Sourdough Croissant Bread Loaf

Use laminated pastry and sourdough starter to make this flaky and buttery Sourdough Croissant Bread Loaf!

The sourdough croissant bread brings the buttery flakiness of classic laminated pastry into a sliceable, pull-apart loaf bread format that’s both elegant and deeply satisfying.

Instead of shaping individual croissants, the dough is rolled, folded, and layered with butter—just like traditional pastry—then sliced and folded into a loaf pan for an impressive bake that rises high in the pan with hundreds of layers.

With the tang of natural fermentation and the crisp, golden crust of viennoiserie, this tender loaf is perfect for brunch spreads, decadent toast, or tearing off warm layers.

Follow the detailed tips and instructions below on how to make the perfect sourdough croissant bread.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Utilizes authentic French laminated pastry technique to achieve hundreds of flaky layers of croissant bread.
• Pull-apart, sliceable, and melt-in-your-mouth for the most decadent toast.
• So much easier to shape than traditional sourdough croissants.
• Uses only simple ingredients that transform into this impressive croissant bread loaf.
• Fermented with only active sourdough starter, so it has more depth of flavor.

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⏰ Sample Schedule

Below is a sample schedule for baking the sourdough croissant bread loaf.

Please note that these times are adjustable to fit your own schedule and are dependent on temperature.

Furthermore, you can make and chill the butter block and croissant dough up to two days in advance.

Day 1	Day 2
3pm: Mix Dough	9am: Lock butter block, first turn, and chill
3:15pm-8:15pm: Bulk Fermentation (make butter block during proofing)	9:30am-10:30am: Two more folds
8:15pm: Overnight proof	10:30am-2:30pm: Shape and Final Proof
	2:30pm: Bake

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🛠 Tools Needed

• Baking scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients is the best option! Measuring your ingredients by weight will make your baking more consistent and accurate.
• Stand Mixer (recommended but helpful)
  • The sourdough croissant bread dough is enriched, so it’s easier to mix in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. However, you can mix and knead by hand too.
• Rolling Pin
• Ruler
  • Helps keep the dough even and roll it out to the right size so you get a uniform product.
• Pastry Wheel
  • For trimming the dough and keeping the edges even. You can also use a pizza cutter or knife.
• Pastry Brush, for egg wash
• Bread Loaf Pan
  • I use this 9×4″ USA Pullman Pan without the lid for straight sides that rise dramatically tall. You could also use a 8.5×4.5″ or 9×5″ bread loaf pan, but note that the croissant bread will be more squat.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

Refer to the list below for my ingredient recommendations and potential substitutions.

• Bread flour
  • High-protein bread flour leads to better gluten development for croissant dough, which helps the loaf rise tall and hold its structure.
  • You can substitute the bread flour with all-purpose flour.
• Salt
• Granulated Sugar
  • Sugar in croissant dough improves browning, tenderizes, and adds a little sweetness to balance the richness of the butter and acidity of the sourdough fermentation.
• Whole Milk
  • Adds richness and tenderizes the enriched dough.
• Water
  • The combination of whole milk and water makes croissant bread dough more extensible and strikes the right balance of structure and flavor.
• Unsalted butter
  • Butter is the predominant flavor in croissant bread, so use the highest quality European-style butter you can get such as Kerrygold or Cabot Extra Creamy. It’s higher fat content makes better flaky layers and is more malleable.
  • Keep your butter cool when making flaky pastry, such as Sourdough Pop Tarts. The laminated layers of butter create steam in the hot oven, ensuring you get many flaky layers.
• Sourdough Starter
  • Only use active sourdough starter, not sourdough discard for this recipe.
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week following my how to make a sourdough starter guide. See my top sourdough starter tips and other sourdough discard recipes.
• Egg, for egg wash
  • The egg wash gives the crust a perfect, golden-brown sheen.

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🍞 How to Make Sourdough Croissant Bread Loaf

Follow this detailed recipe guide as you make the best sourdough croissant bread loaf. It’s easier to make than Sourdough Croissants but uses the same laminated pastry dough.

1. Mix the Dough

The first step to making sourdough croissant bread is to make the dough, or détrempe, that will encase the butter block. A stand mixer with a dough hook attachment helps mix the enriched dough, but you can mix and knead by hand, too.

To make the dough, mix the bread flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Then, add room temperature milk, water, and active sourdough starter and mix for a couple of minutes until you have a shaggy dough.

Finally, add the room temperature butter last and continue mixing on medium speed for 7-10 minutes until the dough is smooth, tacky, and passes the windowpane test.

