1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:03,560 The croissant. 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:05,520 Whether you like yours plain, 3 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:06,920 smothered in jam... 4 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,800 ..or even filled with ham and cheese, 5 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:15,040 this French classic is a British favourite. 6 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,880 Helping to put a smile on our faces at breakfast time. 7 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:23,360 Every year, we tear our way through a quarter of a billion of them. 8 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:30,000 Satisfying that demand requires baking on a massive scale, 9 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,320 and to find out how it's done, I've come to their spiritual home - 10 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:35,720 France. 11 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,760 To one of the biggest croissant factories in the world! 12 00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:42,480 316 people work here, 13 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:46,440 producing a staggering 18,000 croissants every hour. 14 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:49,600 I'm Gregg Wallace... 15 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:50,720 That is fantastic. 16 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:53,840 That is a massage parlour for croissants. 17 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:58,720 ..and I'm discovering the culinary care that goes into our daily bread. 18 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,040 It's a big, sticky chewing gum! 19 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:02,240 I'm Cherry Healey. 20 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:05,640 You could hurt someone with those. 21 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,080 And I'm pulling back the layers of this flaky pastry. 22 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:12,280 I can see how that's the perfect thing for a croissant. 23 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:13,840 I couldn't eat the whole pot, though! 24 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,000 And historian Ruth Goodman... 25 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:19,600 That looks quite croissanty to me! Yes. 26 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:21,760 But actually it's not. It's not a croissant? No. 27 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,360 ..is investigating the croissant's surprising origins. 28 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:27,560 Oh, that's so much more dense. 29 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,160 Over the next 24 hours, this factory will produce 30 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:39,080 a staggering 336,000 croissants. 31 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,040 Welcome to Inside The Factory. 32 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:10,080 This is the Brioche Pasquier factory near the city of Valence 33 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:11,560 in south-east France. 34 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:15,440 This 5.5 acre site produces seven different types 35 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,520 of pastries and brioche, churning out 36 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,800 more than 500 million of them every year. 37 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,280 They ship to 20 different countries. 38 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:36,360 Supplying brioche to Belgium and pain au lait to Portugal. 39 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,480 But we're following production of one of their most popular 40 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:44,640 UK exports, their six-pack of butter croissants. 41 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:51,000 Production begins at the intake area with a delivery of beurre. 42 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,600 No, I'm not cold, that's just French for butter. 43 00:02:57,720 --> 00:02:59,800 As the first pallet comes off the lorry, 44 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:01,960 our production process begins. 45 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:06,560 To find out what happens next, 46 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:10,000 I'm meeting the company's CEO, Pascal Pasquier. 47 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:11,880 You are Pascal? Yeah. 48 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:16,400 Gregg. Good morning. Good morning, Gregg, nice to meet you. 49 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,240 This is the very start of your croissant production, right? Yeah. 50 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:22,440 How much butter is on there? 51 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:27,080 In this lorry, we have around 21 tonnes of butter. 52 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:28,880 How many croissants would that make? 53 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:30,520 4 million. 4 million. 54 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:32,040 4 million croissants. 55 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,120 Can I look at the butter? Yeah, of course! 56 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:36,640 Of course. 57 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,880 Each one of these pallets holds 80 10-kilo blocks. 58 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:44,680 Wow. 59 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:47,000 How important is butter with a croissant? 60 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:48,360 What does it give? 61 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:50,920 With this butter is the taste. 62 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:53,200 So, no butter, no croissant, right? 63 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:54,720 No butter, no croissant. 64 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,320 That seems to me to be very dark. 65 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:58,480 What butter is this? 66 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,480 This butter is concentrate butter. 67 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:08,000 This concentrated butter has a fat content of 99.8%, 68 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,320 nearly 20% higher than the stuff in your fridge. 69 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:16,440 If it's got more fat, it's got less water, right? 70 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:18,360 Yeah. Why do you want less water? 71 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,320 Because, for the shelf life. 72 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:25,000 Ah! Because we produce without preservative. 73 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,680 I'm not a scientist, but the bacteria would be 74 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,440 in the water. Yeah. 75 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,200 And that's what would make the croissant go off? 76 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:34,800 That's it. 77 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,560 This special butter helps to give our croissants a shelf life 78 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:40,280 of up to 29 days. 79 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:45,560 Before entering the factory, every delivery is checked to ensure 80 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:47,720 it's the perfect temperature. 81 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,440 Pascal, what temperature do you want? 82 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:53,720 Maximum, 16 degrees. 83 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,520 What happens if it goes above 16? 84 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:57,720 It will melt! 85 00:04:57,720 --> 00:04:59,800 Oh, of course. Yeah! 86 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:01,240 And it doesn't work. 87 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:02,680 It doesn't work any more! 88 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:04,440 Sorry. Pardon. 89 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:06,760 I know, I know, give me a break, will you! 90 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,680 Until the butter is needed on the production line, 91 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:14,680 it's stored at a cool 15 degrees Celsius, 92 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:17,400 in one of 18 giant refrigerators. 93 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,720 This butter doesn't just look different to the stuff we spread 94 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:27,000 on our toast, how it's made is pretty different, too, 95 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:28,600 as Cherry's finding out. 96 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,680 It's no secret that all butter begins with just one ingredient - 97 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:37,120 milk. 98 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:41,800 I'm in North Wales meeting dairy farmer, John Roberts. 99 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,320 Hi, farmer John, lovely to meet you. And you. 100 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:47,600 And, of course, his herd of nearly 200 cows. 101 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:50,800 These are Holstein Friesians. 102 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:51,920 Is that a special cow? 103 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:54,280 Do they produce especially rich milk? 104 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:57,920 No, it's just standard, about 4% fat milk. 105 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:05,240 All cow's milk is a mixture of fat, protein, carbohydrates and water. 106 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,400 It's how it's processed that determines what kind 107 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:10,280 of butter it becomes. 108 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:13,760 How much milk do you produce a day? 109 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:16,920 Between 5,500 and 6,000 litres go in a day. 110 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:20,920 How much of that goes on to make concentrated butter? 111 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,240 All of it. Every single drop? Yeah. 112 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:30,280 It's taken by tanker 30 miles down the road to Meadow Foods dairy, 113 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:33,320 where I'm meeting site director Karl Sears. 114 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,160 Hi, Karl. Lovely to meet you. Hi, Cherry, lovely to meet you, too. 115 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,680 So, I've just seen the farm, I want to know how you turn 116 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,400 that milk into concentrated butter. 117 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:45,600 OK, let me show you. Thank you. 118 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:50,200 The first step in making any kind of butter 119 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,800 is separating the cream from the milk. 120 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:57,720 I've never seen so many pipes. 121 00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:59,600 It helps if you're a plumber! 122 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:01,360 Where is the milk? 123 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,560 The milk is coming through the pipework into three separators. 124 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:09,000 Now, those enable us to separate 100,000 litres of whole milk 125 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,560 an hour into skim and cream. 126 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:16,040 Each separator consists of a centrifuge, 127 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:17,960 spinning at 4,000 rpm. 128 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,920 As the liquid enters through a pipe in the bottom, 129 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,440 the heavier milk is forced to the outside and syphoned off. 130 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,320 While the lighter cream is sucked out of a pipe at the top. 131 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:38,200 1,000 litres of milk produces 100 litres of cream. 132 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,480 So, after separation, this is the cream. 133 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:44,440 Look at it. It's so thick. 134 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:46,280 What's the fat content of this now? 135 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,840 The fat content of that cream is 40%. 136 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:52,080 It's similar to the double cream that you'd buy in the supermarket. 