Gently knead the dough on your work surface very briefly so the dough comes together, then use a rolling pin to roll it into a rough rectangle shape, don’t worry too much about the size, we just want a relatively even thickness, so that the dough has a consistent temperature throughout (if you were to chill the dough into one large ball - when you roll it the next day, the inner temperature will be different to the edges of the dough so you will have a very inconsistent dough temperature which affect your laminating and fermentation).

For the beurrage/butter block - it is really best to use a laminating butter. This is a professional butter that is designed especially for laminating dough as it has a higher fat content, and a higher plasticity, then means it is considerably more flexible when rolling, making it much less likely to crack. I cannot recommend it enough - it will the whole process 100x easier. It is usually available from specialist online grocers, but if you search for ‘Isigny Pastry Sheet Butter’ (there are also many other brands) you will hopefully find it.

Flip it back over and use a rolling pin to roll the butter, pushing it to the edges and creating an even layer of butter across the rectangle of parchment. Place this in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or again, ideally overnight.

Follow the same steps as above, shaping the butter into a neat rectangle. Chill it for one hour or ideally overnight.

Temperature is key now - when laminating croissants, if your butter is too cold when you go to roll it, it will crack. If it is too warm, it will simply leak out. Remove your butter from the fridge - it is ready to use when it reaches a temperature of 12C/54F. At this temperature, you will see that the butter is slightly firm but flexible. You can test the temperature by placing a digital thermometer into the butter.

Just before it is at temperature, remove your dough from the fridge. We need this to be at around 4C/40F. Very lightly flour the dough, and give it a quick roll, to make the rectangle of dough slightly larger, around, 35x20cm (13.5”x8”).

Use your fingers to pinch the dough together to form a seam down the centre.

With this seam facing towards you, turn the dough 90 degrees so the seam is now horizontal to your body and give the dough a quick roll, to give it a little bit of width.

Turn the dough 90 degrees again so the seam is vertical in line with your body and begin to roll the dough. Working relatively quickly. Apply even pressure and roll the dough into a long even rectangle, flouring very lightly if needed.

Wrap the dough tightly in cling film, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes, then into the fridge for 10 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge, and with the open seam facing you (i.e if you were looking at the dough straight on, you would be able to see where it has been folded over itself), use a sharp knife again, to score the edges of the dough where it is folded.

Turn the dough 90 degrees so the open seam is now horizontal to you and give the dough a quick roll, to give it a little bit of width.

Turn the dough 90 degrees again so the open seam is facing you again and begin to roll the dough. Roll the dough into a long even rectangle, very very lightly flouring it, just as we did in step 25.

Trim off the wonky edges, and perform a second single fold. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill it again for 15 minutes in the freezer, and 10 minutes in the fridge.

Remove the dough and roll it out again, following the exact same steps, and performing your final single turn. Wrap the dough tightly in clingfilm and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. The technique I prefer uses 3 single folds, however for a more open honeycomb structure you could do one double fold and one single fold.

Once chilled, with the open seam facing your body, roll the dough out so that it is around 37cm/14.5” tall, then rotate it 90 degrees, and roll it into a rectangle that is around 3.5mm thick - you will ideally want to use a digital caliper to measure this. Don’t worry about the length of the rectangle, all we are concerned about is the height and the thickness.

Use a ruler and a sharp knife or box cutter, to cut the dough into triangles. You should get 7-8 croissants if you rolled them to the right thickness, 6 if things are a little thicker!

Remove them from the oven, and leave them at room temperature to form a skin while you preheat the oven. Set the oven to 185C/365F Fan Assisted.

Egg wash and bake the remaining tray, then serve warm or allow to cool slightly.