Sourdough Croissants - Sourdough Surprises

My phone died 11 days ago and while I knew that I was wholly dependent upon the device, I certainly did not realise how much until I woke up that morning to an eerie error message. I feel almost cut off from the world. And I don't mean from phone calls and texts. I rarely did either. Facebook, Feedly and Twitter were daily rituals.

Sure, I can access all three from the web. But the experience is just not the same. I vaguely saw that Sourdough Surprises asked a question about their Pinterest board. I tried to shout - "YES! YES! I love the inspiration board!" But my browser froze or something and I don't think I hit send on that post. There are several other things that are not social media related that I'm missing. Evernote is one. I used to use Springpad but the company went out of business and I turned to Evernote. It's just not the same trying to quickly scroll through my recipes from the browser and I keep forgetting to download the desktop app. Runkeeper. MyFitnessPal. The list goes on and on. I'll be out of the dark ages soon enough. I hope.

 The day of the phone mishap, I started working on these croissants. I have a love - not-really-love relationship with laminating dough. I love the effect. I love eating flaky layers. I love smelling the buttery dough baking. But I just can't stop my butter from leaking. I sprinkle some extra flour and roll with it but I wish it wouldn't leak. Geez. Laminating really isn't that hard. You just need to make sure everything is cold. If you live in a hot climate, like I do, freeze everything. Ice down surfaces. Lower the a/c. Put the dough in the fridge or freezer very often. You can do it! And even if it's not perfect, mine certainly weren't, rest assured that buttery dough will always taste good.

 One thing I thought about after I placed these in the oven was that I should have taken the vol-au-vent (puff pastry) approach and chilled the croissants right before baking. That would have hardened the butter a bit then it would melt and give off steam in the oven and would have given that extra lift that they so desperately needed. I'll try that next time. I will also sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over them right before baking. I am really kicking myself for forgetting that. Buttery, flaky, cinnamon-y dough? I missed out.

 Well, here's the recipe. I only used my starter instead of adding the commercial yeast insurance. I did not get the lift that I would have liked but I know that it can be done without the commercial yeast so I wanted to try. Also, I use a very wet starter so very little liquid was required after adding my starter. There's clearly lots room for improvement here but it's definitely a good (delicious) start.

 Sourdough Croissants

 Ingredients
213 grams mature 166% starter
180 grams flour
12 grams water
15 grams oil
33 grams sugar
130 grams cold butter
egg for egg wash

 Directions
Combine starter, flour, water, oil and sugar. Knead at low speed for 10 minutes. Flatten dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll out the cold butter between two sheets of wax paper into 5 inch square. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll into a 7 inch square. Place the chilled square of butter into the center of the dough with the corners of the butter facing a straight side of the dough. Fold over the four flaps to encase the butter.

Roll the dough out into a 6" x 14" rectangle. With the 14" edge facing you, fold a third from the left and the third from the right. That's the first book fold. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll out to 6" x 14" and perform another book fold. Refrigerate for 1 hour. That's the second book fold.

Once again, roll out to 6" x 14" and do the third book fold. Chill for at least two hours.

Roll the dough out to 8" x 16". Rest the dough often in the fridge while doing this if necessary. If at any point it feels sticky, put it in the fridge.

Divide the dough into 4 4" x 8" rectangles. Slice each diagonally into triangles.

Stretch each triangle then roll up into the croissant shape.

Proof until puffy. This can take up to 3 hours.

Mix the egg with a tablespoon of water. Gently brush over each croissant and bake for 10 minutes at 425 F and 10 minutes at 375 F.




   

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