So what exactly is a cruffin? Up until our host kitchen posted about them, I had never heard of one! I had heard of cronuts, which is a hybrid croissant and donut, but not cruffins - a hybrid croissant muffin. I would honestly categorize it as more of a "croll" for most people. It's like a very fine peel apart roll in muffin shape. Bakeries can get lots of flaky layers because they have nifty industrial dough sheeters that can easily roll the dough down to a super thin layer. Most of the home bakers out there will be rolling these out by hand, or if you're lucky and have a pasta roller, you can use that. I am lucky there and dug mine out to use.
We were given free reign to use any cruffin recipe and I refrained from going sweet this time, though all the bakeries turn these into fantastic sweet pastries with all sorts of fillings. I may try them again, as I would like to use more levels on the pasta machine than my method called for. It said to go up to stage 5 and I could have gone up to 9. Still, the layers baked up beautifully and the cruffins were buttery delicious! (Fantastic with jam!) Eldest would have preferred sweet versions, hubby loved them plain. I really would love to try a garlic buttered version! My recipe called for an overnight rest for the dough and chilling before cutting and shaping. That worked well though I do recommend a very sharp knife or a serrated knife to prevent sealing the layers together when cutting the tubes for shaping. As with the povitica, a very well developed dough is essential for better ease of shaping.
We would love for you to try these buttery beauties and bake along with us this month!
New recipes are posted every month on the 16th. Check out our Facebook group to see the participants' baking results during that time.
Cruffins
makes 12
Recipe and method from Bake Street
300 g all purpose flour
160 g water
50 g sugar (I reduced to 25g for the plain butter cruffins)
15 g milk powder
4 g instant yeast
30 g butter at room temperature (I used salted butter here)
4 g salt
120-150 g unsalted butter at room temperature for laminating (I needed the lesser amount)
160 g water
50 g sugar (I reduced to 25g for the plain butter cruffins)
15 g milk powder
4 g instant yeast
30 g butter at room temperature (I used salted butter here)
4 g salt
120-150 g unsalted butter at room temperature for laminating (I needed the lesser amount)
Day one: make the dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, yeast, powdered milk, sugar and salt. Mix together and then add the water. Knead with the dough hook on low speed until the dough is fairly well developed, about 15 minutes. It will be slightly stiff. Add half of the 30g butter and knead until it is completely worked in. Add the remaining half and knead again until completely integrated. Knead the dough until it is smooth and supple and the gluten is very well developed.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, yeast, powdered milk, sugar and salt. Mix together and then add the water. Knead with the dough hook on low speed until the dough is fairly well developed, about 15 minutes. It will be slightly stiff. Add half of the 30g butter and knead until it is completely worked in. Add the remaining half and knead again until completely integrated. Knead the dough until it is smooth and supple and the gluten is very well developed.
Remove the dough and form into a slightly flattened rectangle and cover it with plastic wrap.
Store in the fridge until the next day.
Day two: Divide and conquer shape
Take out the dough and divide it into 6 pieces of approximately 89 g each. Roughly form each piece into a ball, cover and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
Roll or stretch each piece individually. First press or roll the piece out into a rectangular shape that will fit into stage 1 of the pasta machine. Pass the piece of dough through the pasta machine. Sprinkle a tiny bit of flour on both sides of the dough to prevent sticking to itself. Proceed to roll the dough down to at least level 5 thickness. The dough will become longer with each successive pass. Handle it carefully to avoid tearing. Once as thin as desired/possible either cut or stretch the ends to square them up and cover with a thin layer of butter.
Use your fingers to carefully butter the entire surface of the dough. Roll up the dough starting from a short end. Set that piece aside and repeat the stretching and buttering of another piece. Once the second piece is buttered, place the first roll right at the beginning to match seams and continue to roll the second layer onto it.
Cover with plastic wrap and repeat the same process with the other pieces to make 3 rolls in total. Chill the rolls for 1 hour until the butter is well chilled. This step will help prevent the layers from melting while shaping.
Grease a muffin tin with butter and dust with flour as you would for a cake. Set aside. Take one of the rolls and cut it lengthwise using a sharp or serrated knife.
Cut each long piece in half across the middle and form each into the shape of the cruffin. To do this, curl the pieces up with the cut sides facing out. Place into the tin and repeat with all remaining rolls and pieces. We are basically quartering each roll. I found it necessary to gently stretch a few of my pieces to make them long enough to curl up. Having a wider roll to begin with will help the length of the final pieces.
Cover the tin with wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size. This could be 1-3 hours.
Cover the tin with wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size. This could be 1-3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 390ºF. Bake on the center rack for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 355ºF and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, carefully transfer the finished cruffins to a wire rack and let cool down completely.
Fill and decorate as desired. These may be enjoyed plain, with a dusting of powdered sugar, or filled and topped as simply or lavishly as desired.
The rest of the Bread Baking Babes
- Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth
- Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
- My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
- Bread Experience - Cathy
- Thyme for Cooking - Katie
- My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna
- Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle
- Karen's Kitchen Stories - Karen