137 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,880 The skimmed milk goes away for ingredients into things 138 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:56,680 like yoghurt or ice cream. 139 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,920 It's from this point on that the process of making 140 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:04,680 concentrated butter differs from making standard butter. 141 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:07,400 All right. 142 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:10,560 Instead of churning the cream until it solidifies, 143 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,120 we're going to concentrate the fat. 144 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:17,760 The 40% cream comes into here, it's pasteurised, and the first real 145 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,720 stage of the concentration process is here, 146 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,000 on this centrifugal separator. 147 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:27,200 Another whizz in a centrifuge removes water and protein, 148 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:31,840 and takes our cream from 40% fat to a belt-busting 70%. 149 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:37,240 This is a sample of the 70% fat, so you can see how much thicker 150 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:39,760 that is than the cream we originally separated. 151 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:42,360 Oh, that is delicious. 152 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:47,760 But this cream still isn't fatty enough. 153 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,560 Next, it flows into a machine called a homogeniser, 154 00:08:51,560 --> 00:08:55,920 where pistons smash open the outer shell of each cream cell, 155 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:58,920 releasing the liquid fat inside. 156 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:02,480 Any remaining milk protein is then removed in another 157 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,600 centrifuge, leaving us with butter oil, 158 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:10,000 containing 99.8% dairy fat. 159 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:16,800 So, from that, 70% fat, to that, I was expecting it to be 160 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:21,920 like solid butter, but it looks more like vegetable oil. 161 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:24,000 It's dairy fat, in an oil state. 162 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:29,160 Finally, our butter oil travels to the packing room, 163 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:33,080 cooling as it goes from 50 degrees Celsius to 20. 164 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,240 So, as it's going into the box, it starts to solidify, 165 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:40,080 so, at this point in the box, it's like a tooth paste consistency. 166 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:46,160 Before my eyes it's becoming solid, I mean, look at that. 167 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:52,040 It tastes like butter that needs a bit of salt. Yeah, very much. 168 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,000 I can see how that's the perfect, perfect thing for a croissant. 169 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,200 Yeah. I couldn't eat the whole pot, though. 170 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:04,320 It takes just 60 seconds for the butter oil to solidify 171 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:06,280 into a bright yellow block. 172 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:13,080 So, there we go. 173 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:16,160 A giant slab of concentrated butter. 174 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,480 I have to say, that is one of the most complicated 175 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:22,280 scientific processes I have ever seen. 176 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:35,720 Back over in France, our butter is still chilling out 177 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:37,280 in the fridge. 178 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:41,480 So, I'm off to the propagation room, which I am led to believe holds 179 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:44,440 the factory's most prized possession. 180 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:48,240 The person I'm here to see is research and development manager, 181 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:49,840 Lor Corbelle. 182 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,000 Hello. 183 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,000 Hi. Where are we? What is this? 184 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,040 We are in the levain room. 185 00:10:57,040 --> 00:10:58,760 Levain? Levain. 186 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:00,600 That means the wine. 187 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,160 Oh, it is the same pronunciation, but we don't put wine 188 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:04,760 in our croissant dough. 189 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:06,160 What is levain? 190 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,120 It's a mother dough. 191 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:09,640 Right. OK. 192 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:12,560 All bakers have kind of like a mother dough 193 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:14,040 that all baking starts with. 194 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,040 Exactly, exactly. So, what is it exactly, tell me? 195 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:21,200 So, levain is a natural dough that contains yeast, 196 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:22,680 bacterias... 197 00:11:22,680 --> 00:11:24,200 And what does that do? 198 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:28,320 This is like a concentrated flavour for our product. 199 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:29,840 That looks like normal dough. 200 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:33,240 This is dough that we are going to add to our croissant dough, 201 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:36,800 for the flavour, just like a stock cube. 202 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:40,840 Yes. As strange as it sounds, this flavour-packed dough 203 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:44,000 will be fed into the main dough mix further down the line, 204 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,720 helping to give our croissants their unique taste. 205 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:50,480 If this has got all the flavour, right... Yes. 206 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:53,720 ..why don't you make the croissants out of this dough? 207 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:57,080 Oh. Because this would be too strong. 208 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:01,120 The microorganisms, the yeast and bacterias develops 209 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:05,600 and creates this very acid taste and this, 210 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:07,000 you can smell. 211 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:09,200 This smells like acid. 212 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:12,440 Yeah, that is acidic. 213 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:16,600 So, a little pinch of this goes a long, long way. Yes. 214 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:19,040 A very, very long way indeed. 215 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,040 Just one of these 12-kilo boxes is enough 216 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:25,360 to flavour 3,000 croissants. 217 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:30,640 Like a beloved household pet, this living organism needs regular 218 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:34,760 feeding to keep it alive, so it gets a generous daily ration 219 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:36,800 of flour and water. 220 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:40,760 That means that every croissant made here can get its flavour 221 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:42,600 from the same levain. 222 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:47,280 Where did the original levain come from? 223 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,360 The original levain came from Gabriel. 224 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:52,280 The father of Pascal. 225 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,000 Whoa! One minute, one minute, one minute. 226 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:56,280 One minute. 227 00:12:56,280 --> 00:12:57,920 Pascal, who I met earlier? 228 00:12:57,920 --> 00:12:59,720 His father made the original one of these? 229 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:01,600 Yes, in 1936. 230 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,840 So, every day, since 1936, 231 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,560 you take from the levain, 232 00:13:07,560 --> 00:13:11,160 to give flavour, and then you put some flour and water 233 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:13,480 back in to make it grow again? Yes. 234 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,280 And then you take it and then you put back in again. 235 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:17,600 Every day? Every day. 236 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:19,760 Since 1936? 237 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:21,520 That's crazy! 238 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,040 And it will never die? 239 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:27,200 As long as you make croissants, it will always stay alive? 240 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:31,200 Yes, as long as we take care of this, refreshing it every day. 241 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,560 How many boxes of that levain do I need? 242 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:38,000 Oh, we need two boxes of these to make a new batch of croissants. 243 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:42,480 That's 6,000 croissants, but nobody told me I would be doing 244 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:43,720 the heavy lifting. 245 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,560 Good thing I'm in peak physical condition. 246 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:49,040 That's really heavy, can you manage? Yes. 247 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:54,480 We're now 30 minutes in and with 24 kilos of freshly fermented levain, 248 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:58,280 we're heading from propagation to the mixing room... 249 00:13:58,280 --> 00:13:59,360 Down there? 250 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:03,880 ..where we're going to make a 300-kilo batch of croissant dough. 251 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:06,480 Right. Here? Here. 252 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:07,800 Right, what are we looking at? 253 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:09,880 So, here, this is the mixing area. 254 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:13,640 Right. So what goes in first? 255 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,840 Levain. Levain? Yes. Shall I? Shall I do it? Yes. 256 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:20,920 Crikey! 257 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:24,400 Oh, my God! 258 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:25,560 This is hard work. 259 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:28,280 First, we need to coax our two helpings of levain 260 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:30,680 out of their cosy containers. 261 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:32,520 It's a big, sticky chewing gum! 262 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:35,400 Yeah! 263 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:36,840 Perfect. 264 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:41,760 And then you have the fresh yeast. 265 00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:46,360 Our levain already has some yeast in it, 266 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:50,760 but we need to add a little extra into the mix to help the dough rise. 267 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:55,320 And, after that, something I definitely wasn't expecting. 268 00:14:57,280 --> 00:14:58,720 Right, now, that is a lot of ice. 269 00:14:58,720 --> 00:14:59,880 That's a lot of ice. 270 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:03,440 If you had asked me to list all the ingredients in a croissant, 271 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:05,920 ice would never have made the list. 272 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,760 The ice is added for the temperature. 