FUNDAMENTALS OF CROISSANTS
Croissant is one of the two main pastries that are made through the lamination technique by creating multiple layers of dough and butter giving you that multi layer flaky goodness with a light honeycomb interior.
The trick to achieving a perfect croissant at home is simply through practicing. Unlike most desserts or cakes, this pastry requires the fundamental understanding on how lamination works and through experiencing it with feeling with your hands.
In this post, I will be sharing with you some of the tips and tricks to make your first experience less daunting.
FLOUR
Most French croissants are made with a fine floured milled from soft wheat, and are sometimes referred to as the T45 flour in France. T45 is equivalent to the Italian Tipo 00. The finer mill T45 flour means that they yield a flakier croissant with a more open crumb (the interior of the croissant) when baked. When comparing it with American flours, T45 is an equivalent for the American Pastry flour that has a protein content of 8.5% - 9.5%. Because of its low protein content, T45 is not suitable for making bread but are typically used to make enriched dough like brioche and croissants for a more delicate texture.
Apart from T45 flour, which can sometimes be hard to find in local supermarkets, bread flour or European T55 can be used to substitute T45 flour. Because T55 flour or most baker's flour has a higher protein content usually sitting between 11% - 12%, croissant dough made with baker's flour with a high protein content sitting above 12% can yield a slightly chewier croissant with a smaller interior crumb (smaller holes on the inside when you cut open the baked croissant).
In most cases with croissants, a combination of T45 and T55 flour are used alongside one another in order to tackle a dough that is extensible and stretchable enough for a better rolling consistency without the dough shrinking too much during lamination (T45) and also a high protein flour that has enough gluten to hold on to the structure of the croissant dough during baking (T55).
In Australia, I have used just baker's flour from Lauke with 11% protein with great result.
LIQUID
The most common type of liquid used in croissant doughs are water or milk and sometimes a combination of both. Depending on which country you are from, tap water that contains a high level of chlorine can actually kill the yeast in your croissant dough. It is therefore recommended that you use filtered water or spring water for that reason. In Australia, tap water typically has between 0.5 to 1.5 mg of chlorine per litre, which is relatively low. I have always used tap water for making croissants in the course of my profession in Australia and they never seem to post too much problem on the product. If you are outside of Australia, it is best to check if you are concern.
Note that different flours absorb water differently depending on the type of wheat that was harvested to make the flour. This is one of the reason why water are added in two increments rather than all at once. The first addition of water is added to bind the other ingredients together while the latter is to be added in adjustment, meaning you may need less, all or more water depending on the absorption of your flour. The final dough that you want to achieve is a slightly soft dough that is easy to handle on your hands without sticking but not too dry that it feel stiff.
MILK / MILK POWDER
You may have come across some croissant recipes that calls for purely water with an additional milk powder added. Water, unlike milk or eggs do not impart any flavour to the dough but is a good binding properties to bring all the ingredients together. This is usually why milk powder are added to compromise for the flavour that water cannot provide if Milk are not being used. The protein in milk also helps with Mailard reaction in the dough, which is what gives your bread a brown crust when it hits the hot oven.
Even though milk feels like the perfect choice to use in terms of liquid for your croissant dough, there is an enzyme in fresh milk that can actually break down the gluten in your dough which is not ideal if you want to have a good rise in your pastry. This is the reason why some recipe calls for milk powder instead that was processed through high heat which destroys these gluten-sabotage enzymes.
If you want to use purely water for your croissant dough, just add 10% of milk powder to the recipe of the total of the fresh milk that you will be substituting for.
YEAST, PREFERMENT OR LEVAIN FOR MAKING CROISSANT DOUGH?
A lot of bakers swear by the method of using preferment for making croissant dough. Preferment is a small percentage of flour and yeast with water mixed prior to mixing into the final dough. The preferment usually sits at room temperature or in the fridge from 8 hours to overnight. It is thought that preferment imparts flavour to your croissant and also aids in the extensibility of your dough for easy rolling.
Levain derives from naturally leavened yeast cultivated from mixing flour and water and usually takes a much longer time to fully ferment. Levain is often used for sourdough breads for the acidic or lactic taste in your dough because of the long fermentation time that is involved. Before you get on the bandwagon to make sourdough croissant, this method does require knowledge and experience with working with sourdough. If you have not have experience in this area yet, I would recommend that you start with a simple preferment or yeast method to get the feel first.
