We visited Colson Patisserie to see they make thousands croissants every day.
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00:00 This massive amount of dough is about to be cut,
00:04 folded, and rolled into 2,100 croissants.
00:09 A small portion of the 21,000 croissants
00:13 Colson Patisserie makes every week.
00:16 But making perfect croissants on this scale
00:19 is easier said than done.
00:21 For executive chef Natalie Abrams,
00:24 it's a constant race against time
00:26 and changing temperatures.
00:28 If our dough is mixed incorrectly,
00:30 if it's over-mixed, if it's under-mixed,
00:32 if it's mixed too warm,
00:34 if anything goes wrong, you see it immediately.
00:37 We visited Colson Patisserie in Brooklyn, New York,
00:41 to see how he prepares his croissants
00:43 in such big batches.
00:46 The day begins with making the dough.
00:52 Five gallons of milk and buckets of ice water
00:56 are added into the mixer first.
00:59 And basically, we adjust over the summer
01:01 how much ice is going into that water.
01:03 If it's in the dead of winter and the kitchen is freezing,
01:06 then we maybe put the water a little bit warmer.
01:10 Keeping the dough cold is an essential part
01:13 of slowing down the fermentation process.
01:16 Next, an entire tray of wild sourdough starter
01:20 is scraped into the mix.
01:22 It's wild yeast, basically.
01:24 It helps our croissant grow a little bit bigger.
01:26 Finally, they add yeast.
01:29 And then we mix that around for a little bit
01:31 to sort of combine, let everything start to bloom.
01:34 After a short spin, 250 pounds of flour
01:39 is gradually added so it doesn't overwhelm the mixer
01:43 and send flour into the air.
01:45 They also add in a container of sugar and salt
01:49 before continuing the mixing process.
01:53 And we mix, we maybe put another two, three minutes.
01:56 So here, we're just starting to wait
02:00 for a little bit of gluten development.
02:03 And then we start adding butter,
02:06 since that's sort of a hydrating thing
02:08 and it inhibits gluten development.
02:11 So that's why we hold that till the end of the mix.
02:13 And lastly, dough scrap or pâte fermentée is combined.
02:19 This helps as a flavor enhancer
02:22 because it has a more mature flavor,
02:24 and it also helps with shelf life.
02:28 Once the dough has been properly mixed,
02:35 the entire mixer is lifted,
02:37 so Natalie can easily transfer portions of dough
02:40 to the prep table.
02:42 After the mix, we start to try and slow down
02:48 any warmth or fermentation that happens.
02:52 So we try and take it as fast as possible
02:55 out of the bowl into the freezer
02:58 to really sort of put a pause on the fermentation process.
03:01 The mixed dough is then cut, weighed,
03:09 and wrapped as quickly as possible.
03:11 It's important that the starter that's going in
03:14 doesn't have much of a chance to do much,
03:16 that the yeast going in is all gonna save
03:19 all of its energy for the final bake.
03:21 And so that's why we wanna try and work
03:24 as quickly as possible with this process,
03:28 so that way we can get it cold, cold, cold.
03:31 When all of the dough is wrapped,
03:35 it's carted into a blast freezer.
03:38 The dough is gonna stay in here for about two to three hours
03:41 until it's pretty solid,
03:42 until we really are sure that we've stopped
03:45 that fermentation from the heat.
03:46 And then we're gonna move it into the fridge,
03:49 where it is going to stay overnight to relax,
03:53 let the flavor develop a little bit,
03:55 and hydrate all of the dough.
03:57 In another room,
04:03 workers begin unwrapping mountains of butter.
04:06 And we use a European-style, 83% Vermont yeast butter.
04:11 We love it in terms of taste.
04:13 We've tasted a bunch of other stuff,
04:14 but this, for us, has been the main ingredient
04:18 for some of our biggest flavors.
04:20 This'll get us through about a day and a half
04:24 worth of croissant production
04:27 just for the actual sheets that we want to put inside.
04:31 All of this butter needs to be layered with dough.
04:35 But instead of rolling it out into sheets,
04:37 Colson uses a hydraulic press.
04:40 We get it to temp,
04:42 then basically it goes into a hydraulic press,
04:45 so it becomes pliable but not warm.
04:48 We want the butter and the dough
04:50 to be as even in temperature as possible,
04:52 so that's why we have to basically use
04:56 what we pressed out of the butter the same day,
04:59 so that way we know that our temperature is close.
05:01 The relaxed dough is now ready to be stretched
05:08 and layered with these sheets of butter
05:11 in a process known as lamination.
05:13 First, the dough needs to be stretched
05:16 to the same thickness and width as the sheet of butter,
05:20 so it can be completely folded over.
05:23 So, basically, here we just take our butter
05:26 that's a little pliable but not soft,
05:31 and we're going to just make sure
05:35 that all of the dough has a layer of butter.
05:39 This is called the lock-in stage.
05:40 And then, after this,
05:41 we begin putting in our series of folds.
05:44 After the folds,
05:47 each sheet will have 24 layers of dough and butter,
05:51 and it's these layers that will give the croissants
05:54 their honeycomb interior and flaky texture when baked.
05:59 But if the temperature is off at any stage,
06:02 they risk losing the entire batch.
06:04 If you have butter that is too cold,
06:06 then the butter shatters,
06:08 and then you'll see little bits and pieces
06:10 of butter throughout the dough,
06:11 and you won't have any layers.
06:13 If you have dough that is too cold, it rips.
