Sourdough croissant (inspired from thefreshloaf)

Mix together all the ingredients for the levain and let the mix rest for 8 to 12 hours, or until doubled/tripled in size and bursted bubbles are present on the top.

Warm up the water and milk mixture (until it feels not too cold not too warm when you dip a finger in) and dissolve the dry yeast in.

Mix all the ingredients for the dough in a bowl and knead until combined.

Let the dough rest on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, knead again until soft and smooth. This should be fairly fast and easy after the 30 minute' rest.

Cover the bowl (don't cover the dough tightly at this stage as it will rise) and let it rest in the fridge overnight.

The next day, roll the rolling butter into a square of approximately 15 cm x 15 cm x 0.5 cm. For this, put the butter cut into pieces of approximately 1 cm of thickness into a piece of baking paper and fold the edges of the paper so as to form a square of 15 cm x 15 cm. Then smash and roll the butter with a rolling pin until it spreads to the desired shape.

Get the dough from the fridge and poke it with one finger. Then, poke your butter layer. Do the two have a similar consistency ? If so, proceed to the next step. If the butter is harder, put the dough back in the fridge and let the butter rest on the counter until it softens. If the dough is harder, put the dough and the butter back into the fridge. If the butter is too soft even after a few hours in the fridge, consider using another brand...

Enclose the butter layer in the dough (see this image from thefreshloaf : i78.photobucket.com/album...).

Starting from the center, roll GENTLY from center to corners first. Then elongate the dough from center to side to obtain a rectangle of ratio 1:3. In the beginning, if the dough is hard, you can press on it with the rolling pin instead.

Perform the first fold as follows.

Put the dough with the short side facing you. Grab the top portion of the dough (the one furthest from you) and fold it over the two thirds. Then grab the bottom portion and fold it over. A picture is worth a thousand words :).

When rolling, if the butter feels too stiff, let the dough rest on the counter for a while (otherwise, the stiff butter will break up into big chunks and pierce through the layers). If the butter starts to melt, put the dough back in the fridge for 30 minutes (otherwise, the melted butter will stick the layers together, or leak from the dough. Either way, it is not good).

Cover with plastic wrap or a plastic bag (hermetically) and let it rest in the fridge for at least one hour.

Get the dough out of the fridge and perform your second and last fold as follows.

Position the dough so that the previous fold is now horizontal. Gently roll the dough from the center and elongate it until a rectangle of ratio 1:4 forms. Fold the top portion to the middle of the rectangle, the bottom portion to the middle also. And fold the two halfs. Have a look at the picture :).

Cover and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

Roll the dough into a rectangle of approximately 20 cm large and 0.3 to 0.5 cm thickness. The length does not really matter.

Cut a series of triangles of 20 cm height, 10 cm long at the base. Take each triangle, slightly stretch it and roll it lengthwise starting from the base. Put the croissant on a rack with the tip tucked under itself, and proceed to the next. You should end up with approximately 6 croissants plus a little extra from the edges.

At this point, you can either proof your croissants, or put them back in the fridge overnight and proof them the next day, or freeze them.

Prepare the egg wash : mix all the ingredients for the egg wash together.

For the proof, brush a layer of egg wash on the croissants, avoiding the layers and let the croissants rest for 2 to 3 hours at approximately 20-25°C (do not go higher than 30°C which is the melting point of butter). I keep mine in a switched off oven.

After proofing, the croissants should have doubled in size and be jiggly. The layers should be visible. Brush a second layer of egg wash.

Preheat the oven at 220°C and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.