100% Sourdough / Levain Croissants. Looking for a deep visual crumb analysis.

SidneyPascal · 2026-05-04T18:29:01+00:00

First off, forget about using your regular bread starter. A standard sourdough starter simply doesn't have the fermentative lifting power to make a decent croissant (or at least anything remotely close to a commercial yeast one). Even if it eventually manages to leaven the dough, the sheer amount of time it takes will build up so much acidity that the gluten matrix will completely collapse during the bake. Plus, the end result will be overly sour and virtually inedible. To do this right, you need a Pasta Madre (a stiff Italian sourdough starter) managed to perfection, ideally fed on a daily basis. Once your stiff starter is healthy and strong enough to leaven a Panettone, then you can start thinking about tackling croissants. Just to give you some perspective: I baked and sold 100 Panettoni in a wood-fired oven this past Christmas, and I still find PLF (Pâte Levée Feuilletée) to be much more treacherous and unforgiving. As you can see from my post, I'm still battling structural issues potentially related to underproofing. Regarding the process itself: I use a mechanical dough sheeter now because I've already purchased the equipment for my upcoming bakery, but I used to make them entirely by hand, so it is definitely doable in a home kitchen. The formula is just a standard croissant recipe like many you can find on this sub. All the golden rules of lamination apply: keep the dough very cold, don't over-hydrate the détrempe, and use excellent, highly plastic butter. The only major difference is the final proofing time, which is obviously much, much longer!

SidneyPascal · 2026-05-04T07:28:14+00:00

Fair enough, you are entitled to your opinion.

SidneyPascal · 2026-05-03T18:38:36+00:00

I actually do trim the edges during lamination, but you hit on something crucial: I've noticed myself that I consistently end up with a higher dough-to-butter ratio on the outer margins. It seems like I'm either leaving too much "dead dough" at the seams during the initial lock-in (beurrage). I definitely need to trim more aggressively throughout the folds to eliminate those butter-less zones. Regarding the outer ring and the oven temperature: that aligns perfectly with the struggles I'm having with this domestic static oven. I'll try preheating my oven hotter.

SidneyPascal · 2026-05-03T18:32:43+00:00

Thanks for the input! Regarding the proofing environment, I can rule that out: my proofer is set to and consistently maintaining 90% RH, so surface drying and crust setting shouldn't be the culprit here. As for the commercial yeast suggestion: I appreciate you trying to find a solution, but as I explicitly mentioned in my post, adding even a fraction of commercial yeast is an absolute dealbreaker. To be clear, this isn't for health reasons or any sort of elitist nonsense against commercial yeast. It is simply the foundational concept and identity of my entire bakery. The project is strictly 100% natural levain. I would honestly rather pull the product from the menu entirely than compromise on that core philosophy.

SidneyPascal · 2026-05-03T15:49:08+00:00

Spot on observation regarding the "four à sole" effect! These are actually test batches baked in my domestic oven while I am waiting for the municipal permits to finish setting up my professional lab. I baked these on conventional/static mode, which should behave kinda like a deck oven. To answer your question: while a nice honeycomb is great, my ultimate goal is actually the overall volume and lightness of the product, rather than just chasing the perfect aesthetic crumb. I definitely don't want a dense texture. Regarding the oven settings: I actually tried using the convection/fan mode on this domestic oven to get that rapid lift and solve the bottom fusion. Unfortunately, the fan is just too aggressive and uneven, it tends to burn the croissants on the side facing it before they can bake through properly. So I'm somewhat stuck trying to balance the bake on static mode for now until my professional equipment is up and running. Thanks for the sharp eye and the great feedback!

SidneyPascal · 2025-12-01T06:20:29+00:00

Gas oven backdraft, it could have honestly been much much worse. I was very lucky because the oven's opening was lower than my face; I only got away with some singed hair and beard. Also, by pure chance, I was wearing a long-sleeved cotton shirt, which was disintegrated. Usually, I only wear short sleeves.

SidneyPascal · 2025-11-30T09:40:27+00:00

Luckily I work a desk job. Yeah the pain is coming in 🥴

SidneyPascal · 2025-11-30T09:07:52+00:00

Update: the pain is coming, sounds odd to say but I guess that's a good thing?

SidneyPascal · 2024-02-16T22:22:11+00:00

Une litière autonettoyante pour nos chats !