06:17 If it's not laminated correctly,
06:19 if the butter is broken,
06:21 then it comes out with 50 or 60 croissants
06:24 that we can't really use.
06:25 When the dough has been laminated,
06:29 it's wrapped and stored in a proofer
06:31 at 55 degrees for a few hours.
06:35 At this temperature,
06:36 the dough and butter remain pliable
06:38 without fermenting,
06:39 which is essential for the next step.
06:41 Now it's time to stretch the laminated pieces of dough.
06:50 For this step, the bakery uses an automatic sheeter
06:53 that stretches and cuts the dough into triangles.
06:57 So we have about 7 kilos of dough here,
07:00 which is about 14 pounds.
07:03 Each one of those makes about 60 croissants,
07:06 and so every day we're going through
07:08 approximately 60 to 70 of these laminated pieces of dough.
07:13 So we have a specific program
07:16 for all of our different croissants.
07:18 It helps us maintain consistency.
07:20 This passes through about seven times,
07:22 and then here we have some of the scrap dough
07:25 coming off of the sides,
07:26 and then all of our triangles are ready.
07:29 Even though they're very close here
07:31 to being super-duper consistent,
07:33 we still are weighing each piece that we make
07:36 to make sure that we have everything coming out
07:39 at exactly pretty much the same weight.
07:41 We have about a 3-gram spread on all of our croissants,
07:46 which means that all of our 3,000 croissants
07:50 come out around the same size, the same shape,
07:53 because croissants really show
07:55 every single imperfection or perfection.
07:59 The triangles are then ready to be rolled
08:01 into their crescent shape.
08:04 So after the dough has been weighed,
08:06 we basically straighten out to make a nice straight triangle.
08:10 We give it a little bump to give it a place to sort of live,
08:14 and then we have a nice one-two motion
08:18 where we basically put the croissant right in its home.
08:22 So after that, it gets moved to the tray,
08:26 and we give it a nice little tap.
08:27 You kind of have to tap all your croissants
08:29 to show them that you love them.
08:31 The rolled croissants are then left to rest
08:35 for another eight to 10 hours
08:37 and proofed for another five to six hours.
08:40 But even at this step, slight changes in temperature
08:43 can ruin the entire batch.
08:46 Before the croissants are baked,
08:48 Natalie gives each of them a squeeze
08:50 to make sure they're proofed enough.
08:52 If it feels tight here,
08:55 then we let them go for a little bit longer.
08:57 If it feels pretty even,
09:00 then we know that we're good to go on the proof.
09:04 Some of them that you can see got a little close
09:07 to the oven while they were proofing,
09:08 and so we have a couple that the butter
09:10 just started leaking out 'cause they got a little too warm,
09:14 but that's how sensitive these croissants are.
09:16 Like, if it's a slight, like six inches too close to an oven
09:20 then it's probably just gonna have to go to staff meal
09:24 'cause you're gonna see it when it comes out
09:27 that it's gonna have sort of that butter underneath.
09:30 That means there's less butter in the croissant.
09:33 Here, Natalie is finishing off each croissant
09:36 with a coat of vegetable spray.
09:39 So it's like a vegetable protein
09:41 that does a very nice job
09:43 of still giving us that color and shine.
09:47 The loaded rack is then carted into this massive oven.
09:55 So this is our oven that's programmed
09:57 with our croissants recipe.
09:59 We have everything sort of set up for, again,
10:03 maximum consistency on the bake.
10:05 It can adjust the venting, it can adjust steam,
10:09 and it can decrease our temperature as needed.
10:13 Inside, the oven can bake 360 croissants at a time.
10:19 That raises, lifting the cart off the ground,
10:22 and then once I hit start bake,
10:25 it starts rotating this rack around
10:29 for the most even bake possible.
10:31 And sort of the hot air is coming out of convection vents
10:35 that line this entire side.
10:37 And so again, all of those are adjusted individually.
10:41 I think there's about 200 or something
10:43 to adjust for the perfect airflow
10:45 to make sure that the bake from top to bottom on the oven
10:48 is happening in a very even way.
10:53 [oven beeping]
10:54 After about 25 minutes,
10:56 the baked croissants are taken out and left to cool.
10:59 Normally, you stand back when we open this,
11:03 let the steam out a little bit.
11:05 If they're packed too soon,
11:09 the center of the croissant will collapse.
11:12 If you're really paying attention,
11:14 it shows you everything that's happened
11:17 in terms of, like, all the attention to detail,
11:20 all the technique that has gone into it.
11:23 [dramatic music]
11:25 While most of these croissants
11:26 are headed to wholesale customers,
11:28 Colson also sells some of these croissants at two cafes.
11:33 Our goal is really just to, like,
11:36 have all of these multitudes of customers
11:38 who are walking into different shops across New York
11:41 walk away with a pastry that they're happy with
11:43 and that they find some joy in
11:45 and then make everybody's day a little better.
11:48 The croissants are to die for.
11:51 They look just beautiful.
11:53 They're art.
11:54 They're a piece of art, first of all.
11:56 But just the flakiness, how they crumble into your mouth,
12:00 they are so good.
12:01 And reactions like this are exactly what motivates Natalie.
12:06 You can have a really beautiful croissant,
12:09 but if the flavor isn't there,
12:10 then kind of what's the point?
12:12 I would much rather draw people in with flavor
12:16 and have them keep coming back
12:18 than have something that everybody buys once.
12:23 (dramatic music)
12:25 (dramatic music)
12:28 (bass notes)