Croissants leaking butter

This is a complex issue, so bear with me here.
I've been attempting to make croissants for the restaurant I work at. I've had great success in general--my croissants are flaky, tasty, and golden. However, there is a problem that has been vexing me, and no matter what I do I can't seem to get around it.
All goes well up to the point I bake off the croissants. In the oven, the croissants leak butter. A lot. So much that they sort of fry on the bottom. The final croissants taste good, but they are greasier than they should be.
I've been doing a lot of reading, and many sources say that if your croissants are leaking butter, they aren't proofed enough, but I know that mine are proofed enough when I put them in the oven. I'm positive of that.
My theory is that the kitchen is just too warm and that the butter warms up so much that when it hits the hot oven it just oozes out. There is nothing I can do about the kitchen being warm, but I was wondering if there is a good fix for this--something I'm not thinking of. I tried putting the proofed croissants in the reach-in for 20 minutes right before baking in the hopes that this would firm up the butter, but it didn't seem to have any effect on the outcome.
Would it be possible to proof the croissants in the walk-in? I know this would take a lot longer, but if it would prevent the butter leakage issue I would definitely do it.
Are there any other possibilities as to why this is happening? I'm using the Tartine recipe, which I've read has more butter than many croissant recipes. Should I scale back on the butter?
Any expertise or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: petitbleu
September 12, 2013

116603 views
31 Comments

31 Comments

abellia August 25, 2023

Make sure you're not proofing the croissants at too high a temp. If you stick them on the stove and the oven is preheating, for example, you might well have a problem. The butter will be almost melted before you get the dough in the oven and the butter will leak.

:) July 12, 2022

Hey!! I was thinking about whether you are adding too much butter??
Hope it works out for you

Kay C. January 23, 2021

I used to have the exact same problem. Tons of butter melting out of my croissants and making a puddle of butter everywhere. The MOST important thing (besides proper lamination of butter and dough) is to make sure that you proof your croissants LONG enough AND at the proper temp. This means shaping, egg wash, then proofing for anywhere between 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours at 75-80 degrees. I would say no higher than 82 degrees or your butter will begin to melt during proofing. Your croissants need to almost double in size and will look visibly lighter and jiggly. I usually proof my croissants in my turned off oven with the oven light on and it takes about 2-2 1/2 hours to proof. I monitor the temp with an ambient temp thermometer so it doesn’t get above 82 degrees in there. After your croissants are proofed, they need to be baked INITIALLY at a higher temp. I usually bake my pain au chocolat at 425 for 18-20 mins. Plain croissants at 425 for 12 mins then at 350 for another 10-15 mins.

coup December 20, 2019

Interesting, not one of these comments mentioned checking their oven to be sure they are calibrated correctly. I’d suggest recalibration and preheating longer.

Sabelsings June 25, 2014

I can't believe I ran across the article because I'm having the same problem with Tartine's croissant recipe, except I'm a home baker and don't have access to a walk-in at my apartment. I've been working with half the recipe, starting with 11oz. of butter and then 10oz. using the spreading method. I thought it was a little strange using that much butter over 2/3 of the dough. Not knowing how to use bread percentages, I'm thinking about skipping down to an 8oz block.

katrina_yeaw January 1, 2021

I am also having the same problem with the Tartine recipe. Let me know if you found a solution.

Anya C. May 14, 2022

Ive heard of many many people struggling with the tartine recipe - i however have not attempted the recipe. When i make croissants I use Claire Saffitz NYT recipe. There is a video and an instruction page on how she makes them. In the comments many people comment on how much better her recipe is than tartines. Hope this helps :)

sexyLAMBCHOPx September 13, 2013

Cynthia, you're a godsend for bakers and non-bakers!

boulangere September 12, 2013

I will sleep better tonight knowing that you have a walk-in at your disposal! If you make your dough and do the roll-in and turns on day 1, refrigerate in the walk-in in-between turns and overnight, then do the final roll-out, cut, shape, proof and bake on day 2, I think you'll get much better results. And let the warmth of the kitchen be your guide as to how long to refrigerate between turns, not the recipe. At that point, it's at best a guide. Bon courage!