Yeast method can either be the croissant dough made with instant or fresh yeast. Because fresh yeast is much harder to get and has a shorter shelve life, instant yeast will do the trick just fine. A lot of bakers swear by a better taste that you can get when you use fresh yeast as oppose to instant yeast. In my own experience, unless it is a sourdough croissant, I really couldn't detect a significant difference in flavour. I believe this is not as important as compared to the type of butter you will be using for the lamination.
If you are using yeast for your croissant though, it is crucial that you use the right type of yeast for the purpose of making croissant. A osmotolerant yeast is much preferred as this type of yeast are specifically conditioned to function well under the high osmotic pressure from the high amount if sugar that is used in the recipe for most croissants. Osmotic pressure in bread making simply refers to a condition where yeast is exposed to a high concentration of sugar which can create osmotic stress on the yeast cells.
Sugar functions to enhance fermentation of yeast in the dough, this is especially true if they are in smaller quantity. But if the sugar quantity exceeds more than 5% of the flour weight it can actually delay fermentation as sugar are highly hygroscopic and can start drawing water away from the yeast putting pressure on the yeast cells. Therefore an osmotolerant yeast will ensure that the yeast retains its ability to ferment in a high sugar environment.
The instant yeast that I am using for most enriched dough is Saf Instant yeast.
BUTTER OR FAT IN CROISSANT DOUGH
Quality croissants will always have added butter in the dough to help create a more extensible dough as well as give flavour to the pastry. Most generic croissant dough recipe usually contain fat of around 5 - 10 % to the total amount of flour, whereas Chef Johan Martin's croissant dough contains 25% of fat incorporated in his recipes. The addition of fat in the dough also creates a softer crumb in the pastry and prolongs its shelf life against staling.
The amount of fat that can be added into the dough can range from a mere 4% to up to 70%. The more fat means that you will have a much softer dough and requires more care and skills when performing the lamination.
Different type of fat other than butter can also be added into the dough as substitutes and by doing that will give a different effect on the end product. For example, margarine will give a more golden crust colour to your pastry followed by butter and then shortening.
BUTTER OR OTHER FAT FOR LAMINATION
Fat used for the lamination or sometimes referred to as the Lock in fat (because you are locking the fat into the dough) are commonly butter, margarine, shortening or a combination of the mentioned fats. Margarine and shortening will not give you the flavour a good quality butter could but both the latter are much easier to perform lamination with the dough as they have a higher melting point and is more flexible in nature as opposed to butter. The most prized fat used for quality croissants are fractionated cultured butter, also referred to as "Dry Butter" in France, and has 82-84% fat. The reason why it is called the Dry Butter is because it has lower water content as compared to normal butter from the supermarket that usually contains around 80% fat. The high amount of fat and the addition of cultures to the butter means that the dough is much easier to work with and has a distinctive taste and aroma to them.
The amount of fat used for lamination are usually 25% to the total of the dough as a whole.
WHAT IS FRACTIONATED BUTTER
Almost all of the professional French butter or Croissant butter sheets used for laminating laminated doughs are fractionated. Fractionated butter are obtained through recombining olein and stearin milk fat fractions in butter fat to achieve a defined melting point and working properties of the butter. You will also realise that professional French butter for laminations has a much higher melting point compared to normal butter and is more flexible to work with. These properties are ideal for lamination as normal butter will have a higher tendency of breaking when too cold and melts at a much lower temperature making it hard to maintain during lamination.
DOUGH AND BUTTER TEMPERATURE FOR LAMINATION
Textbooks will tell you to look for a similar consistency of the dough and the rolled out butter. A lot of times, this is confused by the temperature of the two. Just because they are the same consistency does not necessarily mean that they are at the same temperature.
One of the best way to judge when either of the dough and butter are ready is by feel and touch. The dough should feel firm and cold but not solid from the fridge. If your dough have puffed up too much during the resting process in the fridge, this means that the dough temperature was not monitored properly and have risen higher than 24°C. Yeast typically starts to become active at 24°C . Keeping the dough during mixing below that temperature can prevent pre activating the yeast ultimately yielding a dough that is relatively easier to handle during lamination.
