Used to hate cold proofing my croissants overnight

I always thought it was a waste of fridge space and did same-day proofs instead. Read a post from a pastry chef in Paris that said the 12 hour chill develops way better layers and now I swear by it. Anyone else notice a big difference in oven spring?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseywest23h ago

Tossed the first batch of cold proof croissants in the trash honestly. They looked flat and sad. But after reading the same kind of advice I gave it another shot and the difference blew my mind. The oven spring was way higher and the layers actually separated instead of being a doughy mess. I set a timer now so I pull them at exactly 14 hours and the texture is always spot on. Totally worth the fridge space once you see those puffy little beauties come out of the oven.

sethp2623h ago

Yeah totally know what you mean about that first flat batch. I had the same thing happen with my first cold proof batch, they looked like deflated pancakes. But @caseywest once you dial in that fridge time it really does make all the difference. I actually found that 14 hours works great for me too but if your fridge is colder you might need to push it to 16. Another thing that helped me was making sure the dough was relaxed enough before the final shape, if it fights back you end up with uneven layers. The timer is honestly the smartest move, set it and forget it is the only way to get consistent results.