Croissants are one of those things I thought were impossible to make yourself. But when Yuko from over at A Kitchen Blog (hi again, Yuko!) posted this sourdough croissant recipe – I just had to give it a try. And OMG. They are so delicious! I don’t know who told me that sourdough can’t be used for sweet doughs (it was probably me), but that is a bag, fat lie.
I can’t wait to make them again (oh yes, they are long gone). Maybe with ham and cheese? Or nutella? I should probably stop thinking about croissants now. My mouth is drooling. No, can’t stop. What do you think about truffle croissants? Pesto? Am I nuts? Ooo, wait. Maybe croissants with nuts would be something?
These flaky croissants taste wonderful just the way they are, but they certainly go very well together with ALL your favorite toppings.. Cream cheese, roast beef and nutella included.
Sourdough croissants
Total time: 12-24 hours to make the dough. Then a few more hours to roll out the dough, let it rest in between, and lastly baking the croissants. Makes 12 croissants
Ingredients
Day 1
- 145 g (5.1 oz) white starter
- 250 g (8.8 oz) filtered water
- 415 g (14.6 oz) bread flour
Day 2
- 3 g (0.1 oz) active dry yeast
- 15 g (0.5 oz) warm water
- 50 g (1.8 oz) sugar
- 0.5 tbsp sea salt
- 80 g (2.8 oz) bread flour
- 2 sticks of butter at room temperature (2 sticks = 226 g or 8 oz)
Toppings
1 egg (slightly whipped)
Instructions
Mix starter, bread flour and water in a bowl to a dough. Take out the dough on a lightly oiled working bench. Give it four sets of stretch and fold treatments (1 set = fold top over bottom, bottom over top, left over right, right over left). Let rest in a lightly oiled bowl for 15 minutes in between each set. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 12 hours.
Mix the active dry yeast with the warm water in a small cup. Wait until it is foamy. Take out the dough from the fridge and add yeast water, sugar, salt and bread flour. Mix to a dough that is nice and firm, not too sticky. Let rest in the fridge at least two hours, over overnight.
Take the two sticks of butter and place them in between two sheets of plastic wrap. Roll out the butter to a 6″ x 6″ square. Roll out the dough to a 12″ x 12″ square. Place the butter on one half of the dough (don’t forget to take off the plastic 🙂 ), fold over the other half of the dough and press together the edges of the dough. Roll out the dough to a rectangle, 9″ x 19″. Fold in thirds, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge 1 hour. Repeat this step 3 more times. See pictures here of how to fold the dough and roll out your croissants.
Roll out the dough to a rectangle, 9″ x 19″. Cut the dough in triangles, about 4″ wide and 9″ tall. Let the pieces rest in the fridge 1 hour, then take them out and roll up the croissants (if you don’t want to bake them right away, you can freeze them, or put them in the fridge overnight). Place them on a greased oven tray, peak down, and brush with whipped egg. Let rise for about 2-3 hours, until they are very soft. Brush with more egg right before you bake them. Bake at 425°F for 10 minutes, turn down to 375°F and bake another 15 minutes.
Enjoy!
P.S. Whenever you want to bake your frozen croissants, just take them out of the freezer, defrost them, then brush with egg and let rise for 2-3 hours, brush with egg again, and then bake.
Orange juice is the natural drink of choice to accompany your croissant. I guess coffee would be fine, too. And tea. Or champagne.
This post has been submitted to #bakeyourownbread, SweetBellaRoos, YeastSpotting and Friday Food Frenzy.