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Hey guys, salut. Welcome back to the croissant series.
In the previous episode, the one we shot at the Utopie bakery in Paris
I learned so much and I learned it the hard way.
My croissant game basically.... how do I put this gently..
Is not as amazing as I thought it was.
Now of course I could try to improve my pastry skills,
but as men do, I'm gonna start simple. I'm gonna blame the tools, ok?
So, this is called a dough sheeter,
or in French, a "laminoir".
Bakers use it at least four times during the process.
In fact, they use it to flatten the basic dough,
flatten the butter slab,
form the sandwich too,
and then finally, they use it to reduce the thickness down of the dough at the end.
And thanks to this machine right here,
all those actions are performed with an incredible evenness.
I need one of those. I need one of those.
That's the reason why my croissant game is not that high.
It's not.
But, it can definitely help, right?
Now, of course, I could go and buy a commercial version of that machine,
but the mechanism is not like "rocket science."
It's just a flattening rod and a conveyor belt underneath.
Is that a big deal?
No
I don't think so. Possibly. Maybe
Pupupupup. Can be.
He he he, it can be.
Anyways, you know me. I don't like reinventing the wheel.
Think of pasta machine, dry aged beef, and wok stove, so...
I'm just going to build one.
Now, of course, I thought about using my brilliant ramen machine
to flatten this croissant dough,
but the thing is, the rollers, they're just not wide enough.
It's just.. Ohhh.
I'm now off to the hardware store because I need to get a few supplies.
I need plywood,
I need a few threaded rods,
I need different types of screws, I need bearings,
and of course, I need a roller.
To be honest, this is the thing I'm the less confident about.
I've never seen a roller -- like a big fat roller -- at the hardware store.
I don't want to saw my rolling pin.
I will if I have to - I'd love to find an alternative.
so...
Nope.
That... thin
Nope
This handle is the biggest rod - wooden rod -
and it's not even close to being like the thing I'm looking for.
I might need to find something else.
ehhh.
no..
nnoo...
ha ha
I found two table legs which should be just fine.
I hope I got everything I need, so let's head back to "le studio".
I love this moment -
just the anticipation before the storm.
I've been making a rail for the tray to be sliding on.
The next step is to cut those wooden rollers to accurate size.
I will also have to include an axis
just a centimeter longer.
That would have been just OK with me, but no, life doesn't work like this.
Life is a B****.
Let's continue....
I need to find the absolute center
The intersections of my lines are just not in the center of the smallest circle.
Theory sucks!
Just gonna do it, like, by feel. That's what I'm going to do.
Right. So that's it for the rollers.
I've got two rollers with axles included.
Now I need to move on to the thickness adjustment setting.
Theory...
You've got the top roller and you've got the bottom roller.
Both of them are spinning... in opposite directions.
which means that the dough is going to be sucked in.
Problem
It's always about the problem.
Problems are fun. I mean, I think they are..
You see, getting one roller closer to the other is not a big problem.
You could be using an endless coo???, or whatever.
The problem is that those rollers are connected.
That connection can be made through a belt or by using gears, whatever.
It's always the same problem
It doesn't allow for space adjustment between those two elements.
This time, we're not only working with 2 elements; in fact, we have 3 elements.
There is a conveyor belt right here.
What matters isn't the distance between the two rollers, but between the top roller and the plane right here.
You think it's not helping, but in fact, it is...
Rotating the whole thing, and bringing the roller to this position,
still having the same distance between the bottom and the top roller,
but then having the distance between the top roller and the plane much shorter.
The only thing I need to do now is
to find a way to make that top roller slide from this top position to its bottom position.
Piece of cake.
Ta-daaa
I know what you see.
You're seeing, like, a wobbly, dusty machine.
But I see a crispy croissant.
I see a promise.
Croissant! Swish swish swish!
And that's called Vision.
Or Fantasy.
Let me just get this machine a bit more stable.
OK. Oops. heh heh
Something fell off.
Right, so to adjust the thickness of the dough you are working on,
this is going to slide within this slot, OK?
The problem is, how do you know exactly
at which thickness --
like in millimeters, for example -- you're staying at.
Solution: I'm going to use a hand combined with a pin.
d d d d d d. 5 millimeters, click.
Clack
Perfect.
I mean, in theory, at least.
Now the only thing left is to calibrate the machine comes up
You know, thickness settings,
and for this, I'm going to use a few wedges.
This is 6 millimeters in thickness.
This is now 6 millimeters.
I am super pleased with the result.
It's not finished yet, of course.
It works like so...
there's a pin right there.
You remove it, then you adjust the target thickness.
Let's go to 26, for example.
And then you will secure the hand in place using the pin.
And, then when you're flattening, the whole machine will keep super steady and super solid
at 26.
That is my very unbiased opinion about this.
I know, world will be world.
Let's just give it a field test, OK?
I got some left over dough in the fridge.
Let's flatten it.
14 millimeters.
6 millimeters.
4 millimeters.
It should be 4 millimeters.
The pressure is on.
"Cause otherwise the whole thing is just useless.
4.5 millimeters.
It's unacceptable. Nah, it's acceptable.
So, yes, I'm pleased with the result at the moment.
But no, I'm not fully satisfied deep inside.
So, overall, I'm looking for more precision,
I'm looking for better mechanical parts,
and also, I'm looking for, you know, a tiny, but powerful electrical input.
That's what I'm looking for.
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Take care
Bye bye
Salut.