1. Since this Protein Boosted Sourdough Croissant Bread is made from the Easy High Protein Sourdough and we simply add the butter, we are starting right after the bulk fermentation phase.
2. So you’ll need to start by feeding your starter 3 days before you want to bake bread and mix the dough on day 2, to have it ready for baking on day 3.
3. You can do the cold fermentation either before or after shaping, depending on your schedule and needs.
4. I usually do my cold fermentation after shaping and take the loaf out of the fridge for the last rise if still needed.

Adding The Butter Into Your Sourdough Bread

While Amy adds her butter during the stretch and fold in the original recipe, I found my butter clumps together too much for my liking when I do that, so I prefer to add it right after the stretch and folds, in a sort of pre-shaping before the bulk fermentation, where I have a bit more control over the distribution by using a lamination method.

Grate The Butter

1. When your dough is ready to be shaped, coarsely grate your very cold butter into a cool bowl.
2. If your kitchen is very warm you may want to use a fridge cold bowl and frozen butter.
3. Dipping the stick into a little bit of flour can make grating much easier and prevents a bit of the clumping.

Add The Butter While Pre-Shaping Your Croissant Loaf

1. Lightly oil a bowl to make turning your dough out later easier.
2. Turn your stretched and folded dough onto a lightly floured work surface.
3. Use your hands to gently pull it out into a square about 11 in/ 30cm on both sides. This doesn’t have to be exact. We just want plenty of surface area to scatter the butter over without ripping the dough or deflating the trapped air. So no rolling pin needed.
4. Scatter half of your butter over the dough.
5. Fold the top third of the dough toward the center, then the bottom third up.
6. Scatter half of the remaining butter over the folded dough.
7. Fold the dough in half, so you have a square shape.
8. Grab the opposing corners of the dough piece and pull them over the middle. Do the same with the remaining corners and pinch to close.
9. If any butter bits fall out during this process, just push it back into the dough as best as you can, ideally while rolling up, so you don’t break the top afterwards.
10. Flip the dough over, so the seam points down and gently shape into a round or oval by pushing it under itself with the sides of your palms while rotating it against the worktop. Be relatively gentle.
11. Transfer your loaf top side down into a lightly oiled bowl.

Bulk Fermentation

1. I like to put the bowl with the shaped loaf into a slightly inflated, clean plastic bag that I clip close, to keep it moist during the bulk fermentation . Plastic wrap will also work for the most part but often leaves gaps and with that dry bits on the dough.
2. Make sure to check the temperature. If the butter gets too soft because your kitchen is warm, pop it into the fridge to cool down a bit.
3. Here is your next bit of flexibility: You can either go straight to letting your dough rise for about 3 hours or until nice and puffy and jiggly and then bake it right away.
4. Or you can cold ferment at this point (if it wasn’t already in the fridge for 3 days) and leave the rise for the next day. Be aware though that the rise, coming out of the fridge, will take a little longer as the dough needs to come back to room temperature for the bacteria to get back to peak activity.
5. I often put my shaped loaf into the fridge and take it out about 5 hours before I want to bake, anywhere up to 3 days after shaping. The longer you leave it to ferment, the stronger the sourdough flavor and the easier it is to digest.

Cold Ferment and Re-shape

1. Prepare a banneton basket by misting it with a bit of water and dusting with rice flour. Rice flour, as opposed to wheat flour doesn’t get absorbed by the dough, so it works much better as an effective non-stick layer.
2. This Croissant Bread in particular does need to be cooled before the final shaping, so the butter starts out cold in the loaf. So I went with the cold fermentation after the bulk fermentation, to re-shape and have the final rise the next morning.
3. During the cold ferment the dough relaxes a bit, so I decided to do a bit of a re-shape in the morning.
4. I punched the nicely risen dough back, folded it into thirds again, the, repeated the rolling process until I had a lovely loaf with lots of tension.
5. The upside of the re-shaping here was that the butter was also even better distributed throughout the dough.

Last Rise 

1. Add your banneton back into the plastic bag for the last rise, so it doesn’t dry out.
2. Allow to rise for 3-6 hours in a relatively cool room. 
3. For this super buttery bread, you don’t want to speed it up by leaving it in a warm spot, as the butter would just melt into the dough.
4. When the dough has visibly risen (not entirely doubled probably, but close), looks puffy and jiggly, it’s ready to bake.

Score Your Loaf and Pre-heat The Oven

1. With your Dutch Oven inside, pre-heat your oven to 475°F/245°C for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
2. It may show pre-heated before, but the Dutch oven won’t be and the heat evens out after about 30 minutes. The high temperature at the start gives you the best oven spring.
3. Right after switching on the oven, put your banneton into the freezer for about 30 minutes for a cleaner score. I honestly often forget this or simply don’t have room in my freezer, so my scores aren’t always those picture-perfect Instagram patterns.
4. I mainly see them as functional, to enable the bread to expand and spring up nicely.
5. When ready to bake, flip your loaf onto a piece of baking parchment and score it with a sharp knife or lame. You can use any pattern you like, just make sure you score deep enough. About ½ inch/ 12mm deep at a 45 degree angle with one long confident slice gives you the best results.
6. If you are not keen on that “ear” you could do a cross and then cut your loaf in quarters along those lines later for easy slicing, which is what I’m doing for this loaf.

Bake Your High-Protein Sourdough Croissant Loaf

1. Use your parchment to transfer your bread into the hot Dutch oven, put the lid on and bake at 475°F/245°C for 30 minutes.
2. Lower the temperature to 440°F/225°C, take the lid off, let the excess heat vent for a few seconds (temperature down before opening the door, so some heat can escape) and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until deep golden brown with the scored and risen bits a bit darker or until baked through.
3. I rarely check the internal temperature of this loaf, as it comes out so consistently well baked, but if you’d like to be sure you can either tap the bottom, which should sound hollow when baked through or use an instant read thermometer to check the temperature at the center. It should be around 208°F/98°C for the crumb to be fully set and excess moisture having evaporated.
4. Since this has fairly high moisture due to the inclusions, you’ll want to err on the side of baking a little longer rather than shorter to give it a chance to set perfectly.
5. Take out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool at least a few hours, as you otherwise, you risk letting too much steam (aka moisture) escape too early, resulting in a gummy or doughy texture.