Hand kneading vs stand mixer for croissants is not even close in my kitchen

I spent 3 weekends making croissant dough by hand got okay results then used my KitchenAid and the layers were way more even has anyone else noticed the mixer handles cold butter way better than warm hands can?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_susan2d ago

Yeah but hold on, the warm hands thing isn't exactly the whole story. Your hands don't really warm up the dough that much if you're working fast and using cold butter that's been cubed and chilled. The real difference I found is the mixer just works it more evenly without overworking one spot. Like when I hand knead I tend to push harder on one side without noticing, then that part gets a little warm and the butter smears. My KitchenAid on low speed keeps everything moving together so the butter stays in nice little chunks instead of turning into a greasy mess. Took me way too many batches to figure that out lol.

emmap162d agoMost Upvoted

Oh totally, the uneven pressure thing is so real. @the_susan I never realized that's what was happening until I watched myself in a reflection once and saw my right hand was basically bullying the dough while my left was just along for the ride. That's why I'm team mixer now too, it just distributes everything so evenly without any of my clumsy bias sneaking in.