If you love flakey, buttery pastry but don’t want to spend the time tediously laminating slabs of butter, this sourdough croissant loaf is going to be your new favorite bread recipe. Yes, it does take a little bit more time than a traditional, rustic sourdough loaf, but the extra effort is worth it, trust me! 

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How to make a sourdough croissant loaf 

This sourdough croissant loaf comes together like most other loaves with one exception: incorporating the butter. There are many different ways to add butter but this is what works best for me: 

1. Grate cold butter (frozen works best) with a box grater 
2. Toss the grated butter in a little bit of flour so every strand is lightly coated
3. Store this butter in the freezer
4. After performing your stretch and folds, laminate the dough by stretching it out over a clean work surface and sprinkling butter evenly over the dough. 
5. Gently fold your dough over itself, adding butter as you go (see pictures)
6. Once the butter is laminated into the dough, bulk ferment for about 5-8 hours in the fridge 

Coating the butter in flour prevents it from sticking to itself. It is also paramount to keep the butter cold at all times because you don’t want it to melt or incorporate into the dough. Instead, the whole pieces of butter will create beautiful flakey layers when baked, like a pie crust or scone. 

Using a high-quality butter

Because butter is the star of this sourdough croissant loaf, use the best butter you can get your hands on! A high-quality, organic, grass-fed butter is ideal. If this is out of your budget, making your own is a great option! 

A note on sourdough starter: be sure you have an active, bubbly starter before you bake! You can read more about how to achieve this below

Sourdough Starter Tips

Sample Baker’s Schedule

The day before you bake 

• Noon: mix ingredients and autolyze 
• 12:30: add salt 
• 12:45-4 pm Perform stretch and folds 
• 4 pm: bulk rise until doubled in size
• 7 pm: laminate dough with butter
• 7:30 pm shape and cold ferment in the fridge 

Bake Day 

• 8 am: preheat oven 
• 8:30: score and bake 

Sourdough Croissant Loaf

Print Recipe

Course Sourdough

Keyword sourdough croissant loaf

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

rest time 20 hours hrs

Total Time 20 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 150 g active sourdough starter
• 300 g filtered water
• 450 g organic All purpose or bread flour
• 10 g high quality salt
• 8 TBSP salted butter

Instructions

THE DAY BEFORE YOU WANT TO BAKE

• Measure and mix flour, water, and starter together lightly incorporating with the dutch dough hook
• Cover and autolyze the dough for 30 minutes to an hour
• Add salt, mixing lightly until all ingredients are incorporated

BULK FERMENTATION

• Perform two coil folds in 15 minute intervals
• Perform four coil folds in 30 minute intervals
• Cover and rise on the counter for 3-4 hours or until roughly doubled in size
• Pre-shape and rest uncovered on the counter for about 30 minutes

Lamination

• Grate cold butter (frozen works best) with a box grater
• Toss the grated butter in a little bit of flour so every strand is lightly coated
• Store this butter in the freezer
• After performing your stretch and folds, laminate the dough by stretching it out over a clean work surface and sprinkling butter evenly over the dough (see pictures above)
• Gently fold your dough over itself, adding butter as you go (see pictures)
• Allow the dough ball to rest on the counter for 15-30 minutes

Shaping and Cold Ferment

• Gently preshape and then shape into a boule
• Cold ferment for about 8-12 hours in the fridge

Bake Day

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with your dutch oven and lid
• After about 30 minutes of preheating, score and bake your bread covered for 25 minutes
• Remove the lid and bake for another 5-7 minutes or until desired color is achieved