Croissants (Tartine Version)

I made croissants once before from the recipe on Bread Cetera. They were great, but Cerinthus said they were not fluffy enough. I hope that these will work out better so I can make some the next time I see him.

Poolish:

• 100g All-Purpose Flour

• 100g Water (75 degrees F)

• 3g dry active yeast

Levain

• 1 tablespoon mature starter

• 110g All-Purpose Flour

• 110g Water (80 degrees F)

Final Dough

• 225g Milk (Whole Milk?)

• 150 Levain

• 200g Poolish

• 500g Bread Flour

• 14g Salt

• 42.5g Sugar

• 5g Active Dry Yeast

• 200g Butter

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Egg Wash

• 1 large egg (or 1 egg yoke and 1 tsp heavy cream)

Directions

Day 1:

• Mix the poolish in a bowl. Let sit for 3-4 hours between 75-80 degrees F (or overnight at cool room temperature 65-70 degrees F).

• Make the levain in a bowl and Let sit for 3-4 hours between 75-80 degrees F (or overnight at cool room temperature 65-70 degrees F).

• Both mixtures are ready when the pass the float test.

Day 2:

• Stir the poolish and the levain into a bowl with the milk.

• Then add the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Mix until no dry spots of flour remain. The easiest way to ensure this is to mix by hand.

• Transfer the dough to a plastic bag, press to flatten it into a rectangle and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

• Sprinkle the butter with flour and pound it into into a flat rectangle about 4x6 inches.

• Put the butter on parchment or wax paper and cool, but not so cold that it has to be pounded again.

• Once the 2-3 hour wait is over, place the dough on a floured surface and roll it out to a rectangle of 6 by 10 inches. Place the butter in the center of the dough and fold it like a letter over the butter. Re-roll it into the same sized rectangle with a rolling pin. this is called a "turn."

• Refrigerate the dough for an hour and then do a second turn.

• Refrigerate the dough for an hour and do a third turn. You can let the dough stay in the refrigerator overnight or work with it after 1-2 hours in the freezer.

• After the resting period, roll the dough into a 9x12 inch rectangle, approximately 1/2 inch thick. Cut the rectangle into 6-8 equal sized triangles.

• Roll up each triangle and arrange them on parchment-lined baking sheets. wrap the sheets loosely with plastic wrap and either let sit at 75-80 degrees F for 2 hours or put in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 3:

• Pre heat the oven to 425 degrees F.

• Take the croissants out 20 minutes before baking and brush with the egg wash.

• Bake until the croissants are a deep golden brown, crisp, and flakey, which should take about 30 minutes. Eat immediately.