Sourdough Croissants #SundayFunday

 

If you've been following along, you'll know that we just kicked off a Sunday Funday blogging group Thanks to Stacy of Food Lust People Love, Sue of Palatable Pastime, Rebekah of Making Miracles, and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for coordinating this low-stress group. In the months that there's a 5th Sunday, I will be hosting. Since January 30th is National Croissant Day, I asked the group to share favorite recipes for either making croissants or just using already made croissants. Think croissant bread pudding!

In any case, here's the line-up of how the #SundayFunday bloggers are celebrating croissants...

• Bean Cassoulet by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cheesy Sausage and Croissant Casserole by Making Miracles
• Chocolate Croissants (Pain au Chocolate) by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Croissants aux Amandes (Almond Croissants) by Food Lust People Love
• Homemade Crescent Rolls by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Mardi Gras Cream Cheese King Cake Croissants by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Sourdough Croissants by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Yeasted Croissant by Sneha's Recipe

Sourdough Croissants

Croissants are not new to my blog or my kitchen. I've made several of variations or just pastries made with laminated dough, including Pain au Jambon, Pomegranate Kouign Amann, Italian Cornetti, and Croissants aux Framboises. But it wasn't until recently that I decided to tackle using my sourdough starter in my croissant dough. It's not as light and airy as my regular yeasted croissants, but I love the toothiness of this pastry. And it's nice to have other ways to use my starter.

Ingredients makes a dozen

• 200 grams sourdough starter
• 500 grams flour plus more for rolling
• 60 grams organic granulated sugar
• 2 eggs for the dough plus 1 egg for baking
• 160 grams warm water
• 2 sticks butter, cold
• Also needed: rolling pin, waxed paper, baking sheet, silicone brush for the egg wash

Procedure

Place all of the ingredients (but only 2 eggs!) through the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon to blend until a shaggy dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured workspace and knead until smooth and well-combined, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a covered container and refrigerate for at 4 hours or overnight. Once you're ready to make the croissants, remove the dough from the fridge and let stand at room temperature while you prepare the butter.

Flour a piece of wax paper and pound each stick of butter into rectangle on that paper. Some people use a ruler and make it very precise. I am less precise. Wrap the pounded butter and chill.

When you're ready, sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with flour and place dough on top. Roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 12"x 20". Remember, I'm less than precise, but it was around that size.

Remove one rectangle of butter from the fridge and lay it in the middle of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough in to form an envelope. It should look like this...

Using the rolling pin, roll it out to 12" x 20" again. Place the second rectangle of butter on the dough and make another envelope. Then roll it out to the 12" x 20" rectangle, but this time, fold one third of the dough over the other third, like folding a letter. 

Now you have to turn the dough. Turning the dough, by rolling and folding, creates very thin layers of butter and dough. This recipe needs to be turned 4 times. If the butter pushes through a layer of dough, rub it with a little flour. If the butter seems to be melting, chill the dough between each turn. Keep the parchment, the rolling pin, and the surface of the pastry well-floured.

To turn: Rotate the package of dough and butter so that the narrower, open end is facing you, like the pages of a book. Roll the dough out to a rectangle and fold the top third down and the bottom third up, again like a letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees so that the open end is again facing you. Repeat. Roll the dough out to a rectangle and fold the top third down and the bottom third up. That's 2 turns. Repeat two more times.

Place the dough in the fridge and let rest for 30 minutes. 

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to approximately 1/4" thick. Then cut a zigzag pattern to create ten to twelve thin triangles

Starting at the base of the triangle, roll all the way up and place the croissants on a baking sheet.

Beat the second egg and brush the egg over the top of the croissants.

Let rise for 30 minutes while the oven preheats. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the croissants in the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

Pastries are finished when the tops are deep golden and the tips look as if they might be just starting to burn.

Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the sheet but be sure remove them after that. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Best served the day they are baked. These don't last long in our house!

That's a wrap for the Sunday Funday celebration of National Croissant Day. We'll be back next week as  Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm leads the discussion for Lunar New Year.