🥐 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆: 𝗪𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸. Morning, everyone. Today's the day croissant week gets real. This is a bake you build over a few days, and it starts now, so let's get set up right. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝘄𝗹: 🧈 Your good European butter, cold and waiting (82% fat or higher) ⚖️ Flour, sugar, and salt weighed out 🫧 Sourdough folks: build your levain this morning so it's ripe by tonight 📖 Read your recipe all the way through, start to finish, before you begin 🧊 Clear a shelf in your fridge right now. You're gonna need the room. Now the part none of us can ignore this week. It's hot. And heat is the enemy of lamination. A warm kitchen means soft butter, and soft butter means your layers smear together and leak instead of staying separate and distinct. That's the whole game right there. So here's the rule for the week: the refrigerator is our friend. Lean on it. The moment your dough or butter starts to feel soft, greasy, or sticky, stop and put it back in the fridge for 20 or 30 minutes. There's no penalty for chilling. There's a big penalty for pushing through with warm butter. 𝗔 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁: ❄️ Chill your rolling pin and your work surface (set a sheet pan of ice on the counter a few minutes, then dry it) ⏱️ Work in short bursts. Roll, fold, chill, repeat. 🌅 Laminate in the coolest part of the day, early morning or evening 🧈 Keep your butter block in the fridge until the second you need it This is the challenge that makes croissants croissants. Respect the butter, respect the heat, and let the cold do the work for you. So tell me below: who's starting today, and are you going French or sourdough? I want to know who I'm walking through what this week. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Since we’re working with croissant dough for Croissant Week inside Crust & Crumb Academy, I wanted to give you a few ways to play with the same dough once you’ve got it laminated. You don’t have to stop at classic croissants. You can turn that same dough into: 🍫 Pain au chocolat 🥐 Almond croissants 🧁 Cruffins The infographic walks you through the options, with a closer look at how to shape pain au chocolat from the same laminated dough. Same dough. New pastries. More ways to practice those layers. Keep your dough cold, don’t rush the proof, and have some fun with it. If you ask Dr. Bob nicely he may laminate these for you. @wiliam ~Henry⭐🔥

Well, here we are. Bake day. And it landed on the Fourth of July, so let’s make something beautiful today. 🇺🇸 Most of you have your dough or your butter blocks resting in the fridge right now, which means the hard part is behind you. Today’s the payoff. We shape, we proof, we bake. Here’s the game plan: 🥐 Pull your dough, roll it out long, cut your triangles, and shape ⏳ Proof until puffy and jiggly. This is the make-or-break step, so don’t rush it. French folks, you’re looking at a couple hours. Sourdough, yours runs longer, 3 to 5, so be patient with it. 🔥 Egg wash, then bake to a deep mahogany. Pale is underbaked. Let that color build. Now, two things about the heat. 🎇 First, the real one. This heat wave across the country is dangerous, not just uncomfortable. Drink your water, stay cool, and check on the older folks and neighbors around you. Your bread can wait. You come first. Take care of yourselves out there. 🇺🇸 Second, that same heat is sitting in your kitchen. Your final proof has to stay under 78F or the butter melts and weeps out before the croissants ever hit the oven. Find the coolest room in the house. If your kitchen’s running warm, the fridge is still your friend, use it to hold the proof steady. Keep a close eye today, because in this heat they can over-proof faster than you’d think. This thread is home base all day. 🎆 Post your progress right here. Your shaped croissants, your proof, your first tray out of the oven, your crumb shots when you cut in. And if you hit a snag, butter leaking, dough fighting you, proof looking off, drop it in the comments and I’ll walk you through it. I’m around all day. Let’s bake, everybody. 🇺🇸🥐 Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥🇺🇸

This beautiful tribute was done by my friend Sophie. https://www.instagram.com/sourdough_sophie?igsh=ZHkxaWoyZjA1amQ3

Mine was bulk fermentation. I kept cutting it short because the dough looked right to me. Turns out I was going by the clock instead of the dough, and I was pulling it way too early every single time. The loaves were fine. But they weren’t what they could’ve been. Once I stopped watching the clock and started watching the dough, everything changed. So tell me yours. What’s the thing you kept getting wrong before it finally clicked? No judgment here. This kitchen runs on honesty and progress, not perfection. Drop it below. 👇 Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