Proofing is where many good batches get ruined. Yeast wants warmth, but butter leaks when it gets too warm. That means you proof slowly and cool.

King Arthur Baking warns against putting laminated dough anywhere above 80°F, and some of its recipes hold shaped pastry to 75°F or below. A commercial process reference lists about 79°F at 75 to 80 percent humidity for 90 to 120 minutes. The rule underneath all of these is the same: the proof must stay below the melting point of your fat.

Humidity stops a skin forming on the dough. If you don't have a proofer, cover the racks so that the dough doesn't dry out.

To check the proof:

• The pastry should look swollen, with layers starting to show at the cut edges.
• When you tap the pan, the pieces should jiggle slightly.
• A pool of butter on the pan before baking means the proof was too warm.

Egg wash the pastry just before it goes into the oven, and do it gently. Keep the wash off the cut edges, because it glues the layers shut and stops them lifting.

Bake hot enough to set the layers quickly. One commercial reference gives about 390°F for 10 to 20 minutes, and your formula and oven may differ. Don't pull the pastry early. Pale croissants are often raw between the layers.

Reading a Laminated Fault

Working Laminated Dough into a Schedule

You don't have to shape and bake on the same day. Dough with its folds done can usually rest in the cooler overnight. Shaped pastry can often be retarded or frozen.

• Retarded: Hold it cold overnight on trays, covered, then proof and bake in the morning.
• Frozen: Freeze shaped pastry fast and wrap it well. Move it to the cooler the day before you need it, then proof it. Frozen yeast gets weaker over time, so check how long your formula allows.

Date every tray, and test a batch before you change a method for a whole week of production.

Why Enriched Dough Behaves Differently

Enriching a dough changes how the gluten and yeast act.

Butter levels range widely. Some brioche uses about 20 percent butter on flour weight, while the richest uses as much butter as flour. One professional formula from King Arthur Baking uses 50 percent butter, 50 percent eggs and 12 percent sugar, with 2.5 percent salt.

When a sweet dough has about 10 to 25 percent sugar on flour weight, normal yeast can be held back. Give it more time, use more yeast, or use an osmotolerant yeast made for sweet doughs.

Mixing Brioche and Rich Doughs

The order of the mix matters. If you add all the butter at the start, it coats the flour, and the gluten can't form well. So build the structure first.

1. Keep things cool. Using cold eggs and cold milk helps, because the long mix adds a lot of heat.
2. Mix everything but the butter. Keep going until the gluten is fully developed. The dough should be smooth and strong.
3. Add soft but cool butter in chunks. It should be pliable, not melted. Add a little at a time, and let each addition mix in.
4. Mix until the dough sheets out. Stretch a piece thin. It should pull into a clear film without tearing.
5. Watch the temperature. Take a reading during the mix, and stay at or below your formula's target. If it runs warm, stop and chill the bowl.

If the butter melts, the dough turns greasy and slack, and it won't recover. A butter stain on the bowl and a shiny, wet surface are your warning signs.

Scrape the bowl only with the mixer stopped.

Cold Retarding Brioche

Warm brioche is too soft to shape well. Chilling firms the butter and makes the dough workable.

After mixing, rest the dough briefly, then fold it and put it in the cooler overnight. Press it down once or twice in the first few hours, until it's fully cold. This removes gas while the yeast is still active, and it lets the cold reach the center. A long chill also builds flavor.

Shape the dough while it's cold. Proof it covered, and keep it in the same cool range as laminated dough, so that the butter stays put. Rich dough can take much longer to proof than lean dough, because it starts cold and is high in fat and sugar.

Baking Enriched Dough

Enriched doughs brown fast, because they're high in sugar and milk solids. They generally bake at lower temperatures than lean bread, often around 350°F to 380°F. An internal reading of about 190°F is a common sign that a loaf is done, compared with about 205°F for lean bread. Follow your formula. These are quality numbers, not food safety limits. If the top browns too soon, tent it with foil or lower the heat.

Let brioche cool before you cut it. Rich crumb is delicate while hot, and it tears.

Food Safety for These Doughs

• Egg wash is raw egg, so it's a TCS food, which means it needs time and temperature control for safety. Keep it at 41°F or below in a covered container, make small batches and don't leave it on the bench all shift. Throw out what's left, and clean the brush.
• Pastry cream and cream cheese fillings in Danish are TCS foods as well. Items with these fillings must stay cold or be managed under your written time control procedure.
• Raw dough isn't ready to eat. Don't taste it, even when it has no eggs in it.
• Allergens are everywhere in these products: wheat, milk and eggs, plus nuts in almond cream. Keep nut fillings apart, use clean tools, and keep your labels accurate.

Common Mistakes

Check Your Understanding

1. You give a dough one double fold and two single folds. How many butter layers do you get, starting from one butter sheet?

4 x 3 x 3 = 36 layers.

2. Your butter block keeps cracking as you roll it. The dough is fine. What do you do?

The butter is too cold for the dough. Let the block sit until it flexes when bent, then try again. Don't force it, because cracked butter breaks the layers.

3. Your croissants leave a pool of butter on the pan in the oven, and they bake up dense. The proofer was at 88°F. What went wrong?

The proofer was too warm for laminated dough, so the butter softened and leaked. Lower the proofer to below about 80°F, and give the pastry more time.

4. A new baker adds all the butter to a brioche at the start of the mix. What will happen, and how do you fix the process?

The fat coats the flour and gets in the way of gluten forming, so the dough stays weak. Mix everything but the butter until the gluten is strong, then add pliable butter in chunks.

5. It's the end of the shift, and there's a half-full container of egg wash that's been on the bench since 5 a.m. What do you do?

Throw it out. It's a raw egg product that's been out of temperature. Make smaller batches, and keep them cold in a covered container.

Key Takeaways

• Butter and dough must match in firmness. A hands-on bend test beats any single number.
• Single folds triple the layers and double folds quadruple them, and more isn't always better.
• Rest the dough cold between folds, and brush off extra flour.
• Proof laminated dough below the melting point of the fat, and no warmer than about 80°F.
• In enriched doughs, build gluten first, then add pliable butter in chunks.
• Egg wash and cream fillings are TCS foods, so keep them cold.