Laminating dough without losing your mind
Butter, cold, and patience — in that order. The three things that go wrong, and how to stop them.
1 min read
Lamination is not difficult. It is unforgiving, which people mistake for difficult. Everything that goes wrong goes wrong for the same reason: the butter got warm.
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If the butter starts to shine, stop. Put everything back in the fridge for twenty minutes. You cannot rescue a broken layer, but you can always wait.
The three failures
- Butter too cold: it shatters instead of spreading, and you get shards rather than sheets.
- Butter too warm: it merges into the dough and you have made brioche by accident.
- Rushing the rest: the gluten fights back and the dough shrinks the moment you turn your back.
Between those three is a window of a few degrees. Work inside it and lamination is just folding.
