I love a good croissant, and these are great to make for your next brunch. They take three days, so I plan ahead and have them ready Sunday morning. They reheat amazingly well and last for a few days wrapped up. My family loves them, and I hope you do as well.
Makes 20 Croissants
Sourdough Croissants
500 g AP flour
200g water (non-chlorinated)
200 g AP flour starter (feed in the last 6 hours, do a float test*)
10 g sea salt
70 g sugar
25 g butter softened
250 g butter for lamination
Day 1. Mix all the ingredients except butter in a bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes on low speed, this should be nice, smooth but rather stiff dough. Add the softened butter and knead for another 3 minutes. Refrigerate in a container with a lid overnight.
Day 2. Leave the dough at room temperature for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, take the chilled butter out of the refrigerator and place it between 2 sheets of parchment. Soften the butter by running a rolling pin over the paper. Shape into a rectangle. The dough and the butter should be the same temperature, not too soft and not too stiff. Roll the dough into a rectangle 12 x 24 inches, and about 1/8-inch-thick. Roll the butter to 12 x 12 inches to fit ½ the rectangle. Lift the butter onto one half of the dough over and fold the other half of the dough over it. Turn the dough degrees, so the seam is to the right.
Roll the dough again to create a 12x36 inch rectangle. Fold this rectangle into thirds. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for an hour. Do a series of three folds. Between each fold put the laminated dough in the fridge for an hour (wrap it in cling foil). If the dough resists, let it rest for about 10 minutes and then roll it. Always roll from the center in each direction. Don’t use too much flour, and brush off the excess. After the last fold wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Day 3. Next morning take the dough out, let it warm up about 45 minutes and roll a 13x22 rectangle about an 1/8-inch-thick, Fold the dough in half, with will give two layers of croissants. Measure 4 inches for the base of each croissant, use a ruler. The length should be 7 inches. cut and roll into croissants. Leave on baking parchment to proof 2 ½ hours. Preheat oven to 400° F just before baking, then brush with a mixture of 1 egg, half tea spoon of cream. Bake 18 minutes. There is no need to make precise rectangles. Just do your best to make all the croissants the same size. They should be a nice deep golden color. Enjoy!
* - For the float test: When pouring your starter into water the starter should float on the water surface for a minute before eventually sinking. This ensures you have plenty of yeast growth in your starter.