Poolish Croissants

Poolish Croissants are very much like poolish baguettes in that the pre ferment gives the dough more extensibility. The dough is easier to work with and the final product will have more leavening because of the enriched dough that has a longer period to form flavours.

 This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach. Pg. 332
Formula:
Pre Ferment: Poolish
100% Bread Flour, 5.159 kg
100% Water, 5.231 kg (this is a little more then 100% because we combined the water from the final dough)
0.10% Yeast, 0.5g

Final Dough:
100% Bread Flour, 12 kg (or 26# 8.64 oz.)
Water, 32g (this portion can be just added into the poolish if you choose because the amount is so small)
34% Milk, 4.069 kg
18.5% Sugar, 2.214 kg
2.9% Salt, 0.347 kg
1.4% Yeast, 0.172 kg
0.7% Malt, 0.084 kg
5.7% Butter, 0.683 kg


When you are in production you can make streamline decisions to combine ingredients to save on time. As long as it does not effect the quality of the final product; for instance in this case combining the yeast would effect the final product so that is why you still scale 0.5g yeast, but you could make the choice to scale that when mixing instead of pre scaling.


MOP: Improved Mix
Poolish Croissant DDT: 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Variables = 4 (room temperature, flour temperature, pre ferment temperature, friction factor)

Water temperature = DDT x 4 variables


A note about mixing: For an improved croissant mixture you will add the butter in the beginning of the mixing if the amount of butter is less then 20% as it is in this formula.

• Add all the ingredients except 10% water into the mixer. 
• Mix on low speed, slowly adding more water and adjusting liquid until the dough is fully hydrated
• When hydration is set put mixer into second speed and mix for 4-6 minutes until you can get an improved window pane. 
• Take the dough off the mixer and transfer to an oiled proof box. Let the dough proof for 45 min - 1 hour. 
• Continue to process the dough like in the Straight Dough Method.