273 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:10,080 Why do you want it cold? 274 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:13,800 The dough needs to be cold, because you never want the butter 275 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,520 to melt, so, the dough needs to be cold. 276 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:21,880 But there's still no butter in sight, and that's not 277 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:23,880 the only thing missing. 278 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:28,320 Like a fairground teacup ride, my mixing bowl is spun 279 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:31,600 around into position under the blender. 280 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:38,360 Here, 50 litres of water, along with 150 kilos of plain flour, 281 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:43,600 30 kilos of sugar, and 10 kilos of rapeseed oil drops down the chute 282 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:46,880 and the whole lot gets whisked together. 283 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:48,520 Sugar just for sweetness, right? 284 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:50,800 Yes. Flavour, sweetness. 285 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:52,440 What's the oil for? 286 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,680 Oil is for softness, 287 00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:59,480 and it also really helps for the dough to be workable. 288 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,080 All right, we've got sugar, we've got rapeseed oil to make 289 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:05,360 it workable, we're now getting together a dough. 290 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:07,080 Yes. Now what happens? 291 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:10,800 The most important ingredients are flour and water, 292 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:15,280 because flour and water are going to combine together 293 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:17,480 and create gluten. 294 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:25,040 On its own, flour is surprisingly gluten-free, 295 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:27,320 but when you add water and start to make a dough, 296 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:32,240 two proteins in the flour, glutenin and gliadin fuse together 297 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:33,520 to form gluten. 298 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:36,800 What does gluten do? 299 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,600 The gluten is like a network, and it's going to hold 300 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:45,240 the gas bubble produced by the yeast, and that is going to help 301 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:47,560 for the croissant to rise. 302 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:52,640 After a 20 minute spin at 85 rpm, all the ingredients 303 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:58,400 in my 300-kilo mix have combined into dough, and we have created 304 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,960 that vital gluten network. 305 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:03,560 That's our dough. That's our dough. 306 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:04,920 What happens to it now? 307 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,200 So, now, the dough needs to rest for about one hour. 308 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:09,480 One hour! 309 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:11,280 I don't even get that for lunch! 310 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:13,000 Why has it got to rest for one hour? 311 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,360 So, at this step, the gluten needs to relax. 312 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,480 I don't know if you can see how it breaks easily. 313 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:23,920 And you need it to be more springy. 314 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:27,560 We need it to be more stretchy, to be more workable afterwards. 315 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:30,120 Is it a bit like us, if we have a tough day at work? 316 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:33,960 We're like this... It's exactly the same. And we need to go... 317 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:35,400 Exactly. 318 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:38,320 After its rigorous work-out in the mixer, 319 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,960 our dough is settling in for some well deserved R and R. 320 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:44,920 Meanwhile, Ruth is in Paris, 321 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:48,680 investigating where our passion for this pastry began. 322 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:58,400 Ah, what could be more French 323 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,000 than cycling along the River Seine? 324 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,520 And if there's one food that is quintessentially French, 325 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:05,760 it's the croissant. 326 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:10,480 But how did these pastries become icons of French cuisine? 327 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:17,040 Loic. Ruth. 328 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:18,880 Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. 329 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:21,800 Helping me uncover the origins of the croissant 330 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:23,960 is food historian Loic Bienassis. 331 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:26,040 So, what on Earth is the history of the croissant? 332 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:27,720 Actually, that's a tricky question. 333 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:31,440 However, we may have one link and that is this one. 334 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:35,240 Oh! Well, that looks quite croissanty to me. Yes. 335 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:37,600 But, actually, it's not. It's not a croissant? 336 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,120 No, it is an Austrian pastry. 337 00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:41,280 Kipferl. A kipferl. That's right. 338 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:43,720 Oh, it doesn't feel like a croissant, it is much more solid. 339 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,800 It's more like a shortcrust. The croissant, as you know, 340 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:48,400 is more a puff pastry. 341 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:49,480 You can check. 342 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,560 Oh, that's so much more dense. 343 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:55,120 Yeah, precisely. Completely different inside. 344 00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:56,440 More like a bread. 345 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:58,880 Oh, it is, it's not even sweet. 346 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:02,920 Actually, it seems to have played an important role in the history 347 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:04,680 of the French croissant. 348 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:11,040 Legend has it that Austrian bakers invented the kipferl in 1683 349 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:14,040 to commemorate a heroic victory over the armies 350 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:15,640 of the Ottoman Empire. 351 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,480 The shape of these pastries was supposedly a mocking reference 352 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,840 to the crescent on their enemy's flag. 353 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,000 But how on Earth, then, did this Austrian pastry 354 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:29,400 end up in Paris? 355 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:31,400 I can tell you the story, actually. 356 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:33,120 It took place not far from here. 357 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:36,720 Loic is taking me on a stroll 358 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:39,920 into the bustling city centre to see where it all began. 359 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:45,480 You see? 360 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,800 In front of us, you have the 92 Rue De Richelieu, 361 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,320 and, at this very place, 362 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,040 we have this Boulangerie Viennoise. 363 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,480 Ah! A Viennese bakery! 364 00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:59,680 Precisely. First opened in 1838. 365 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:01,920 But it's not here any more, of course. 366 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:04,640 So, there was a Viennese bakery just there. 367 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,120 Boulangerie Viennoise brought the Austrian fashion for luxurious 368 00:20:11,120 --> 00:20:16,360 pastries, including kipferls, to Cosmopolitan 1830s Paris. 369 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,160 When did the kipferl become French? 370 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:24,400 So, we have this 1853 recipe. 371 00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:37,320 It's the first time you have a pastry called 372 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:38,720 a croissant in France. 373 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,680 So, 15 years after the bakery opened, the name croissant, 374 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,680 which simply means crescent, made its first appearance. 375 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,680 And is this a recipe that is the modern croissant? 376 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:55,920 No. No, it's not, because, for instance, you have no butter. 377 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:57,360 Ah! 378 00:20:57,360 --> 00:21:00,680 This 19th century croissant was still closer to the Austrian 379 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:02,920 kipferl than the modern pastry. 380 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,400 So, we've got that shape in 1838, 381 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:09,440 then we get the name in 1853. 382 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:10,520 Right. 383 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,440 But when is the modern croissant born? 384 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:18,000 We have another recipe here which is a first 385 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,520 we have of the modern croissant. 386 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:22,680 Right. Published in 1906. 387 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,040 Oh, so, 20th century? Yes, 20th century. 388 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,440 And that is the very first time we have the modern croissant. 389 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,640 So, bit by bit, we have these Austrian ancestors 390 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,600 that arrive in Paris, give us the shape, then we get 391 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:37,720 the name, and, then, finally, 392 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,640 the recipe developed in the late 19th century? 393 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:42,720 Exactly. 394 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,520 Nearly 70 years after Boulangerie Viennoise opened, 395 00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:50,320 the modern croissant was born, and, over the following century, 396 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,360 it grew in popularity to become a fundamental part 397 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:54,680 of French cuisine. 398 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,320 So, the croissant really is French. 399 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:02,440 Yes, it may have ancestors way back in Austria, 400 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:06,160 but the modern croissant was developed in Paris. 401 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,800 Although perhaps rather more recently than many of us imagined. 402 00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:22,200 At the factory, the butter for my butter croissants arrived 403 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:26,320 over two hours ago, and is still in the fridge. 