• Add the flour, sugar, sourdough starter, milk, egg, vanilla and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Mix on low speed until the dough becomes smooth and glossy. You can also easily do this by hand. Mix and knead to make a shaggy, sticky dough. Continue to knead for about 5-10 minutes
• Form the dough into a ball and place in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, foil, or a beeswax wrap and place in a warm spot for about 4 hours.
• Place the bowl in the refrigerator to continue fermenting for 8 hours, or up to 3 days.

Laminating the dough with butter

• To roll the butter block out into a 6" by 8" inch rectangle, place the sticks of butter on a large piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle it with flour.
• Fold the parchment paper around the butter, so that the butter will fill the entire envelope once you roll it out. You are aiming for a butter block that is 6 inches by 8 inches. You don’t need to be too precise here. You just want to make sure the pastry dough can entirely encase the butter when you roll it out for laminating.
• Tap out the butter with a rolling pin lightly to start to spread the butter, then roll smooth.
• Chill the butter for 10 minutes. You want the butter to stay nice and cold to create the flaky butter layers. Too warm and it will just smush out. Cold butter is essential.
• Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured surface.
• Roll it out into a 16" by 8" inch rectangle.
• Place the butter packet in the middle of the dough. Fold the edges over, so they meet in the middle and completely encase the butter. Pinch the middle seam and sides closed, so none of the butter can escape.

First fold

• Roll the dough, with the butter sealed inside, back out into a 16" by 8" inch rectangle.
• Fold each side into the center again; then fold one side over the other to make a rectangle with 4 layers of dough. (See picture)
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and put it back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Second fold

• Roll the dough out into another 16" by 8" inch rectangle.
• Again, fold each side into the center; then fold one side over the other to make a rectangle with 4 layers of dough.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and put it back in the refrigerator for 2 hours, up to 12 hours.

Make the pastries

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Divide the dough in half. Put the half you aren’t working with back in the refrigerator, so that it doesn’t get warm while you are shaping the other.
• Roll the pastry dough out into a 12” by 9” rectangle. Visually divide the dough into three equal sections. You could also mark it with small cuts, if desired.
• Spread the cream cheese filling down the center. Top it with fruit, jam or pie filling.
• Using a sharp knife, cut 10 strips on each side of the filling, avoiding cutting into the center. Remove the outside strips from the top. This gives you a bit of dough to encase the filling.
• Fold the remaining top piece of dough down over the filling.
• Next, fold the strips to the center, alternating sides to create a braid. Angle them down a bit, so that by time you get to the bottom, there is enough dough to encase the bottom of the pastry braid.
• Chill for one hour.
• Brush with an egg wash.
• Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Spread the glaze on top. (optional)
• Serve warm.