boulangere September 12, 2013

55% butter for the roll-in is average. My first question is: are you refrigerating the bulk dough overnight before rolling, cutting and shaping the croissants? That's crucial to setting both the dough and the butter. My second question is: do you have access to a walk-in, or just to a reach-in refrigerator? A reach-in is going to be much less stable in terms of consistent temperature than a walk-in will (and if your walk-in is running at 50-55 degrees at the door, where the temperature sensor is typically located, you've got far greater problems than leaking butter in your croissants; someone is either leaving the door wide open, or the condenser and fan are in trouble). A reach-in doesn't have the capacity to circulate consistently cold are that a walk-in has. For that reason, if that's all you have, you should consider significantly extending you refrigeration times between turns, probably by 50% or more. Croissants should proof (at not more than 85 degrees) until doubled in size, which, depending upon how cold they were to begin with, may take a good hour. If you're positive that yours are adequately proofed, is there a chance that you're over-proofing them? That can certainly contribute to loss of butter. And they should be baked at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. I just have a feeling that extended refrigeration is your key, especially if your kitchen is warm (my end of our kitchen averages 85 degrees, so I'm essentially working in a proof box, and working with laminated doughs is an incredible challenge) and you only have a reach-in refrigerator.

petitbleu September 12, 2013

Boulangere, where have you been all my life?! For starters, I essentially make the dough on day one and do all the laminating, shaping, proofing, and baking on day 2. It is definitely possible that I could do some or maybe all of the laminating on day one and just do the shaping, proofing, and baking on day 2.
Second, I have access to a reach-in and a walk-in as well as a walk-in freezer. I'm definitely going to start taking better advantage of the walk-in. It seems as though this will be the only way to combat the hot kitchen situation.
Third, it is certainly possible that the croissants are over-proofing. The recipe that had been working so well has been totally thrown out of whack by this new situation, so I don't see why the proofing time hasn't also been altered.
I'll definitely try refrigerating the dough longer between turns and proofing in the walk-in (or, as mentioned above, at least partially proofed in the walk-in).
Thanks for chiming in! The advice of in-the-trenches bakers is always appreciated!

Rebecca P. September 8, 2020

I live in the middle east, bread making is funny over here, because or it is too hot or it is hotter than hot, so i make sure to cool my dough over night, actually freeze it for 30min, then leave my detrempe in the fridge all night, butter also, then remove butter, and allow it to stay outside for 5-10 mins before rolling, proof until it double in size, takes between 1-2 hours depends on ac in the room or the heat outside affecting the ac's performance, but anyway, i've been baking for years, but middle east area has tested me awfully, to almost cry once, no matter what i do, i still get butter leaking out, i tried oven temperature at 220 Celsius for 10 minutes and continue on 180 for the rest, still the croissants bleeds butter to test my patience, im gonna buy croissants at Marks and Spencer, they are second best after my own croissant

spiffypaws September 12, 2013

What is the temp of your proofbox? The only time I had a similar issue, the proofbox was running too hot. Check it w/ a thermometer.

petitbleu September 12, 2013

We don't have a proofbox. Just a hot kitchen. We're lucky to have a dough sheeter. I'm going to try to make it work by lowering the percentage of butter being laminated and by proofing in the walk-in. The walk-in isn't as cold as a regular fridge, so my hope is that they will proof adequately. Or maybe I could start proofing at room temp then move them to the walk-in. Anyway, it's a work in progress.

spiffypaws September 12, 2013

What is the temp of your proofbox? The only time I had a similar issue, the proofbox was running too hot. Check it w/ a thermometer.

spiffypaws September 12, 2013

What is the temp of your proofbox? The only time I had a similar issue, the proofbox was running too hot. Check it w/ a thermometer.

David September 12, 2013

One of modern cooking's greatest quests...The perfect croissant

HalfPint September 12, 2013

Let us know the results. Totally fascinated by the process too!

David September 12, 2013

It's my home so 70 degrees with low humidity.

petitbleu September 12, 2013

Okay, so my plan is as follows: I'm going to use the Tartine recipe but lower the percentage of butter to about 55%. I'm also going to use a butter block instead of smearing the butter onto the dough. I'll do 3 turns, freezing in between for 20 minutes. I will proof the dough in the walk-in, egg wash twice before baking, and try using the low fan setting on the oven at a reduced temp (maybe try 350 first and lower to 325).
This is an utterly fascinating discussion to me. Really hoping it works out!

petitbleu September 12, 2013

Okay, I've done some baker's math and made some interesting findings. The baker's percentages of butter in different recipes varies widely.