404 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,480 So, while it's been chilling, we've knocked up a 300-kilo lump 405 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,160 of butterless croissant dough, 406 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:36,000 which has spent the past hour doing very little, 407 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,200 just resting and relaxing. 408 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:41,120 A bit like me on holiday. 409 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:45,960 Right. 410 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,960 In the hour that it has rested, what has happened to it? 411 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,400 The gluten has relaxed. 412 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,120 Now we can see how stretchy it is. 413 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:56,560 You can feel it. 414 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:00,920 Not as tight, not as tense. 415 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,160 Not as tight as it was right after the kneading process. 416 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,400 Right, so in there we have, how much? 417 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,200 300 kilos? Yes. 418 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:11,520 300 kilos, ready to make 6,000 croissants. 419 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:13,400 6,000 croissants! 420 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:14,840 You've forgotten something. 421 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,440 What? You have forgotten something. There's no butter. 422 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:19,240 Oh! Be patient. 423 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,000 The butter is coming afterwards. 424 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:22,360 Do you even use the butter? 425 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:23,680 You don't, do you? 426 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,960 My chilled-out dough now gets a rude awakening, 427 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,560 as it's tipped into a giant hopper, 428 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:35,560 cut into more manageable 10-kilo chunks... 429 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,200 ..and rolled out onto a conveyor. 430 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,800 Then, to recover from all that turmoil, it heads to the spa. 431 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:52,640 That is fantastic. 432 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,760 That is a massage parlour for croissants, right? 433 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,720 Kind of. What is it doing? 434 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:01,080 This is la tapoteuse. 435 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:05,520 Tapoteuse. "Tapoter" in French means "gently tap". Tapoteuse. 436 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:06,720 OK. 437 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,920 So, this machine is spreading the dough gently. 438 00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,080 It seems really slow to me. 439 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:18,480 It is slow because we really want to respect the artisan process. 440 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,720 With this, are you trying to do what a baker would do? 441 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:22,920 Yes. 442 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,320 That's exactly what the baker would do with his hands. 443 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:31,000 Simply rolling out the dough now could overwork the gluten 444 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,080 and make for tough croissants. 445 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:40,480 So, inside the massage parlour, two sets of paddles gently flatten 446 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:44,320 and squeeze while 11 spinning rollers lovingly 447 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,080 caress out the kinks. 448 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:52,160 MUSIC: Je T'aime Moi Non Plus by Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin 449 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,600 Only after it's been gently spread out does a giant, 450 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,360 mechanical rolling pin compress it to a thickness of 1.5 centimetres. 451 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:11,280 I want to be a croissant. 452 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:12,440 It gets a good life. 453 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,200 It gets lots of sugar, it gets to have a rest, 454 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:16,600 then it gets a massage. 455 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,840 Later on, it's going to get a suntan. 456 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:20,560 This is a good life for a croissant. 457 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:23,640 There still isn't any butter. 458 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:28,440 Yes, once it's the right thickness, it's time for the butter. Let's go. 459 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,040 Finally! Butter me up! 460 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:32,800 I've got the butter, Lor. Hey! 461 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,080 At last. Where's it go? 462 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:36,760 Oh, you can put it up here. 463 00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:40,040 Whoa, that's a lot of butter. 464 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,440 My chilled palette of sunshiny goodness is a perfect 465 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:46,560 15 degrees Celsius and ready for action. 466 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,000 Perfect, excellent. 467 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,080 Well... 468 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,480 See that, see that - British finesse. 469 00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:02,880 At some stage, you've got to soften this, right, 470 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:04,720 to mix it with the dough? 471 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:06,480 Oh, no, we want it hard, 472 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:08,320 for the butter to become a layer. 473 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,440 My rock-solid chilled butter now makes its way slowly 474 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,120 down through this insatiable machine... 475 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,200 ..which chomps through 100 kilos every hour, 476 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,200 and then forces it back out 477 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,520 through a tiny gap just 7.5 millimetres thick 478 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:28,840 and 22 centimetres wide. 479 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:32,040 Whoa. 480 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:38,560 That is one strong machine, because that is rock hard butter, right? 481 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:42,640 Yes, it's an extruder, so it's two cylinders that extrude 482 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,640 the butter on the dough that we made earlier. 483 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:47,880 I'm impressed with that. I really am. 484 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:52,480 And, so, now, that butter now is going in the middle 485 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:53,880 of wrapped over dough? 486 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,360 Yes, so the dough is going to be folded onto itself. 487 00:26:57,360 --> 00:27:00,720 So, this is our first layer of butter 488 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,320 in between two layers of dough. 489 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:07,600 The process of sandwiching butter in between dough is known 490 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:12,600 as lamination, and it's the cornerstone of croissant pastry. 491 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,720 This lamination, how important is this to you here? 492 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,880 So, this is very important to get the flakiness of the croissant, 493 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,560 which is the very famous texture of the croissant, 494 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:26,360 the French croissant. 495 00:27:26,360 --> 00:27:30,360 Our doughy, buttery sandwich now travels down the line 496 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:32,040 to the lamination room. 497 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,920 In here, it gets folded again until there are 498 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,280 four separate laminations. 499 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:43,640 It's then cut into 80 centimetre sheets and sent to the stacker. 500 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,200 Right, what's happening? 501 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:55,080 So, at this step, the dough has already been folded in order 502 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,320 to get four layers of butter. 503 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,760 And I can actually see the layers there. Yes. 504 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,120 Very, very clearly. 505 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:09,480 And then it's the final process to get our final number of layers, 506 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:10,800 which is 12. 507 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:12,640 Why 12 layers? 508 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:17,360 12 layers is the best compromise to get the softness of the croissant 509 00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:19,760 and also the flakiness of the dough. 510 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:24,280 To get that magic number, the stacker simply lays three strips 511 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,400 on top of each other. 512 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:27,840 So what happens to this now? 513 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:29,080 Does it get squashed? 514 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,040 No, now the dough needs to rest. 515 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:32,560 Rest again? Yes. 516 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,640 Because you've worked it so hard, right? Exactly. 517 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,800 To rest up, my laminated dough now heads off on a leisurely 518 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,880 40-minute stroll around the factory. 519 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,680 If you believe the experts, then laminated dough 520 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:49,760 equals flaky pastry. 521 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:52,240 But is it really that crucial? 522 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:54,520 Cherry is investigating. 523 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:56,680 Look at that. 524 00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,000 Soft, crispy and flaky. 525 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:05,440 Lamination may not sound delicious, but the results most certainly are. 526 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:09,800 But how does this magical layering process create 527 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:11,360 the perfect croissant? 528 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,320 The man with the answers is food scientist Dr Stuart Farrimond. 529 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,640 Bonjour! Bonjour. 530 00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:21,120 Bonjour. Nice to see you, Cherry. 531 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:22,480 We are going to do an experiment. 532 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:24,720 We are going to make a croissant without the layering, 533 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,200 just as an experiment to see how important the layering is 534 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:29,640 and why we should do it. 535 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:31,240 Layer-less croissant. 536 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:32,880 Somewhere in France, people are crying. 537 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,120 We're working with a standard croissant recipe, 538 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,600 but, instead of making the dough and layering 539 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:41,120 the butter in afterwards... 540 00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:42,680 Everything in. That's the yeast. 