While perusing the Flour Bakery website, I found out that, during the lockdown stage of the pandemic, Joanne Chang produced a bake-at-home instagram series (look for the “Flour❤️ Wk#” videos on her instagram feed). Included in the weekly series was an episode on croissants, including her recipe! I found the series on her instagram account, and here is the video episode showing the wonderful Ms. Chang, herself, making beautiful croissants.

I have been following her recipe for croissants rather exclusively, but seeing her do it really helps to answer some questions I’ve had, and reassures me that I’m going in the right direction. It’s also comforting to know that the problems I have making these roll out into rectangles isn’t just me. (BTW, their secret: Just cut off the parts that make it not square!).

I’ve also been wondering alot lately about the final shaping and whether I’m forming mine correctly. I haven’t been getting the fat, round, super-puffy results that she gets, and I wondered whether it had to do with my technique. I also struggle with butter leakage during baking.

My conclusion from watching her video is that it isn’t about how I form the final croissant; it’s about how they rise. I haven’t figured out the best way to let the formed croissants rise to optimize loftiness without letting the butter get too soft. I’m thinking the answer is a cooler environment than I’ve been using, but for a much longer amount of time. She suggests a room temperature of 78°F for 2-2½ hours, but this hasn’t been working for me.

Maybe it’s my yeast, or the humidity level, or something. But, I suspect I’ll have better luck with a cooler rise for a longer period of time. I think that will be my next experiment, anyway.

One other minor thing to mention: The recipe on the website (on this page, search for “croissant”) differs slightly from the recipes in her first cookbook and in Pastry Love — this version uses a bit of cake flour (as opposed to a bit of bread flour, or a bit of spelt flour), and this version puts a bit of butter into the dough itself (Pasty Love doesn’t do this). I’m guessing none of these variations makes a big difference.

Also, Joanne Chang’s instagram account has wonderful pastry photos!

If you’re wondering what I’ve been baking lately, mostly just a rotation of my usual things… sourdough loaves, sourdough pita, and a mini-obsession with oatmeal-cherry cookies, which I’ll post about soon.