If you have however overheated the dough during mixing, you can place them in the freezer slightly to bring the temperature down before the bulk fermentation process. Do not leave the dough in the freezer for too long though as this will prolong the first fermentation process. During the first fermentation process, the bulk dough is left at a cool place with the dough temperature constantly maintained at below 22- 25°C for an hour to two hours until it increases at least 50% in volume.
When testing for the readiness of your laminating butter. After they have been rolled to a sheet and rested in the fridge, they should be brought back out to room temperature to soften slightly. The sheet of butter should feel flexible and not break when you try to bend it. This is an indication that your butter is "flexible" enough for it to be rolled out.
When laminating, lamination butter is flexible and easier to roll when it is between 13°C - 15°C for warmer days and between 15°C-19°C for colder days. The recommended temperature of the dough for lamination is around 4°C - 5°C
CONTROLLING THE PRESSURE WHEN ROLLING DURING LAMINATION
When performing the lamination, it is crucial to roll the dough to length and width without putting too much pressure on the dough. If you press the dough too hard when rolling after the butter have been "locked-in", the dough and butter will start to mixed in together and can compromise the layers that is what the lamination is trying to achieve. The rolling shouldn't be a fast process especially if you are rolling them by hand, therefore patience is the key.
When you are rolling the dough during lamination, it is also important to roll the dough from one end to the other end at all times. This ensures that the butter are well distributed between the layers and that they are of even thickness. This is why a revolving rolling pin is perfect for this task.
BREAK DOWN OF THE PROCESS OF PRODUCING CROISSANTS
Making croissants are a two day process. To understand the makings of this pastry, here are the breakdown on the process consequently:
Day 1
Preparing the Detrempe (Croissant Dough)
First fermentation at room temperature.
Knock back of the dough and sheeting the dough
Rest the detrempe in the fridge at 4 - 5˚C overnight (at least 8 hours up to 12 hours)
Day 2
Preparing of the laminating butter (beurrage) - sheeting
Lock in of the butter and dough
Performing the first book fold
Resting of the dough
Performing the second book fold
Resting of the dough
Rolling/sheeting out of the dough
Trimming and cutting the dough to triangles
Shaping of the dough
Final proofing of the croissants
Egg washing the Proofed croissants
Baking
Glazing of the baked croissants
CROISSANT DOUGH (DETREMPE)
The dough, or often referred to as 'detrempe' in French is the first thing that you will have to prepare in making croissant. There are a vast variety of recipes out there in making the dough and the one that I stick by is what I will be sharing with you in here.
Take note that the method of preparing the detrempe will be quite different from if you were to prepare them commercially. Because you are making such a smaller amount domestically, you can prepare the dough at a higher temperature with more yeast to expedite the proofing process.
In this recipe, we will aim for a Final Dough Temperature (FDT) of between 22- 25˚C depending on the ambient of your kitchen, ensuring that it does not go anything above 26˚C. Anything above 26˚C will cause the yeast to activate too quickly and can compromise the desired slow fermentation process, which aims to develop flavour in the croissants. It is not recommended that you prepare this pastry when the atmosphere is too warm as it can make the task rather difficult to achieve.
After the dough is prepared, it will go through the first part of the first fermentation at room temperature until the dough increases 50% of its original volume. Once that is achieved, the dough is knocked back (where you press the dough down to release any additional gas that was produced by the yeast). The detrempe will then be rolled to a rectangle and placed onto a tray, wrapped well and placed in the fridge sitting at between 4˚C - 5˚C for the second part of the first fermentation.
The purpose of the first part of the first fermentation is to give the yeast a kick start in activating before putting them in a colder environment for a slower final part of the first fermentation.
HOW DO I CONTROL THE FINAL DOUGH TEMPERATURE OF MY DETREMPE?
Bakers often control the final dough temperature by working out the factors that contributes to the temperature of the dough and these factors are often referred to as variables. Variables that plays a role in the Final Dough Temperature are:
Flour
Room Temperature
Water &
Friction
Out of the four variables, the only one that can be controlled are water temperature since it would be hard to change the temperature of the room that you are working on and the flour temperature where you stored them. The easiest way to change the final dough temperature after mixing of the dough is to control the temperature of the water since they can easily be manipulated by either using colder or warmer water for adjustments.