541 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,720 ..we're mixing it all in at once. 542 00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,520 This is the laziest croissants that have ever been made. 543 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,560 Now you can see it's really wet and it's quite slimy. 544 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:55,800 Slimy and sticky. 545 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:01,720 This rich mix is similar to conventional enriched dough. 546 00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:03,320 Excellent. 547 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:05,800 Oh, look at those. Look at that. 548 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,560 I rolled it out and I shaped them into croissants like that. OK. 549 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:10,920 No layering at all. 550 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,720 So, in every other way, other than the lack of layering, 551 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,480 that's a croissant? Yes. 552 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,000 I'm really excited to see what they're going to be like. 553 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:25,120 After 20 minutes in the oven, our all-in-one croissants are ready. 554 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:26,840 There we go. Look at that. 555 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:29,160 They're a bit flat. 556 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,320 Not that bad. 557 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:32,840 CLONK! 558 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:34,760 You could hurt someone with those. 559 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:40,080 But it's what's on the inside that counts. 560 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,240 I mean, it's not your normal croissant, that's for sure. 561 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,800 It's very bready. It's very bready. 562 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,800 Very dense. It doesn't have any of that light flakiness. 563 00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,520 There's no crispy kind of layers on it. 564 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:57,720 With no butter layers to separate the dough, 565 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:01,320 it's all stuck together and we've ended up 566 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:03,760 with a stodgy kind of scone. 567 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:09,600 So, how does the layering create that light, fluffy croissant? 568 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,480 Experimenting time. Here we go. 569 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,920 This time, we're sticking with tradition. 570 00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:19,320 We've made the dough first and now we're adding the butter separately. 571 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,640 So, we're making a little butter parcel. 572 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,000 Mine's stuck to the table and yours looks like a nappy. 573 00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:31,320 Three layers of butter. 574 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,080 That's very clever. 575 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:37,080 My version is staying like this with just three folded layers, 576 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:40,160 while Dr Stu is following the technique used 577 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,040 in our croissant factory. 578 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,640 I'm going to keep rolling mine until we get to 12 layers. Yes. 579 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:46,720 And then we're going to see what the difference is. 580 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,360 How come you get 12 layers and I get three? That's just selfish. 581 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:50,920 Mine's going to be better. 582 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,040 You can really, really see the layers. 583 00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:59,720 In that one, the layers are really thick. 584 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:01,880 In the 12, they're much thinner. They're tiny, yeah. 585 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,600 So, same amount of butter, but just different effect. 586 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:10,160 These buttery layers are vital, because they'll provide our dough 587 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,920 with that all-important separation. 588 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:14,520 First-ever croissant. 589 00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:17,520 There she is. 590 00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,680 Cherry, that's amazing. 591 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:23,360 But what difference will having three or 12 layers make? 592 00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:24,840 In they go. 593 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:26,000 Who's going to win? 594 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:27,040 Me. 595 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,800 As the croissants heat up, moisture in the butter and dough 596 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,240 turns to steam, pushing apart the pastry layers, 597 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,120 causing them to rise. 598 00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:39,880 You can smell it, can't you? 599 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,160 They both look pretty good. 600 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:46,360 Let's see what it looks like. 601 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,040 OK. 602 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:51,240 That's that one. I'm getting hungry. I know, me, too. 603 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,960 Yours... Oh, yours is so flaky. 604 00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:59,640 Mine was really quite solid to cut, whereas yours almost collapsed, 605 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,080 it was so full of air. 606 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,840 When it goes into the scorching hot oven, the moisture from the butter 607 00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,000 and the moisture from the dough rapidly turns into steam 608 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,280 and that forces each layer apart. 609 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:12,400 That's called pastry lift. 610 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:13,960 Pastry lift. 611 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,120 The more layers, the more pockets of air form in it, 612 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,000 the higher it rises, and the lighter the texture 613 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,520 and the more flaky the croissant will be. 614 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,400 Because mine's only got three layers, there's only three chances 615 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,000 for it to get some lift. 616 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:29,240 You can see the difference. 617 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:36,040 Mine is still tasty and buttery, but it's heavy. 618 00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:37,480 Try this one. 619 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,280 Yours is light and flaky and delicious. 620 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:44,560 So, the layers are key. 621 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,200 Can you have too many layers? 622 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:50,000 Yes, because if you have too many layers, it gets too flaky, 623 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,880 and you lose that lovely croissant texture. 624 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:57,720 So, get the right number of layers, and 12 is a great number. 625 00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,960 The French really do know what they're doing, 626 00:33:59,960 --> 00:34:02,400 don't they? The French do know what they're doing. 627 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:06,800 Forget three, 12 most certainly is the magic number. 628 00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,560 Back at the factory, we're nearly 3.5 hours 629 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,400 into the croissant-making process. 630 00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:29,920 My laminated dough with 12 layers of butter 631 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,040 has finished its 40-minute rest 632 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:35,560 and is now workable enough to hit the production line. 633 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,920 Here, it's rolled to 5-millimetres thick 634 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:41,840 and has its edges trimmed 635 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:43,400 ready for the cutter. 636 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:45,200 Oh, I like that. 637 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:47,720 I do like those patterns. 638 00:34:47,720 --> 00:34:50,200 I didn't know a croissant started off as a triangle. 639 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:51,360 It does. 640 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,400 So, this machine will cut the dough into triangles 641 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,760 to get to the final shape to roll the croissant. 642 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:02,760 And it uses up every single bit of dough. 643 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,040 I love that. Perfectly shaped. 644 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:08,200 Yes, the triangles are cutting in different directions, 645 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:09,480 so there is no waste at all. 646 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,080 We are using all the dough. 647 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:12,400 That's incredible. 648 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:21,040 Once the mechanical cookie cutter has carved our dough into triangles, 649 00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:25,280 a set of razor-sharp blades slice them into five rows. 650 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,760 A faster moving conveyor then singles them out 651 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,200 and lines them all up in the same direction. 652 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,120 Only then do they disappear 653 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:41,480 inside the factory's top-secret rolling machine. 654 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:44,200 So show me, then what this secret machine does. 655 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:48,760 So, this secret machine rolls 300 croissants per minute. 656 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:50,640 300 every minute? 657 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,160 Every minute. 658 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:53,560 I don't think you've got a machine. 659 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:55,840 I think you actually do them all by hand. 660 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,040 No. That artisan feel. 661 00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:00,240 Going back to the 1930s. 662 00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:04,080 In that room are 100 French bakers rolling. 663 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:05,680 No? 664 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:12,760 All right, so, the machine will pick this up to help start the rolling, 665 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:14,440 and then it will roll 666 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:16,560 the croissant like this. 667 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,840 Well, let's see how many you can do in ten seconds. 668 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,920 All right. Ready, three, two, one. 669 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:26,960 Go. 670 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:37,040 Time out. 671 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,400 You can do one in ten seconds. 672 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,320 The machine is better than you, sorry. 673 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,680 Yes, the machine is better than me. 674 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:47,160 But this is not too bad. 675 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,760 Well, you can't say I didn't try. 676 00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,600 Fortunately, the top-secret machine can roll 677 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:54,640 a much better croissant than me. 678 00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:00,640 Which is a good thing, because it churns out 18,000 an hour. 679 00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:06,800 That's lovely. 