The Great Croissant Tryout

Turkey and gravy are the stars of Thanksgiving, but oh, the look and feel of fresh homemade bread. Maybe you like rolls, cornbread, croissants, pumpkin bread, the options are endless. Sometimes I just make them all so everybody finds something they love.

This year I was thrilled to get the rare opportunity to make bread for someone else's table in a land far away. The Rules of Hoyle and a respect for privacy prevent me from saying who the bread is for, but know this - it was important enough that I needed to hold tryouts.

I knew the form would be croissants, but which ones? I usually make this showoff bread with a sourdough starter, and the results are deeply flavorful because sourdough starters involve long fermentation times, which give the flavor enough time to develop. For some reason the sourdough also makes a softer dough; it's easier to roll out and gives a nicer risen shape than a straight yeast dough, the results of which look more rustic. No idea why the chemistry works that way.

So which version would be good enough to produce bread that could be shipped overnight?

For the tryout, I practiced with a straight yeast method using active dry yeast, and I learned an important lesson. Good thing it was a practice run. I followed the croissant recipe exactly as given save for one key difference. If you substitute active dry yeast in a recipe calling for fresh yeast, you must proof the yeast first in warm water. You can't mix the dry yeast in with other ingredients, as the recipe states. I knew this; I knew it was wrong when I started. But I swear I'd seen bakers add dry yeast into other ingredients without proofing first. And here's why. Instant dry yeast (also known as "Rapid") can be added this way. Active can't. So my first batch of croissant dough never rose. You know it won't rise in the baking, either, because it feels like a wet book of pages. A dough that's alive has an energy you can feel in your hands; it's springy to the touch and much lighter.

I repeated the recipe using Rapid dry yeast (no proofing), and while that was underway, mixed a batch using the sourdough starter. The bakeoff was on - and the winner is shown above - the sourdough version.

I learned something else, too. I had a few croissants from the yeast batch and a few from the sourdough batch, so I placed them on the same baking sheet. The yeast recipe calls for baking at 350. The sourdough calls for 400. Could it make that much of a difference if they both cooked at the higher temp? As it turns out, it does. The sourdough was golden and swelled beautifully. The yeast croissants were charred and weathered. There's likely an explanation of why this happens in Peter Reinhart's definitive book The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Ten Speed Press, 2001). No croissant methods in there, but loads of "this is why" background that enrichs every baker's understanding of extraordinary bread. That's where I read about the differences in behavior for active, rapid and fresh yeast.

Now if I could just test out the effects of "cold in the hold" as a box of croissants flies north for the holidays.

Oh sure, I hedged my bets. Made a batch of flatbreads for the shipment, too.

No rising to the occasion.

(Photo: Pepper Croissants on Parchment. By John H. Ostdick in the Singing Wheat Kitchen)