Friction refers to the temperature increase during the mixing of the dough. When the dough hook hits the dough around in the bowl, it creates an energy that can increase the temperature of the dough.
Desired dough temperature is the temperature that you want your Final Dough to be after mixing.
In the case of the day that I prepared the Detrempe (Croissant Dough), the temperature of the mentioned variables are as below:
Room temperature = 22˚C
Flour = 23˚C
Friction = 5˚C estimation
*Note that the final water temperature can be different from you depending on the ambient of your kitchen and the temperature of your ingredients.
Therefore, to calculate the temperature of the water, you will first need work out your DDT (Desired Dough Temperature) and use the DDT to minus the estimated friction (5˚C), then multiply it to the number of affecting variables (3 - friction, flour & room temperature), and finally use the total to subtract the actual temperature of the room temperature and flour variable, and you should then have the recommended water temperature :
Here is the example for the calculation
DDT is = 24˚C
DDT - Friction
= 24 - 5
= 19˚C
then
(DDT x 3) - (Room temp. + Flour Temp.) = Water Temperature
(19 x 3) - (22˚C + 23˚C) = Water Temperature
57 - 45 = Water Temperature
12˚C = Recommended Water Temperature
BEURRAGE (LAMINATING BUTTER)
In making of the croissant, there are two parts butter. The smaller part of the butter are added into the detrempe and the larger part of the butter is used in the laminating process.
When preparing the beurrage, it is important the you use the right type of butter specifically made for this type of pastry. The butter used for lamination are also often referred to as French butter or fractionated butter. These butter has been manipulated with water content extracted and contains higher fat content than normal butter to ease the flexibility of the butter. Flexibility of the butter is crucial to prevent it from breaking during the laminating process.
When laminating, it is important to understand the texture and feel of the beurrage. The best guideline is to look for the same consistency of the beurrage and the detrempe. The butter that I am using is a French imported butter from Flechard Le Grand Tourage, with 82% fat.
The ideal temperature of the butter during the lamination process is usually between 16˚C- 19˚C. The butter should feel fairly flexible but not melting in your hands for lamination.
GOLD INSTANT YEAST
There are varieties of yeast that you can use in the recipe and my most preferred and recommended by professional baker acquaintance of mine are Gold osmotolerant instant yeast. This type of yeast can withstand environment that are high in sugar or salt concentration and is especially ideal for dough that needs to go through a long fermentation time.
Fresh yeast is not preferred as they break down too easily and loses its properties during the long fermentation process.
LAMINATION AND RESTING OF THE DOUGH BETWEEN TURNS
Traditional croissants often calls for 3 single folds with resting time in between folds. Three single folds often yields a close crumb interior and requires a longer preparation time. To achieve a more open interior crumb and a shorter preparation time, this recipe will call for two double folds with one resting time in between.
It is important to rest the dough in between folds if you are doing this by hand. This is to purpose the relaxation of the gluten as the dough may become resistant in between each fold and make it hard to roll it out to the desired width and length. To prevent from over working and possibly tearing the layers from trying to forcibly stretch the dough, resting is crucial.
During the resting of the dough, it is important to not let it sit in the fridge for longer than 30 minutes. This is to prevent the butter from hardening too much which can shatter when you try to roll them out again, compromising the layers of the croissants.
FINAL PROOFING
Once the croissants has been shaped, it is now time to leave the croissants to final proof until they double in size.
The best atmosphere for proofing croissants is an ambient that are drought free and sitting at a temperature between 24˚C - 26˚C. To control this environment at home, you can start by filling a deep dish with hot water and placing it in the turned off oven with the door close. Monitor the temperature inside the oven before placing the croissants in the oven to proof.
To prevent the croissants from forming skins, grease a cling wrap with oil and loosely place it over the croissants during the proofing process.
Alternatively, if you are proofing croissants on a warmer day with your kitchen temperature sitting around 24˚C - 26˚C, you can simply just leave it to proof at room temperature lightly covered.
Depending on the ambient of your kitchen, proofing time can take between 3 - 5 hours.
BAKING TRAY
I highly recommend that you invest in a perforated tray if you are keen on making great croissants. Perforated trays allows even travel of air flow throughout the product giving the product an even crumb color and rise during baking.