680 00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,760 Do you know what I see? No. 681 00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:12,280 I see hundreds and hundreds of breakfasts on their way, 682 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,200 that's what I see. 683 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,280 We're making a batch of 6,000? 684 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:20,880 Yes. How long will it take for 6,000 croissants to pass through? 685 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:22,440 It takes about 20 minutes. 686 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:25,800 These are straight, right? 687 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,320 But croissants are curved. 688 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:32,600 The ones that are curved are the ones with vegetable oil. 689 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,720 These ones are made of butter, that's why they are straight. 690 00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:38,160 Really? Yes. 691 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:39,640 I never knew that. 692 00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:40,800 I never knew that. 693 00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,520 The straight ones have butter, the curved ones have vegetable oil? 694 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,640 Well, in France, traditionally, yes. 695 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,240 If we are visiting France, a straight one will be butter? 696 00:37:50,240 --> 00:37:51,720 Yes. That's brilliant. 697 00:37:51,720 --> 00:37:53,200 I never knew that. 698 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:55,920 I love it when I learn things like this, I love it. 699 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,440 Now our croissants are subjected to a thorough inspection, 700 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,680 as each one needs to be 11 centimetres long 701 00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:05,600 and between 45g and 46g. 702 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:07,360 45.9. 703 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:08,760 Perfect. 704 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:13,040 Luckily, my batch has passed this test, but they've still got 705 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:14,800 a lot to prove. 706 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:20,080 In the factory's 3,500-cubic-metre proving room. 707 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:23,680 Whoa. 708 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:26,400 Whoa, whoa, OK. 709 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,800 Right, that is hot and it is steaming. 710 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,000 It's almost tropical. 711 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:32,960 Like, my glasses are steaming up. 712 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:34,440 And it's no wonder. 713 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:38,920 Having already been to the massage parlour, my dough now gets a sauna. 714 00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:44,000 This proving room is kept at 30 degrees Celsius and 80% humidity. 715 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:48,640 In these tropical conditions, the yeast gorges on the sugars 716 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,640 in the dough and expels carbon dioxide, 717 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:55,240 making the croissants expand by 150%. 718 00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:58,800 OK, can I get out? Because I'm already getting hot. 719 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,080 I can feel the heat going up my trousers! 720 00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:04,840 It'll take two hours for the dough to fully rise, 721 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:08,520 so I'll check in with my croissants later on. 722 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,720 As well as croissants, the French love their bread, 723 00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:15,480 and, as Ruth's finding out, it's played an important ROLL 724 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:16,960 in the country's history. 725 00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:21,720 Place de la Concorde, Paris. 726 00:39:21,720 --> 00:39:26,640 It was here in the autumn of 1793 that Marie Antoinette, 727 00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,360 Queen of France, faced the guillotine. 728 00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:35,640 It was the height of the French Revolution. 729 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,240 Marie Antoinette was hated by revolutionaries, 730 00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:43,080 who wanted to overthrow the French monarchy. 731 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:46,680 It was claimed that when she heard that Parisians were starving due 732 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:51,360 to the lack of bread, she declared, "Let them eat cake." 733 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:53,960 Or, in French, let them eat brioche. 734 00:39:55,240 --> 00:39:57,960 The phrase came to epitomise the conflict between 735 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:00,120 the royal family and the French people. 736 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,600 But is there really a link between bread 737 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:05,040 and the French Revolution? 738 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:09,040 Stephane. Ruth. 739 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:10,400 Nice to meet you. 740 00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:14,720 Food writer Stephane Henaut has researched the role bread has played 741 00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:19,000 in a city where a trip to the boulangerie is still a daily ritual. 742 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:26,680 Can we really lay responsibility for the French Revolution upon bread? 743 00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,920 There are a lot of reasons why the French Revolution happened but, 744 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:33,360 yes, one can say that bread, and especially the lack of bread, 745 00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:36,360 was the fuel behind the motor of the French Revolution. 746 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:38,960 So, how important, historically, was bread? 747 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:42,160 It is very hard, actually, to overstate the importance of bread 748 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:44,320 in France at the end of the 18th century, 749 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:45,760 especially for poor people. 750 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,680 Up to 95% of the daily calorie intake could be met 751 00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:52,160 just with bread. 95%? 752 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:56,120 Yes, people would eat between 1lb and 3lb of bread per day. 753 00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:57,240 Good gracious. 754 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:03,160 Feeding the masses meant ensuring a plentiful supply of bread. 755 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,400 Any shortage had a huge impact on people's lives. 756 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,440 In 1788, the harvest was terrible that year. 757 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:15,400 There was not a lot of grain and the price of bread skyrocketed. 758 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,240 Obviously, this created a traumatic situation for most people 759 00:41:18,240 --> 00:41:20,960 who thought they were going to die of starvation. 760 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:25,760 By the summer of 1789, bread had become increasingly scarce. 761 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:27,920 Thousands of Parisians went hungry. 762 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:32,960 On the 5th October, 1789, a crowd of up to 10,000 people 763 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:36,320 gathered here in front of the town hall to ask for bread. 764 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:42,240 And it was a crowd that was made up mostly of women. 765 00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:45,920 Women? Yes, women were in charge of buying bread for their family. 766 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:48,840 You could have women waiting in line for hours in front of a boulangerie 767 00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,200 hoping to get bread, just to be told there was not enough 768 00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:54,160 bread for everybody. Or, if there was, it was such an expensive price 769 00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:55,880 that they could not feed their families. 770 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:57,520 So, what was the mood of the crowd? 771 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,200 They were just desperate. They thought they were dying of hunger. 772 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:01,400 They would starve to death. 773 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,480 So, people in Paris started blaming the king. 774 00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:07,200 The idea quickly spread that they should ask the king 775 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:08,560 directly for bread. 776 00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:14,320 The women set out on a 12-mile march from the town hall 777 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,160 to the palace of Versailles, the King's residence 778 00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,640 on the outskirts of Paris. 779 00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,760 It must have been quite a sight seeing this procession of women. 780 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,680 Well, I've got here a picture which actually shows all those women 781 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:27,800 going to Versailles. 782 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,880 As you can see, a lot of women in the picture are having weapons - 783 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:32,520 pikes and clubs. 784 00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:35,000 You can also see that they are actually lugging around 785 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:36,200 a cannon with them. 786 00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:38,240 OK, so, quite intimidating. Yes. 787 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:42,200 The mood among the crowd soon turned ugly. 788 00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:44,520 The national guard managed to restore peace. 789 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,160 However, the King now also had to promise the demonstrators 790 00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:49,240 that he would go back to Paris with them. 791 00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:54,600 The next day, the royal family, escorted by the protesters, 792 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:56,320 left Versailles for the capital. 793 00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,920 This was one of the key events of 1789 because, 794 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,720 from now on, the King would be a de facto prisoner of the Parisian mob 795 00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:12,440 and this situation, much later on, would help the Republicans 796 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:14,720 to actually declare the first French Republic, 797 00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:17,400 put the King on trial, and send him to the guillotine. 798 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,080 SLICING SOUND AND CHEERING 799 00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:26,040 The revolution that brought about the end of the royal family 800 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,120 created the France we know today. 801 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:33,800 Perhaps history would have turned out completely differently if only 802 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:37,920 the French monarchy had made sure that everyone had enough bread. 803 00:43:49,240 --> 00:43:53,640 300 miles south of Paris, in Valence, my croissants have been 804 00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,200 proving in the sauna for two hours. 805 00:43:56,200 --> 00:44:00,040 And have expanded by 150%. 806 00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:02,760 Finally, they can head to the oven. 807 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:08,520 Wow. 808 00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:10,520 Yeah, they've really grown. Yeah. 809 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,320 They look great. 