Selfmade Cruffins – Sally’s Baking Habit

Buttery and flaky croissant dough will get snarled with a beneficiant dose of cinnamon-sugar and baked in a muffin pan, combining two tasty treats into one: croissants + muffins = cruffins. In the event you’re searching for a brand new one-day baking problem, this distinctive pastry is a enjoyable one to attempt. And completely scrumptious to eat! That is an egg-free baking recipe.

What Are Cruffins?

Cruffins are a pleasant hybrid of two beloved bakery treats: croissant dough baked right into a fantastically spiraled muffin form. After I determined to make a do-it-yourself model, I needed to be taught extra about their origin. It seems cruffins have been first created in Melbourne, Australia, by Lune Croissanterie and later made their strategy to the U.S., due to Australian pastry chef Ry Stephen.

And we will all agree—this buttery masterpiece was a creation value promoting!

Let’s Attempt an Approachable Selfmade Model

In case you have ever taken the time to make flaky, buttery croissants from scratch, you’ll know that do-it-yourself pastry requires time, precision, and persistence, however is a really rewarding baking mission. I do know it could actually appear intimidating, however I completely break down the method for you, step-by-step, within the tutorial under.

*Bakery cruffins are normally taller than in the present day’s do-it-yourself model as a result of they’re baked in deeper pans, corresponding to popover pans. Since many residence bakers don’t have popover pans, this recipe is designed for the standard muffin pan.

Selfmade cruffins don’t require any particular elements, however they do require 4 rounds of 20-minute refrigerations, 3 rounds of rolling-and-folding (laminations), and a pair of rises. For these causes, I categorize this as a sophisticated baking recipe. However I’m right here to stroll you thru every step.

You may completely do that!

Begin by Making the Dough

The bottom dough for these cruffins is similar yeasted dough we use to make this croissant bread loaf, which is a scaled-down model of my recipe for do-it-yourself croissants.

You want very fundamental elements: entire milk, yeast, sugar, salt, butter, and all-purpose flour. I like to recommend European-style butter right here. It has a better fats content material than American-style butter, giving it a richer taste. Whereas the distinction is delicate in lots of baked items, it turns into extra noticeable in recipes the place the butter in the principle ingredient… like cruffins!

Not solely did my staff and I discover higher taste, the dough was simpler to roll out when laminated with European-style butter. It’s softer, which made the dough extra pliable… and the method simpler! 😉

In case you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, you should use that to make and knead the dough, nevertheless it’s not required. See my Tips on how to Knead Dough tutorial when you want any additional assist with the kneading step.

When the dough is able to rise, cowl it and let it rise for round 2 hours, till it’s practically doubled in dimension. Gently punch down the risen dough to deflate it:

Roll the dough into a ten×14-inch rectangle on a evenly floured silicone baking mat or piece of parchment paper. In case your baking mat has a border like a Silpat (pictured under), you should use the border of the baking mat as your information—it’s like having a cheat sheet!

Place the baking mat on a baking sheet, cowl, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Throughout this primary refrigeration, put together for the lamination.

In Photographs: Lamination Course of

Laminating dough is the method of folding butter into dough many instances, which creates a number of alternating layers of butter and dough. When the laminated dough bakes, the butter melts and creates steam. This steam lifts the layers aside, leaving us with dozens of flaky ethereal buttery layers. We obtain one thing comparable in tough puff pastry, pie crust, and biscuits.

The butter you employ for laminating this cruffin dough ought to be barely softened however nonetheless cool—about 60–64°F (15–18°C) is right. You need it to be about the identical temperature because the refrigerated dough. In case you have an instant-read thermometer, you’ll be able to insert it in each the butter and the dough to test.

With a mixer, beat the butter with a Tablespoon of flour. I realized this from Zoe at Zoe Bakes. (Please go observe Zoe, she is the very best!) Begin with softened butter and beat it with flour so it has some stability, which makes laminating simpler.

1st lamination: Take away the dough from the fridge and unfold the overwhelmed butter down the center third of the dough with a sturdy knife, leaving a ½-inch border on the prime and backside:

Fold the edges of the dough over the butter, such as you’re folding a letter into thirds:

Pinch the highest and backside ends to seal the butter inside. Flip the dough 90 levels, so the longer aspect is horizontal in entrance of you. Sprinkle with flour. Roll out to 9×12 inches.

Fold in thirds once more:

Cowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

2nd lamination: Flip the dough horizontally in entrance of you, and roll it out to 9×12 inches once more. Fold in thirds. Flip 90 levels. Roll out to 9×12 inches once more. Fold in thirds. Cowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

third lamination: Repeat the identical steps because the 2nd lamination. Cowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

3 Lamination Success Ideas

1. Don’t lengthen the time between laminations, or it should change into too stiff and tough to roll out.
2. It’s OK if there are air bubbles within the dough; your rolling pin will pop them.
3. If the butter begins coming by way of the dough in spots, sprinkle some flour over it and proceed to roll. You could have to flip the dough the wrong way up and sprinkle extra flour on the underside to maintain it from sticking to the baking mat/your work floor.

Shaping the Cruffins

Lower the chilled dough into 3 roughly equal parts. They need to every weigh round 300–340g, give or take. Take one dough portion and roll it out to eight×12 inches; it should maintain shrinking again and never attain these dimensions but. Set it apart to relaxation when you roll out the following piece. Set that one apart. Roll out the final piece and set it apart.

Take the primary piece you rolled out and roll it out once more. After its brief relaxation, it ought to be a lot simpler now to roll it out to be 8×12 inches. Re-flour and flip the dough over as wanted to maintain it from sticking to the floor or rolling pin:

Sprinkle the floor with cinnamon-sugar.

With a pizza cutter or sharp knife, reduce 1-inch strips of dough.

Working with 3 strips at a time, layer them on prime of each other. Roll them up collectively in a spiral cinnamon-roll form:

Place in a single nicely of a greased muffin pan. Repeat with the remaining strips to get 4 cruffins.

HAVE NO WORRIES: Needless to say your cruffins might look barely completely different from these photographs, and from one another. That’s OK! Due to the best way we’re shaping them, every cruffin bakes up a bit in another way. When you roll the baked cruffins in sparkly cinnamon-sugar on the finish, they in some way all look uniquely stunning, irrespective of how they seemed within the muffin pan.

Now repeat this shaping course of with the remaining 2 parts of dough—you’ll find yourself with 12 cruffins. Evenly cowl the cruffins and allow them to rise for 1 hour.

The cruffins take about 25–28 minutes to bake. In the event you test one with an instant-read thermometer, they’re carried out when the interior temperature reaches 200°F (93°C).

Let the cruffins cool barely within the pan, nearly 10 minutes. As soon as they’re cool sufficient to deal with however nonetheless heat, roll them within the remaining cinnamon-sugar. (Be happy to make some additional cinnamon-sugar if you wish to be beneficiant together with your coating!)

Non-obligatory Filling

These cruffins are excellent as is, however if you wish to take them one step additional, you’ll be able to fill them. These cinnamon-sugar cruffins style totally fabulous with Nutella, and different fillings corresponding to jam, lemon curd, or pastry cream are equally scrumptious.

Like after we fill cupcakes, a protracted skinny piping tip is nice for this activity. I exploit Wilton #230 to fill cruffins. Poke a gap within the middle of a cruffin with a skewer, insert the piping tip into the opening, and squeeze the piping bag till the filling reaches the highest of the cruffin.

Try these layers:

I hope you get pleasure from diving into this excellent layered, laminated world of buttery pastry!

Useful Instruments for Making Cruffins