BAKING WITH STEAM
The secret to an open crumb in your baked croissants is highly reliant on a few factors. One of which is air flow in the oven. The second main factor that contribute to a nice rise and open crumb is steam.
My first too many failures with making croissants at home without steam yields a close crumb interior and much to my dismay has a rather bread like texture. I am most certain now that after trying numerous times, that steam plays a major factor in helping the croissant rise better with a more open and delicate interior. A dense interior can also be a sign that you have broken the layers during lamination or if the pastries are under proofed.
So how do you create steam in a domestic oven that does not have a steam function? There are two ways of creating steam in your oven that I can share with you. The first way is by placing a deep heavy baking tray in the bottom rack while you are pre heating your oven. When ready to bake, pour hot boiling water into the tray and this will create steam as the hot liquid hit the hot tray.
The second option, which is my preferred method, is by preheating some lava volcanic rocks in a deep dish in the oven. When ready to bake, pour boiling water over the hot rocks to create steam. Since lava rocks can get extremely hot and don't break down easily and the crevices in the lava rocks also mean that there are more surface area for when the water comes in contact with these surfaces, it generates more steam.
Steam helps elevate the pastries during baking and prevents the crust from forming too quickly which can hinder a high rise of the croissants.
Reference:
Michael Suas in Advance Bread and Pastry - a professional approach
https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/understanding-flour-types/
RECIPE
Yield: 10 Plain Croissants
CROISSANT DOUGH
500 g 100% Baker's Flour (12-15% protein)
250 g 50% Water
10 g 2% Milk Powder
50 g 10% Caster Sugar
10 g 2% Instant Dried Yeast
10 g 2% Fine Salt
35g 7% Unsalted Butter -
Room temperature
250 g 28% Lamination Butter
Note: 1 double + 1 single turns
EGG WASH
50 g Egg (1 medium egg)
50 ml Full Cream Milk
pinch Salt
1 tsp Honey
SUGAR SYRUP
50 ml Boiling Water
50 g Caster Sugar
METHOD
DAY 1
WORKING OUT WATER TEMPERATURE
1. Start by multiplying the DDT to the three variables that can affect the Final Dough Temperature (Room Temperature, Flour Temperature + Friction from mixing of the dough in the machine). Unless you are using preferment for the croissant, the variables will be four variables rather than three. Preferment will not be used in the following steps.
The recommended Desired Dough Temperature is 24˚C.
In the case of the day that I prepared the Detrempe (Croissant Dough), the temperature of the mentioned variables are as below:
Room temperature = 22˚C
Flour = 23˚C
Friction = 5˚C estimation
*Note that the final water temperature can be different from you depending on the ambient of your kitchen and the temperature of your ingredients.
To calculate the temperature of the water, you will first need work out your DDT (Desired Dough Temperature) and use the DDT to minus the estimated friction (5˚C), then multiply it to the number of affecting variables (3 - water, flour & room temperature), and finally use the total to subtract the actual temperature of the room temperature and flour variable, and you should then have the recommended water temperature :
Here is the example for the calculation
DDT is = 24˚C
DDT - Friction
= 24 - 5
= 19˚C
then
(DDT x 3) - (Room temp. + Flour Temp.) = Water Temperature
(19 x 3) - (22˚C + 23˚C) = Water Temperature
57 - 45 = Water Temperature
12˚C = Recommended Water Temperature
Now that we have worked out our water temperature, we are now ready to start making the Detrempe.
In a stand mixer bowl, place the flour, milk powder, sugar and salt and mix to combine. Add in the yeast and room temperature butter. Attach a dough hook attachment and mix over low speed while gradually streaming in the water. Once all the water has been added, mix at speed 1 for 2 minutes or until the ingredients come together to form a dough. Then increase the speed 3 and continue to mix for another 4 minutes. ( I use kitchen aid standard stand mixer).
The final dough should be smooth and just a little elastic / stretchable but will still break apart if stretched further. You do not want to fully develop the gluten for the dough at this point to prevent the dough from being too resistant during the lamination process. The full gluten development will happen during the lamination process the next day as well as when the dough are resting in the fridge overnight.
Roll the dough to a smooth ball. Check the temperature of the dough and ensure that is between 22 - 24C. If the dough above 24C, place the dough covered well in the fridge until it comes down to the required temperature. If the dough is at the correct temperature, cover the ball of dough loosely with a cling film on the bench at room temperature and leave for an hour or until it increases 50% of its original volume. This is the first fermentation of the dough.