Tartine= 64%

FCI Cookbook= 60%

Tartine Bread= quoted in the book as 40%, but this is not taking the flour in the poolish and levain into account; if you factor those in, the butter percentage is more like 29.6%, which sounds really low

CIA Cookbook= 67%

Bouchon Bakery= 55%

Bread Bible= 59.9%

So the issue could indeed be that the percentage of butter is too high, but I've made this recipe many times before (albeit in a cooler kitchen) with great success. I'm also reluctant to start over with a new recipe, since I've modified the Tartine recipe quite a bit over the past two years to get it where I like it. But if the butter leakage persists in spite of trying to keep the dough cool and the butter pliable I may have to return to square one.
Thanks for the helpful answers, everyone!

Rebecca P. September 8, 2020

50 - 55 % is the real deal, hands down, i have tried other methods also, but they never were as good and balance, they are heavier and sometimes too crunchy

David September 12, 2013

whoops...here it is
http://www.thefauxmartha.com/2013/03/21/croissants/

David September 12, 2013

This is the recipe I've used. I believe it is only very slightly adapted from the Tartine recipe. I've followed this recipe including using instant yeast over active dry yeast. The 2 differences I've made is after step 7 I've left the dough in the freezer for at least 4 hours but not overnight and instead of silpains I've used silpats on top of insulated baking sheets.
I've made this recipe 3 times this summer (the croissants freeze well) and I've not encountered the butter leakage problem.

petitbleu September 12, 2013

How warm is the kitchen you're working in?

micook September 12, 2013

The second answer made me think it is is the recipe because though I've never had this problem with the recipe in Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Bread Bible or Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, I had the same kind of leakage with the Tartine recipe. Like a flood of butter all over the floor of the oven. At the time, I thought it was because I hadn't proofed them properly, but now I'm thinking there is a difference in the recipe, the amount of butter or something, that caused the problem.

HalfPint September 12, 2013

I agree. I think there might be too much butter. I have not made croissants but I remember the Great American Bake Off (?) episode when contestants were asked to make croissants. One of the judges talk about the ratio (can't recall what it was) of butter to flour and how too much butter resulted in a greasy croissant. Sure enough, someone doubled the amount of butter and had liquid butter dripping from her croissants. I think you might want to compare the ratio of Tartine recipe with the ratio from Bouchon and Bread Bible.

monkeymom September 12, 2013

Hi. Another possibility for your butter leaking through is the lamination process. If the butter is too cold when you are rolling out the dough, it can cause breaks or rips in the dough itself and that leads to leakage. A good source of information is www.thefreshloaf.com. You can read up a lot about baking croissants and troubleshooting. I also had a lot of butter leak out when I did the Tartine croissants but have not spent much time troubleshooting it. They are really delicious though. Please update this when you solve the problem!

David September 12, 2013

Restaurants are often not the best places to work with croissants. Besides the room temp being high often the walk in is closer to 50 or 55 degrees rather than 40 especially near the door. Suggestions would be to increase refrigeration times as suggested by the recipe. So if the recipe calls for 4 hours of refrigeration between proofing and folding in butter increase to 6. Find the coolest part of the walk in. If you bake in the morning from dough made the day before let the dough chill for 3 or 4 hours in the freezer (just make sure it is transferred from freezer to fridge before closing at night. Make sure when you do your egg wash that you let it dry completely. (can refrigerate for 30 minutes and do a second egg wash) Bake on insulated sheets (airbake) using silpats so the bottom won't bake faster than the top.
And yes you can proof in the walk-in. Good Luck

petitbleu September 12, 2013

My method involves making a preferment and then making the dough on day 1. I freeze the dough and move it to the walk-in before leaving for the night. The next day, I fold in and laminate the butter. We have a sheeter, so the rolling process is not lengthy, which is good considering how hot the kitchen is. I do three turns, which I think is pretty standard. I found one recipe that calls for 6 turns, but that's just not going to happen for me.
Anyway, I'm thinking my plan of attack will be to make sure the butter is pliable and warm enough (not too warm) that it won't separate into chunks in the dough and will remain a solid layer. Next, I'm going to try proofing the dough in the walk-in and using Silpats. Thanks for the advice. Onward!

Carmine I. November 25, 2019

Hello kids my first time making pastry dough. Leaking a lot very definetly but I used a cookie sheet for half and a flat sheet for half. Worse than leaking, the butter drippedboff the flat sheet and caught fire holy Toledo I need to get more practice on this leaking business. Than you all for commenting

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Croissants leaking butter

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