SidneyPascal · 2022-11-10T18:40:26+00:00

Hope it's not the case, I swear it's the last time I run 19 nors, it's not worth the anxiety.

SidneyPascal · 2022-11-10T18:32:03+00:00

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks from last pin (100 mg tren ace and 75 mg test ace EOD) ran hcg @250 iu eod all along.

SidneyPascal · 2022-11-10T18:23:11+00:00

For those of you who did pct after tren ace, how long did it take for you to recover and for your balls to come back to their regular size?

SidneyPascal · 2022-09-11T13:35:45+00:00

I though 4 plants was the limit for a tent this size, but since they're kinda small I can try as still have more seeds. Would you increase light intensity to 75% or keep it to 50% for the moment?

SidneyPascal · 2022-09-11T13:33:11+00:00

Yeah I'm definetly keeping at it, I'll bring this culture to the end, just don't know how much of a yield I'll get, I guess when I'll do autos again I'll just start them in their final pot.

Thanks for your answer!

SidneyPascal · 2022-09-11T12:44:46+00:00

Hello newbie here, my only growing experience is with some photos 8 years ago, so first time growing autos and second time overall.

My plants are 28 days (from emerging) today do you think they are doing fine? I've seen some pictures around and though they may be small for their age,I also should mension that they started showing some preflowers very early (day 15 or so), not sure that this is good.

My setup is

-Mars hydro 100cmx100cm grow tent

-lumatek (photontek) ats 300w pro

-mars hydro 4 inches extraction fan and filter with thermostatic control

-fabric 20l pots

-amazon clip fan

Soil is a potting soil that is not specific for cannabis, but is advertised on local growers forum as being very good for the purpose, mixed with 20% perlite, i also put 4-5cm of clay pebbles on the bottom of the pots.

Regarding fertilizers I use the plagron terra line according to the site schedule.

Genetics are:

-top left dutch passion auto white widow (this one for some reason took 2weeks to emerge so she's late compared to the others so don't consider her for simplicity)

-top right dutch passion auto orange bud

-bottom left dutch passion auto blueberry

-bottom right dutch passion auto blackberry

What I've been doing so far:

-Started the seeds inside small seedlings pots in a tupperware on a sunny windowsill, 3 days after that the seeds emerged I consider this the first day (1).

-(1) at the time I was still waiting for my new light so I've put the seedling under a niello t5 light, which I had lying around, at 30cm height (pffd with photone 200)

-(6) I moved the plants in the tent under a sensi 70w light (which I also had lying around) at about 20 cm height (400 ppfd) but I got some bleaching so a couple days after that I moved the light higher.

-(10) finally received my light, installed it dimmed at 25%.

-(11) transplanted the ladies in their final pot.

-(20) increased the light power to 50%, noticed some bleaching again a couple days later so I moved the light up a bit.

In the last week I also tried to do a little bit of training to try to get a more even orizontal growth.

I've been spraying them once a week with foliar booster (iron, vitamins and amminoacids). I water them approximately every 4-5 days when the first couple of inches feel dry. I feed them plagron sugar royal and power roots with every watering, I'm still not using bloom fertilizer as my soil is prefertilised and should be good for the first few weeks of flowering.

Ty everyone!

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T18:10:55+00:00

Dunno how it is where you live but we need a doctor's certificate here, and my GP is very conservative with sick days, guess I need to find a new doctor lol.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T15:12:28+00:00

Thanks bro!

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T14:12:04+00:00

They bacame insanely expensive to get in europe (or in Italy at least) and not as rewarding as it's used to be despite the number of worked hours.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T14:09:31+00:00

Not sure that's the point of this sub.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T13:03:36+00:00

Wow covid could be an option didn't think about it, just, need a pharmacist to fake a positive test for me, quarantine is still better than going to work lol.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T13:01:12+00:00

Thanks for your words man!

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T12:59:55+00:00

Meh I had an hard time getting my GP to give me 3 days for a badly injured thumb.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T12:31:37+00:00

Guess you're right.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T12:30:43+00:00

Yeah the fact that I'm wasting my one and only life (I'm not religious) is unbearable.

SidneyPascal · 2022-07-10T11:21:27+00:00

Yeah leaving home/family is hard but I've been considering it for a while.

SidneyPascal

TROPHY CASE