810 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:16,120 And, here, you can see, there's still 12 layers of butter. 811 00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:17,600 Of course. It's still there. 812 00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:20,000 Without being cooked, even though it's got bigger, 813 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,200 those layers are still there? They're still there. 814 00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:23,440 Perfect. 815 00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:25,240 What are you spraying on it? 816 00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:29,040 Well, this is milk protein with water and it helps 817 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:32,400 for the croissant to be shiny at the end. 818 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,120 Do you know what? The more I learn about the croissant, 819 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:36,240 the more I like it. 820 00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:41,520 As our croissants trundle slowly through the giant conveyor oven, 821 00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:44,920 the 200-degree heat triggers a chemical process 822 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,160 known as the Maillard reaction, 823 00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,160 where the protein glaze reacts with sugars 824 00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:55,640 in the dough, turning my pallid pastries into bronzed beauties. 825 00:44:57,320 --> 00:44:59,120 Haha! 826 00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:01,320 They are toasty! 827 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:03,040 During a 15-minute bake, 828 00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:05,480 moisture in the dough evaporates, 829 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,480 pushing those 12 layers out, until... 830 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:16,760 There they are. 831 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:18,560 Yeah, that's a pretty sight. 832 00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:20,440 Nice and brown and glazed. 833 00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:22,360 Enough butter, lots of folding. 834 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:26,000 That has taken far longer than I ever imagined. 835 00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:31,680 Nearly 5.5 half hours, in fact, to get from raw ingredients 836 00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,120 to finished, baked pastry. 837 00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:37,080 What happens to them now? 838 00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,080 So, now they're going to cool down for about one hour. 839 00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:45,200 My piping-hot croissants now head into this sealed room, 840 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:50,000 where they get to enjoy another 60-minute chill-out session. 841 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,000 But, once they've cooled, there's still one final test 842 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,000 they need to pass. 843 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:57,720 So, this is one other quality check. 844 00:45:57,720 --> 00:46:00,760 The final volume of our croissant. 845 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:02,400 The volume? The volume. 846 00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:05,120 Hello. 847 00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:06,440 Yeah, I can't hear a thing. 848 00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:08,320 The volume is terrible. 849 00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,720 This is to make sure the croissant has risen enough. 850 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:15,400 Since the shape of the croissant is very specific, 851 00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:18,840 we are using the displacement method, using rape seeds. 852 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,800 Why do you use rape seeds? Because it's so fine? 853 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:26,920 Because it's so tiny that it can fill all the gaps. 854 00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:28,960 And it's also food safe. 855 00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,520 So, this is our level box. 856 00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:35,680 We know the exact weight of the rape seeds in this box. 857 00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:42,520 Four croissants are placed in the box, 858 00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:44,480 then covered in rape seeds. 859 00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:50,080 Do you know, I've been to many, many factories, and I have never 860 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:51,760 seen this ever. 861 00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:56,800 The weight of seeds left over will tell us exactly how much 862 00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:59,800 space those pastries are taking up. 863 00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:03,600 So the more seeds spilt, the bigger the croissant. 864 00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:05,280 Brilliant. 865 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,000 What weight are you looking for? 866 00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:10,680 We want it to be between 500 and 600g. 867 00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:12,280 Yeah, you've got it, OK. 868 00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:14,400 So the croissants are good? Yes. 869 00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:17,040 What would you do if the croissants were the wrong size? 870 00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:20,600 We would adjust the recipe by adding more or less yeast. 871 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:22,320 Lor, thank you. 872 00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:25,440 You explained croissants to me very patiently. 873 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:26,720 Thank you very much. 874 00:47:26,720 --> 00:47:28,600 Au revoir. Au revoir. 875 00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,680 With the final test complete, my pastries can head off 876 00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:32,920 across the factory. 877 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,320 The smell in here would tempt anyone to get stuck in 878 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,120 to a couple of croissants. 879 00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:41,720 But, scientifically, what's the best way to eat them? 880 00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:43,320 Cherry's finding out. 881 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:51,520 There's so much to love about croissants and a whole range 882 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:54,080 of different ways to serve them up. 883 00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:57,320 But can how you serve them affect their taste? 884 00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:00,640 To find out, I'm meeting Professor Barry Smith 885 00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:03,240 from the University of London. 886 00:48:03,240 --> 00:48:06,680 He specialises in the science of our senses. 887 00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:10,240 I love a croissant, 888 00:48:10,240 --> 00:48:14,840 but how do I optimise my croissant-eating experience 889 00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:16,960 to get the most out of it? 890 00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:18,800 Very complicated thing, a croissant. 891 00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,320 If you think of it, it's a hybrid between 892 00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:22,720 bread and pastry. Yes. 893 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:24,560 You've got the flakiness in your fingers, 894 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,520 you've got the elasticity, when you tear it, like a bread, inside. 895 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,960 And, of course, how it looks, how it smells, what temperature 896 00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:33,600 it's at. The texture of it. 897 00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:35,400 All of those things will make a difference. 898 00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:38,200 When I'm eating it, all my senses are stimulated, 899 00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,840 so if I change one of those things, will it change the taste? 900 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:45,400 I think we need to do a scientific experiment to figure out 901 00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:47,920 what happens when we change just one variable. 902 00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:52,880 We're running three tests with the help 903 00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:54,920 of some hungry pastry lovers. 904 00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,200 In each experiment, we're serving up 905 00:48:57,200 --> 00:48:59,040 exactly the same croissant. 906 00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:02,160 Each time they're served, we're going to change one thing. 907 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,160 First, does temperature affect our appreciation 908 00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:08,120 of these lovely pastries? 909 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:11,400 We are going to offer you two croissants, hot and cold. 910 00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:14,080 Taste them both and tell us which one you prefer. 911 00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:15,360 Bon appetit. 912 00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:23,560 I definitely preferred the warmer one. Yeah, me too. 913 00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:24,920 More taste with the hot. 914 00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,640 Yeah, the flavours come out a little bit more strongly. 915 00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:29,800 I quite like the butteryness of the warm one. 916 00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,440 It actually just melts into your mouth. 917 00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,680 It kind of adds the lubrication to your mouthful. 918 00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,680 More than 80% of our tasters preferred the warm croissant 919 00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:41,840 over the one at room temperature. 920 00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,920 So, temperature really does affect the taste? 921 00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:48,480 It really does because temperature will affect how much butter 922 00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:51,520 is going to ooze fat into the final product. 923 00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:55,040 You get that slippery, fatty sensation in the mouth. 924 00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:59,080 The smells of butter will be more powerful, and that's why 925 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,200 a lot of people said it had more flavour. 926 00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:05,880 Onto test number two. 927 00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:07,360 What have you got up your sleeve? 928 00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:09,920 The same croissant cut in half and we're going to ask people 929 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:12,160 to try it plain and with jam. 930 00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:16,000 Remember, the croissants are identical. 931 00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:19,960 I'm more about the jam. I prefer the one with the jam. 932 00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:23,360 It's a lot sweeter. Delicious raspberry jam. 933 00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:27,080 Almost three quarters of our taste testers think the croissants taste 934 00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:28,920 better with jam. 935 00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:32,640 When you see people adding a little bit of jam they think, 936 00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:34,000 "The savoury's not enough. 937 00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,480 "I'm getting butteriness, I'm getting maybe the slight 938 00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:40,640 "saltiness of the pastry or the dough," but, add the sugar, 939 00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:42,240 then they think, "Wonderful". 940 00:50:42,240 --> 00:50:46,520 So, that's the holy trinity - sweetness, fat and salt? 941 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:48,920 That's the combination that we don't get in nature. 