In lamination the key element is to control, whilst obtaining a good and strong dough by extending the dough and thus reducing the thickness. Part of these lamination steps is that before the first folding and then reducing of the dough is been done a proper fat (preferably butter due to the taste and melting curve) is laid on top of the dough (or extruded in a continuous production method) and then folded. If this fat is forgotten the layers do not separate during baking that well and a doughy, sometimes crumbly inside is obtained. The number of layers also determine how regular the product bakes and how fine the inside structure will be: more layers is finer inside, but smaller volume. Croissants therefore have around 1,5 – 2,5 Turn. Where Danish often has about 0,5-1 Turn more.
A key element in the laminated products is that the fat content can’t be too high, but still high enough to ensure that there is fat between the layers: this melting of the fat, the expansion of the water in the fatsource (margarine of butter) is one of the lifting or puffing mechanisms. These products also have yeast as an important part of the leavening, it is vital to respect proofing conditions. If proofing is taking too long or temperature is too high (and very often then humidity is lower), croissants tend to get dry or even have compressed layers, whilst the outside structure seams to collapse partly. So even when you source croissants to bake off or proof and then bake you might be able to recognise this as a processing mistake/ cause.
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