Once the dough has risen to 50%, knock back the dough to get rid of some of the excess air then flatten and roll to a rectangle of 20 cm x 40 cm with a rolling pin. If you are unable to roll it to the exact size, do not worry too much as you will be rolling them out again during the lamination process.
Gently lift the sheeted dough onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Wrap the tray really well and place in the fridge (4˚C - 5˚C) for the second part of the first fermentation at a low temperature for at least 8 - 12 hours.
DAY 2
LOCKING IN THE BUTTER
1. The next day, prepare the beurrage (lamination butter) by rolling to 20cm x 20cm. Ensure that the butter is around 16˚C - 19˚C. If it is too warm or feels really soft, place the sheeted butter back in to the fridge slightly. The butter should be flexible and not too stiff for the lamination process.
2. When the butter is ready, remove the dough from the fridge. At this point, the dough should be between 4-5˚C .
Roll the Detrempe to double the length of the butter, maintaining the same width. Place the butter in the center of the dough then wrap the overhanging dough on both opposite ends on top and over the butter. Pinch the two ends of the dough together to adhere. You have now locked in the butter.
FIRST DOUBLE FOLDS
3. Turn the dough around and with the two open ends closest and opposite from you, roll the dough to approximately 65 cm in length, whilst maintaining a 20cm width. During the rolling process, frequently lift the dough off the bench to prevent from sticking and dust lightly with flour if necessary. Avoid dusting too much flour as this can cause the dough to become too dry.
4. Once you have rolled to 65cm in length, trim off the two ends (try not to trim too much to avoid too many offcuts) .
Roll the dough back to 65cm if you have shorten it too much from the trimmings.
Perform a double fold by folding one end 1/4 of the way to the top of the dough, then fold the opposite ends 3/4 of the way meeting the other end. Fold the dough over to half again. Flatten the dough slightly with a rolling pin, wrap well and place onto a flat tray and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
SECOND DOUBLE FOLDS
5. Once the 20 minutes is up, remove the dough from the fridge and repeat the process in step 3. & step 4.
At this point, you would have performed two double folds. Wrap the dough well and place it back into the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.
FINAL ROLLING AND SHAPING
6. Once rested, remove the pastry from the fridge. Roll the dough to 29cm in width then roll it in length until the thickness of the dough is 4 mm. Start trimming both ends lengthways, maintaining a width of 27cm.
Trim off one ends widthways then mark 4.5cm from the top corner. Join the bottom corner towards the 4.5cm mark then trim off that end. Now mark 9cm on both sides along the length of the sheeted dough. Portion the marked areas to create individual triangle.
*Note: If the pastries starts to feel soft, place the triangles onto a flat tray , cover with cling wrap then place in the fridge to 20 to 30 minutes before shaping. You want to avoid the layers from melting on the bench or your hands.
7. Stretch each triangles gently then shape to individual croissants and place them on a baking paper lined with parchment paper, ensuring that you leave enough space between each croissants to allow them to rise double in size.
Lightly spray a cling film with some oil then place it over the croissants loosely. Leave at room temperature sitting at 24˚C for 3 - 4 hours. or until they double in size and when you gently move the trays the croissants are wobbly.
PREHEATING THE OVEN
While the croissants are proofing, pre heat the oven to 200˚C with a bowl of lava volcanic rocks at the bottom rack of the oven. If you do not have the lava volcanic rocks, you can simply place a deep heavy tray on the bottom rack of the oven.
BAKING
You know the croissants are ready to be baked when you can see the layers in the croissants starts to separate, have doubled in size and when you gently move the trays the croissants are light and wobbly.
Lightly brush the croissants with some of the egg wash mixture ensuring not to pool the egg wash and avoid the layers. Turn the oven down to 180˚C, pour boiling water over the lava stones or into a heated heavy deep baking tray to create some initial steam then place the tray of croissants on the rack above the steaming rocks. Bake for 25 minutes or until they turn dark golden in color.
While the croissants are baking, prepare the syrup glaze by mixing the boiling water with the sugar and stir until the sugar are fully dissolved.
Once baked, remove the croissants from the oven and immediately brush the sugar syrup over while the pastries are still hot.
