Release the Cruffin!

Originally Published 04/08/2021

I mean it was only a matter of time before I had to try these babies out! And how cute are they!?

What’s not to love when a croissant and a muffin get together and officially get a couple’s name … oh cruffin😍. To make these, I simply used my croissant dough recipe and instead of making the classic croissant shape, I turned these into muffins. It’s as easy as that.

A lot of cruffin recipes fill the middle with something delicious. For this first attempt, I simply wanted to focus on the shape and simplicity of the taste. Which with the powdered sugar sprinkled on top reminds me of a beignet! Warm, crispy, buttery, sweet, and the perfect match to a cup of coffee!

My hubby has asked for the next batch to be filled with breakfast sausage and perhaps go with a biscuit and gravy motif 🤔. He may be on to something there! Anyways, these are beautiful and are sure to impress family & friends at any breakfast/brunch affair 😎. 

Now to make a cruffin…

As I mentioned above, the dough for these comes from my Croissant Recipe. I have posted the directions below which can be followed right up until the shaping of the cruffins.  However, if you want to see pictures of the process to help you get to this point, please feel free to refer back to that post! The first time you attempt croissant dough can feel overwhelming, but I promise with a little practice, you’ll get a feel for it and be making it without even thinking! The trick is to work quickly and keep the dough cold! My method does take some time, but it produces amazing croissants. There is always more than one way of going about things though! So, if you’d like another way of going about it, Lady and Pups makes her dough using a pasta machine.

Once you’ve followed the croissant recipe and you have two blocks of dough that are ready to be rolled out,

this is what you do next… Turn those blocks of dough into 10″x16″ rectangles and roll them up long end to long end to create two giant logs. Each log should be cut into 12 equal pieces giving you 24 cruffins total. For me, this worked out that every cruffin measured a little over 1 1/4″ in width as I was cutting. 

After each cruffin is cut, 

they can be placed in a muffin tin to rise before being baked. The Tulip Cupcake Liners that I used helped direct the height of the cruffins while they baked. They aren’t necessary, but helpful! Because of the amount of butter in these, they shouldn’t stick to the muffin tins without the liners. Another fun tip, turkey roaster oven bags make great proofing bags when you’re trying to rise dough that you don’t want sticking to plastic wrap. 

Let the cruffin rise in a warm spot for at least one hour.

It may take up to 2 hours before they are ready to bake. You’ll know the cruffins are done rising and ready to bake when they’ve doubled in size and look airy, fluffier, and almost pudding-like.

Once they’re done rising, bake one tray at a time at 375 degrees for 18-25 minutes. They should be puffed up and a lovely golden brown color when they are done!

Finally,

after you get them out of the oven, remove them from the muffin tin and let them cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes.

If you sprinkle them with powdered sugar while they are still too warm it will just melt into them. I mean, this is fine too haha, melted powdered sugar still tastes great! But to get the definition of the sugar on top of the cruffin swirls, it helps to wait until they are almost cool.

These are the most glorious when eaten the same day they’re baked! But, they are also great warmed up the next day, and the next day, and the next day lol. You seriously can’t go wrong with these! I hope you try making them! Let me know how it goes!

Print Recipe

Cruffins

Searching for something buttery, flakey, soft in the middle, and dusted with powdered sugar? A Cruffin might be just what you need!

Prep Time2 days d

Cook Time11 minutes mins

Course: Bread, Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert, Snack

Servings: 24 Cruffins

Equipment

• Measuring Cups and Spoons
• Kitchen Scale
• Mixing Bowls
• Rolling Pin
• Kitchenaid Mixer
• Rubber Spatula
• Ruler
• Knife
• Two 12 cup Muffin Tins

Ingredients

Croissant Dough

• 200 grams All-Purpose Flour 1 1/2 Cups
• 200 grams Warm Water 1 Cup
• 10 grams Yeast 3 1/2 tsp
• 475 grams Bread Flour 4 Cups
• 76 grams Sugar 1/4 Cup + 1 tbsp
• 30 grams Salted Butter 2 tbsp
• 90 grams Warm Water 1/2 Cup
• 2 Eggs
• 11 grams Salt 2 tsp