If you pull a portion of the dough with your fingers, it should be strong enough to stretch thinly without tearing. If it does tear, it needs more mixing.

2. Bulk Fermentation and Overnight Proof

Transfer the tacky dough to a bowl, cover, and keep in a warm location for bulk fermentation, or the first proof.

At 75-80ºF, it will take 5-6 hours to double in size. At this point, place it in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

3. Make the Butter Block

While the dough proofs, you can make the butter block (or beurrage).

Cold butter is fine to use for the butter block since you will be smashing it together, in which it will warm up in the process.

Cut out a large piece of parchment paper and lay it on your work surface.

Slice two sticks of butter into 16 thin squares and arrange the squares in 5×3 rows next to each other (just add the additional one on top in the middle) in the middle of the parchment paper.

Now, encase the butter with the parchment paper and form a rectangular package about 9″ long and 5 ½” wide. Flip it over and beat with a rolling pin.

Smash into a thin block and roll the pieces together into the corners of the parchment paper to make an evenly thin slab of butter. Try to keep it as neat with straight, right angles as you can.

Transfer the butter block to the refrigerator to chill (you can make the butter block a couple of days in advance).

4. Lock In the Butter Block

The next day, deflate the dough and roll it out on a clean work surface into a thin rectangle about 13″ long and 10″ wide (it should be only slightly wider than the longest side of your butter block). Only lightly flour the work surface and dough as needed to prevent sticking.

Remove the butter block from the refrigerator, unwrap it, and place it in the middle of your dough. We’ll be using a “French fold” to lock in the butter. This will create the first three layers of your pastry (dough, butter, dough).

Fold one overhang of the dough to the center of the butter block and repeat on the other side. They should meet in the middle.

Pinch together the dough in the middle to create a seam and on the sides to completely enclose the butter block.

5. Folds

After the lock-in, the butter has usually warmed up enough for the first fold. It should be cool, but pliable and malleable so that it doesn’t break apart and crack as you roll. 55-60ºF (13-16ºC) is the right temperature if you want to be exact.

This recipe has 3 letter folds or simple folds (in addition to the French lock-in), which will result in 55 layers! This is a traditional number of layers for a classic French croissant.

To perform the first letter fold, rotate the dough 90º (with one of the short ends in front of you so the rolling pin in perpendicular to the seam).

Use the rolling pin to roll the dough out into a long rectangular slab about 20″ long. Keep the sides and edges as straight as possible and only flour to prevent sticking.

Fold the dough into thirds like a letter by folding the top third of the dough down over the middle and folding the bottom third up and over that fold. You should have a nice letter package of dough.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Then, repeat this rotating, rolling out, folding, and chilling process two more times for a total of 3 letter folds.

6. Shape

There are many ways to shape the sourdough croissant bread, like rolling it up into a typical loaf like Sourdough Sandwich Bread or braided like Sourdough Challah Recipe or Sourdough Babka with Any Jam, but I like this method with visible layers I saw in Bake from Scratch.

Grease or spray your bread loaf pan and set aside.

After the last turn and the dough has chilled, roll it out into a 12×10″ slab. Trim the edges and sides to keep it straight and even.

Then, use a pastry wheel or knife to slice the dough into four 3″ wide rectangles that are 10″ long. Fold the pieces of dough into thirds just like the letter folds and place them standing layer-side up in your bread loaf pan side-by-side.

7. Final Proof

Cover and place the pan in a warm location for the final proof, about 4 hours or until at least doubled in size and puffy.

The dough should wobble some if you shake the pan and feel full of air.

8. Bake

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (191ºC).

Beat an egg and a teaspoon of water or milk in a small bowl and brush the egg wash over the top of the bread.

Place the bread loaf pan on a sheet pan to catch any butter leaking and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is dark golden brown and the internal temperature of the dough reads 200ºF (93ºC). Tent with foil during baking if the top is browning too quickly.

Let the baked sourdough croissant bread loaf rest for 15 minutes and then tilt out of the pan to cool on a wire rack before pulling apart or slicing.

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How to Store and Serve

This sourdough croissant bread loaf is best the day it’s made, but will keep covered at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.

Over time, it will lose its crispness like other pastries, so reheat slices in a toaster or oven.

I don’t recommend refrigerating or freezing the loaf as it can get soggy.

Enjoy slices of the bread for breakfast or brunch with homemade jams like Blueberry Jam, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Apple Butter, or Concord Grape Jam with Vanilla.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

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Other Sourdough Bread Recipes You May Enjoy

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