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 ⭐🔥🇺🇸

Pick yours now, because the prep starts before the bake does. I get the same question every time we laminate: "Am I ready for this?" Here's the honest answer. There are two versions in the Pantry, and one of them is built for exactly the baker who's never done this. 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝟭: 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻-𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗽. 350g of flour, 113g of frozen butter you grate right in on a box grater. No butter block. It's one loaf in a 9x5 pan, and it bakes low and slow at 375. This is lamination for the rest of us. If you've never folded butter into dough in your life, this is the one. You'll still get real flaky layers, plus sourdough tang as the bonus. 👉 https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-croissant-bread 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝟮: 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝘂𝗻. 500g of flour, a 250g butter block, three letter folds that build 27 layers, spread across three days. That's 50% butter to flour. That ratio is why they shatter when you bite them, and it's also why they'll test your patience. If you want the real Parisian croissant, this is it. Go in knowing it's a project. 👉 https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/classic-french-croissants Nobody here loses points for picking the loaf. Finishing a bake you can actually finish beats quitting on one that scared you off. Pick the road that fits your weekend. Now the one thing both roads live or die on: the butter. 🧈Cold butter makes layers. When solid butter hits the oven, the water in it flashes to steam and pushes the dough apart into sheets. Warm butter just melts into the dough and you get a dense, greasy loaf with no layers. That's the whole game. 🎯The target is butter that bends without cracking. On the French recipe I give you the window: 13 to 16°C, about 55 to 60°F. Too cold and it cracks and tears your dough. Too warm and it leaves easy fingerprints and smears. You want it cool, firm, and pliable, same firmness as your dough.

🥐 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 ⭐🔥

🥐✨ This Weekend We Laminate ✨🥐 Alright, you all asked for it... so we're doing it. Now before anybody panics, I want you to think about where you've already been. This isn't some giant leap. It's simply the next step on a staircase you've already been climbing. 🧈 Remember Brioche Week? That's where you learned to handle butter. Adding it one piece at a time. Watching for the break. Keeping it cool so it works with the dough instead of against it. That was your foundation. 🥮 Then came Babka. You learned that cold, firm butter holds its shape, while warm butter melts into the dough and ruins your layers. Classic Sourdough Croissant: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-croissants Yeasted Croissant: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/classic-french-croissants Keep the butter cold. Keep the layers distinct. Sound familiar? That's lamination in plain clothes. 🦓 Then there was Zebra Bread. Stack. Fold. Roll. Repeat. Every fold multiplied the layers. Chill before you roll. Go easy on the flour. Roll it with confidence. You've already done those movements with your own hands. ✨ Croissants are simply all three of those skills coming together. 🥐 Butter control from brioche. 🥐 Cold butter creating layers from babka. 🥐 Fold-and-roll technique from zebra bread. You're not starting from scratch. You're putting together things you already know. ❤️ We're gonna go slow, one fold at a time, and I'll walk you through every single step. 🛒 Before Saturday, gather a few things: 🧈 Good butter. The higher the butterfat, the better. European-style if you can find it. 🌡️ A cool kitchen, if you've got one... and a little patience. ⚖️ Your digital scale, because we're weighing everything. Bring your questions. Bring your nerves. Bring your butter. By Saturday afternoon you'll be holding something flaky, buttery, and golden that you made with your own two hands.

I love Joshua.