Butter Block

• 300 grams Salted Butter divided 2 Sticks of butter + 6 tbsp

Instructions

Day One

• In your Kitchenaid mixing bowl, pour in the warm water and sprinkle the top of the water with yeast, then pour the all-purpose flour over the top of the yeast. Let this sit for around 10 mins. When the flour on top starts to look cracked, you will know the yeast is active.
• While the yeast is activating, in a separate bowl, weigh/measure out and combine bread flour, sugar, and salt. In another bowl melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds, then add the warm water and eggs. Stir this mixture together, make sure it is warm to the touch.
• Once your yeast mixture has sat the appropriate amount of time, first add in the water, butter, egg mix. Using your bread hook attachment, turn on the mixer briefly to combine. Then add the flour, sugar, salt mixture, turn the mixer back on, and run on level two until all dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will look rough, but it shouldn’t be extremely runny, sticky, or too dry. If necessary add small amounts of water, or flour to correct.
• Take the dough from the mixing bowl and shape it into a ball, placing it in another large bowl. Sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough sit in a warm place for 1- 1 1/2 hours to rise.
• After the dough has risen, deflate the dough. Using the kitchen scale, divide the dough into two equal parts. Then shape these two parts into flat, rough rectangles, to where the dough is about an inch thick. Wrap these each in their own plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for an hour.

Once your dough is chilling in the fridge, it’s time to shape the butter blocks. Using four smaller sheets of parchment paper, mark out an 8″ by 6″ rectangle on two of them. Divide the butter, placing 1 stick plus 3 tbsp each on the unmarked parchment paper. Lay the marked parchment paper on top of the butter, and using a rolling pin, tap and roll the butter out until it fills the 8″x6″ rectangle. Place both butter blocks in the fridge to chill while dough finishes chilling.
• When the hour is up you are now ready to start the dough’s first turn! One at a time, take the chilled dough out of the fridge and unwrap it, placing it on a very well-floured surface, roll out a rectangle that is 16″x10″. Croissant dough works best if kept cold so you need to move quickly. Once your dough is rolled out, take a butter block out of the fridge and place it on half of the rolled-out rectangle. Fold the top half of the dough over the butter, encasing it in the dough. Then proceed to roll the dough out once more until it is about 16″ long by 10″ wide. Make sure to keep your countertop well floured to prevent the dough from sticking and tearing. Once it is rolled out long enough fold one end into the center and fold the opposite end over the top, making a book. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it back in the fridge for 30-45 mins to cool back down. Repeat with the second set of dough/butter block. Now you’ve complete the first of three turns!
• After 30-45 mins, one at a time bring back out your croissant books and on a well-floured counter, roll them each back out again until they are 16″ long and fold back into a book, re-wrap and place back in the fridge. You’ve completed your second turn and the dough is ready to rest in the fridge overnight! ****

Day Two

• On the second day, get your dough out of the fridge and give it one more turn. Roll it out on a well-floured surface, to 16″ in length, and fold one end in and the other over the top of it like the previous two turns. Return it to the fridge for another 30-45 minutes. This is your last turn.
• Once the dough has been properly chilled for the last time, get the dough out, and on a well-floured surface roll your dough out one final time, 10″x16″. The dough will want to shrink back, so roll it out just a little longer and wider than what you want to compensate for that.
• After the dough has been rolled out into a rectangle, start with one of the long sides and roll it up to the other long side creating a log. Next, measure about every 1 1/4″ and make a cut. You should end up with 12 cruffins. Repeat this process with the second block of dough.
• Place all 24 cruffins into their respective muffin tins (using tulip cupcake liners if you’d like).
• Place the muffin tins filled with the cruffins into large turkey roaster oven bags and allow them to rise for at least 60 minutes, up to two hours if necessary. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. The cruffin dough will look doubled, fluffy, and almost pudding-like when they are ready to bake.
• Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack of the oven for 18-25 minutes, or until the cruffins have risen and are a nice golden brown color. Remove from the oven and take them out of the muffin tins to cool on a cooling rack. When they are just barely warm dust them liberally with powdered sugar!
• Enjoy with a cup of coffee and a good friend!

Notes

*If you begin to roll out your dough and the surface looks cracked like a dry desert road, allow the dough to sit on the counter for around 5 minutes. At this point, the butter is colder than the dough and they need time to become similar temperatures before continuing to roll out.

*It is also important though, that you work quickly too, making sure everything doesn’t get too warm or your butter will start to melt out of and into the dough creating more of a roll at the end instead of the distinct flakey layers of a croissant.

*Make sure to wrap your croissant dough tight for its rest overnight, as it will continue to rise and bust out of its plastic wrap and dry out in your fridge.

*You can skip letting rest overnight and continue to day two’s instructions, the cruffins will work, they will just lack some of the delicious flavor they develop from proofing overnight. 

*After shaping the cruffins, the raw dough can be placed in the fridge one more time and taken out the next day to bake. The cruffins will just need to rise on the counter for 1-2 hours before being baked.

*After shaping the cruffins, the raw dough can be placed in the freezer and kept for up to a month to be used at a later time. Just bring back out the cruffins, place them back in a muffin tin, and allow them to rise fully before baking (about 3-4 hours in a warm spot). Also, these can be frozen after they are baked for up to a month, allow them to defrost at room temperature before serving. 

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