Yes, color is due to too high a temp.
You need to bake puff pastry for a certain amount of time to get the butter to steam and the layers to rise. But if the oven is too hot the outside will scorch before the inside is done. Puff pastry is tricky that way (Danish too) thanks to all that butter.
It’s not a big deal, a lot of home ovens are off when it comes to thermostats. You just need to play with it a little.
Here are some strudel I made with puff pastry yesterday:
I did them in my countertop oven which runs a little hot, so I put it on convection, dropped the heat 25 degrees, and cut cooking time by 3-4 mins over package instructions.
When you get to the last 5 mins, or when you can smell them, you want to keep eyeballs on things. They go from done to scorched in less than a minute or two. When they look brown enough for you, pull them.
Good luck and let me know how it works.
Why turn convection off? We just moved and got a convection oven and I can’t believe the results I’m getting when it’s turned on.
Also, our oven vents out the top where the ranges are. I never noticed it before with previous ovens, but I’ve been told all ovens are like this. (I don’t understand why the heat isn’t kept in the oven instead of venting!?!?) Our kitchen gets very warm, but I have two thermometers inside the ovens and both give steady readings.
Turn it off if you are burning things using the convection setting.
I usually l leave the convection on, but reduce time/temperature.
Again, every oven is different and instructions are guidelines, not absolutes.
Thanks for the explanation.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to watch the Gesine Bullock-Prado video if you aren’t on Facebook? Facebook gives me a large banner across the screen asking me to create an account. (“Masters class” sounds daunting. Is it for those who already have a master’s degree in pastry?)
It’s completely approachable. Perhaps you can get to it via www.gesine.com
If you wanted the oven at 375 why did you start at 425 and then lower only to 400?
I think I was trying to start at 425 and lower to 400. But it didn’t lower so I tried to just physically lower it to anything other than 425 to avoid burning the croissants.
Another batch:
top- good. bottom, still a little burnt. The oven temperature was hard to control between 375 and 425. Set 425, and it jumped to 450 (noticed @ minute 10). Set at 375, and fanned the oven, lowered to about 390 the rest of the way. Left in oven about a couple of minutes too long (because it looked underbaked at 20 minutes).
Next to fix- try to get oven temperature closer to 400 in the first 10 minutes, and closer to 375 in the next 10 minutes.
it look as if something was in contact ??/ they should not be flat on the darker side , this aside they look more like a pile of dough than actual croissant , it look like the original triangle made to shape the croissant was just rolled on itself , croissant triangular dough should be pushed away while forming and immediately pressed into shape , them allow to rise {depend on temperature and Humidity} then baked , the color should be on the darker gold {something American are not used to} this will give the croissant a nutty flavor .
Looks like the sheet pan was in contact and the darker side is the bottom of the pastry.
Croissant should be slightly more colored on the bottom than the top , by the way the best sheet pan to bake them is still the blue steel , it abnormally darker on the bottom you need to lower the cooking temperature .
I’m going to say it’s your dough, I regularly buy frozen croissants from TJs and they bake up perfectly.
I haven’t read through all the comments but something you can try is start at 400, middle rack, then when 80% done, take out and crank up to 425 to get the nice browning. This may affect the puff, but I think 400 will be hot enough for a good puff.
Or another thing you can do is start at 425, then at 80%, physically take out the croissant, hopefully it won’t collapse, and wait till your oven gets down to 375, then put it back in. Middle rack.
But in all honestly, I think your croissants are just too big and they bake up differently in a professional oven.
Watched recently a TV documentary on croissants. Dough (in France) should be around 70g - 80g per croissant. 90g is considered big. 50g - 60g is considered stingy, and the industrial ones are in this range.
Not understanding what you’re getting at, did @sck give gram measurements to what he used? So, why is your post relevant, again? I’m not starting drama, I’m trying to understand what you’re saying?
I’m looking at his picture, he’s got six croissants on his pan, they look awfully big, but that can be an optical illusion.
Having worked in a bakery, I know that industrial ovens cook differently than home ovens. It’s also how they are cooked, are they cooked in a big batch? As opposed to 6-7 a a time? I don’t know the science, my hypothesis is that the greater volume greatly decreases the temp, then the power of the oven brings it back up again.
Again, I’m just offering advice on what might have gone wrong. There’s so many variables at play, this thread is kinda silly. My second guess would be his oven is too small. Unless I’m there and unless Ive baked a hundred of these croissants, I don’t know the solution.
Happy face, emojjii.