942 00:50:48,920 --> 00:50:52,280 We have concocted that and, when we get it, it drives us crazy. 943 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:53,840 We want a lot of it. 944 00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:58,160 So far, we've tested the temperature and the sweetness. 945 00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:01,760 But can the way we serve up our croissants make a difference? 946 00:51:01,760 --> 00:51:03,440 More croissants for you? 947 00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,000 In the final test, we're serving each taster 948 00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:10,680 identical croissants on a plate and in a paper bag. 949 00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:14,920 In terms of flavour, I think I prefer the bag. 950 00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:16,720 Yeah, strange, I agree. 951 00:51:16,720 --> 00:51:21,680 The paper bag somehow makes the experience better and, oddly, 952 00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:24,560 unexpectedly, makes the croissant taste better. 953 00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:28,720 Over 70% of our taste testers preferred the croissant 954 00:51:28,720 --> 00:51:30,520 in the paper bag. 955 00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:33,840 How does the paper bag enhance the taste? 956 00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:35,360 The paper bag is crinkly, 957 00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:38,360 it makes a sound of crinkling and it feels crinkly. 958 00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:42,120 It's reminiscent of the flaky pastry of the croissant. 959 00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:45,280 So ,I feel crinkly paper, I think flaky pastry? 960 00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:48,920 So, you've got the sensory feeling in the fingers and then what you get 961 00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:53,000 in the mouth being exactly the same, and that's a continuous sense 962 00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:55,160 of touch, and the brain really likes that. 963 00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:59,840 So, expectation and perception play a really big part in taste? 964 00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:01,960 Your expectations are set by many things. 965 00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:03,880 How something looks, how it smells, 966 00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:06,240 how it feels in the fingers before you eat it. 967 00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:08,880 And all of those things are potentially enhancing 968 00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:11,200 the experience when you put the food in your mouth. 969 00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:18,640 So, when it comes to getting the most out of your croissant, 970 00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:21,120 it really isn't just about the croissant itself. 971 00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:24,440 It's about the temperature, it's about what you put on it. 972 00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:27,520 It's even about how you serve it - 973 00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:29,560 in a humble paper bag. 974 00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:44,040 Back in France, my 6,000 freshly baked croissants 975 00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:46,520 have now finished cooling. 976 00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:48,720 So, I'm heading to the packing area. 977 00:52:50,240 --> 00:52:53,520 The man in charge is Olivier Ripoche. 978 00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:56,040 Wonderful. 979 00:52:58,200 --> 00:52:59,520 These have now cooled down? 980 00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:03,520 Yes, now they are ready to be packing, OK? 981 00:53:03,520 --> 00:53:06,920 It's taken well over six hours to get to this point. 982 00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:09,400 Let's hope it's all been worth it. 983 00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:11,760 So now I can break this? 984 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:12,800 Yes. 985 00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:18,080 All those layers, all those little air pockets. 986 00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:20,200 That's what makes this croissant so light. 987 00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:24,000 You didn't see me eating that, did you? No, no. 988 00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:25,040 Good, come on. 989 00:53:27,040 --> 00:53:31,080 These croissants are all destined for the family-sized six-pack. 990 00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:35,600 But they're wrapped in pairs first so two could be opened and eaten 991 00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:37,600 without the others going stale. 992 00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:39,960 They look like they're going to fall off. 993 00:53:39,960 --> 00:53:42,920 No, no. They will be stuck to the beds. 994 00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:44,040 There is no problem at all. 995 00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:51,360 To stop it raining pastry in here, sticky rubber strips 996 00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,200 on the conveyors keep the croissants firmly in place on their way 997 00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:57,520 to a machine called the picker. 998 00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:01,800 I love these. I've seen these pickers at other factories. 999 00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:04,200 This may be the most delicate picker I've ever seen, 1000 00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:06,360 because that is a delicate product. 1001 00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,240 Yes. We control how we take it very gently. 1002 00:54:09,240 --> 00:54:10,520 Very gently. 1003 00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:21,040 Each of these laser-guided dancing arms uses four suction cups to lift 1004 00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:24,640 the packs without damaging the delicate contents. 1005 00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:29,680 Combined, they pick up 9,000 packs every hour, 1006 00:54:29,680 --> 00:54:31,880 stacking them in threes, 1007 00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:36,160 and turning our happy pairs into families of six, 1008 00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:38,600 ready for the final stage of packing. 1009 00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:43,360 There's our six-pack, right? 1010 00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,280 Yes, yes. This pack is for the UK market. 1011 00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:48,200 Is that how we will see it in the shops? 1012 00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:51,200 Yes. Exactly like this. Fabulous. Am I able to lift that? 1013 00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:54,080 Yes, but be careful, it is very hot inside. 1014 00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:56,200 So, don't touch anything, please. 1015 00:54:57,760 --> 00:54:59,280 How hot is it? 1016 00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:01,080 More than 40 degrees. 1017 00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:02,280 Right. Very hot. Yes. 1018 00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:08,280 As the croissants travel down the line, a cellophane sheet 1019 00:55:08,280 --> 00:55:12,840 is wrapped around them and the seam bonded shut using heat. 1020 00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:18,480 Another heated blade then slices and separates each pack, 1021 00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:23,200 while simultaneously melting the cut edges so they stick together. 1022 00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:28,400 In just one hour, 3,000 six-packs are filled 1023 00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:31,840 with 18,000 individual croissants. 1024 00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:37,920 At the next station, the top of each bag is mechanically 1025 00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:42,400 pinched, and then a U-shaped section of plastic twist tie is curled 1026 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:44,080 around the neck. 1027 00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:47,160 I can't remember seeing one of those in a factory. 1028 00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:50,200 We used to have those ties on the bread, back in the UK. 1029 00:55:53,160 --> 00:55:58,120 56 boxes of eight, sealed bags are stacked on pallets and handed 1030 00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:01,640 over to the most advanced workers on the payroll. 1031 00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:06,760 You've got robots? 1032 00:56:06,760 --> 00:56:09,040 Yes. I love the robots. 1033 00:56:09,040 --> 00:56:12,920 The factory's army of automated helpers are fitted with special 1034 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:15,480 sensors to stop them mowing down the more, 1035 00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:18,080 well, organic members of staff. 1036 00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:21,680 Do you ever put yourself in front of them to see if they stop? 1037 00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:24,440 They will stop, but I don't want to try it. 1038 00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:26,920 If you'd told me as a child these would exist, 1039 00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:29,520 I wouldn't have believed it. It's incredible, yes. 1040 00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:34,720 MUSIC: Tour de France by Kraftwerk 1041 00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:42,200 These robots follow pre-programmed routes 1042 00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:45,480 using GPS beacons installed around the factory. 1043 00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:53,440 Collecting pallets loaded with 2,688 croissants from the packing area, 1044 00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:57,400 and taking them all the way to the distribution centre. 1045 00:57:00,680 --> 00:57:03,840 So, here we are, right? Yes, we are in the dispatch area. 1046 00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:05,760 I like your dispatch area. Thank you. 1047 00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:08,440 It's very clean, it's very modern. Thank you very much. 1048 00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:10,720 How many trucks leave here every day? 1049 00:57:10,720 --> 00:57:12,320 60. Really? 1050 00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:14,240 60 trucks a day, yes. 1051 00:57:14,240 --> 00:57:15,360 Wow. 1052 00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:17,240 How many croissants on a truck? 1053 00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:21,520 88,704. 1054 00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:25,920 We should go in there, me and you, eat four, 1055 00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:28,400 to give it a nice round number. 8,700... 1056 00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:31,640 Yes, but some customer will complain that they missed 1057 00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:33,600 a four-pack of croissants. 1058 00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:36,840 What country is your biggest customer? 1059 00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:38,520 Who loves the croissants the most? 1060 00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:39,880 The French, France. 1061 00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:44,600 I don't know why I even asked that question. I feel stupid. No. 1062 00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:51,280 The French may be the biggest consumers, but over 2 million 1063 00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:55,640 of these flaky pastry treats leave here each week 1064 00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:59,160 destined for every corner of the globe... 1065 00:58:00,120 --> 00:58:02,800 ..including the UK, Europe, 1066 00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:06,560 the USA and even South Korea. 1067 00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:09,480 I've enjoyed my trip to France 1068 00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:12,280 watching the making of such an iconic pastry. 1069 00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,840 There's a lot more science behind it than I imagined. 1070 00:58:14,840 --> 00:58:17,480 I mean, there's flour and butter and sugar, 1071 00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:19,760 most certainly, but there's also a lot of pulling 1072 00:58:19,760 --> 00:58:21,600 and pushing and folding. 1073 00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:25,520 But I now know what it's all about - it's about the layers.