I am really excited to share with you this quick and easy recipe today for Cinnamon Sugar Cruffins. This is a small batch recipe in that it only makes four cruffins, but it can very easily be doubled to make eight.
So what is a cruffin? I could hear you asking that all the way from over here. A cruffin is an amalgation of a muffin and a croissant! So you get a breakfast/breaktime pastry which is crisp and flaky and yet shaped like a muffin.
I have seen them in bake shops filled with preserves and stuff. I've also seen them topped with lots of scrumptious toppings, and from very large in size to very petit.
Each version looking more delicious than the last. I quite simply love pastry of any kind and when you are talking light and flaky laminated pastry, I am a total gonner.
I apologise in advance for these not to nice photographs today. They in no way do justice to the delicious reality of what I created. You have heard of "bad hair" days? This is a "bad photo" day.
We all have them, and I did contemplate just ditching the photographs and recipe altogether, but then I thought no, I'll keep them and post them. I've aways been honest with you and I want you to know that I have days like that like anyone else does. This was one of them.
I have cheated a bit today using frozen puff pastry. I just did not have the time to make my own laminated pastry. You can if you want to. If you use a sheet of frozen pastry like I did, make sure you use all butter puff pastry. That will give you the most authentic flavour.
You will need to unroll it and then roll it lightly with a rolling pin to a bit larger with a rolling pin.Not quite twice as large as your original sheet, but half again as large. Your pastry should be thin but not see through.
Once you have done that you will need to spread the whole surface of it with softened butter. I make no distinction between salted and unsalted here. I use Danish butter which is only lightly salted.
Once you have the butter spread over the surface you will want to sprinkle it lightly and evenly with cinnamon sugar. You don't want the sugar to be very thick. You just want a hint that it is there.
You are going to be needing to roll it up very tightly, as tightly as you can beginning from one long side to the other. If you put on too much cinnamon sugar the layers won't stay closed like they should.
Once you have done that you will need to cut th roll into two equal lengths of pastry. Each will be about 5 1/2 inches or so in length.
Once you have done that you will have to use a sharp knife and cut each length in half yet again. You will end up with four lengths of pastry then, each with one cut side and one rolled side.
Now you will need to roll those length of pastry up somthing like a rose. See the lovely cut edges, each one filled with butter and cinnamon sugar?
Just roll them up, again as tightly as you can. They don't need to be perfect.
You end up with four perfect rolls. Now you can put them right into the muffin tins, making sure you have buttered them really well first. Or like me, you can use cupcake liners to help prevent them from sticking.
Once the pastries are in the tins you will need to brush them with an egg wash. I have used a large free range egg yolk which I have beaten together with a bit of milk, but yu can also use water with the egg yolk. Both work well.
Also, you also don't want your pan to warp because of the empty muffin tin holes. The best way to prevent that is to partially fill them with water. A handy tip there for you!
You may think the bake time is a bit long, and it might be, depending on the ferocity of your own oven. The thing you want to avoid is doughy centres. You really want the tops of these to be completely golden brown.
If you underbake them you risk having gummy centres. There is nothing more unpalatable than a gummy centre on anything, but especially when you are talking Puff Pastry.
You want them to be light and crisp with lovely flakey layers. Start checking them at about half an hour, if you think they are browning to quickly you can always cover them lightly with a sheet of aluminium foil.
You don't want them burnt either. I think the risk of that is fairly slim however, unless your oven is really on the extra hot side and if that's the case you need to have it fixed! 👍👍
Once they are completely baked you leave them to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. Things expand when heated and contract a bit when cooled. This will make them easier to get out of the pans if you haven't used papers.
It also makes them much easier to roll in the cinnamon sugar. I always like to add a bit of ground cardamom to my cinnamon sugar mixture. I love the flavour. You can leave it out if you want to!
In any case you will be wanting to roll the baked Cruffins in more cinnamon sugar while they are still warm. That way the sugar will coat them beautifully and stick.
If you don't think you have enough, you can always make extra cinnamon sugar. I like lots on mine. As you can see they are well coated.
These are beautifully moreish. Nice and flaky. Buttery. Sweet. Cinnamony. I like them just as they are.
I have it on good authority however that a bit of jam or lemon curd sets these off to perfection. Just thought you would like to know.
Easy Cinnamon Sugar Cruffins
Yield: 4Author: Marie Rayner
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 40 Mintotal time: 50 Min
This is what you get when you cross a croissant and a muffin. Deliciously simple actually!
Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter 4 holes in a medium sized muffin tin. Set aside.
Roll your sheet of puff pastry out to an 11 by 15 inch rectangle. Spread with the softened butter. Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll up as tightly as possible, working from the long edge.
Cut the roll lengthwise into two strips. Then cut each strip crosswise into two pieces. You should have four equally sized strips of layered dough.
Roll each piece up like a snail and place into the muffin tin. Brush the top of each with some of the egg wash, being careful not to let any drip down onto the tin, as it may cause it to stick.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven until they are a deep golden brown. Don't be afraid to overcook them as you don't want the centres to be doughy.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Place the remaining cinnamon sugar in a bowl. Roll each cruffin in the mixture until thoroughly coated.
Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream, jam, lemon curd, nutella, etc. Deliciously moreish!!
Did you make this recipe?
Just look at how beautiful those are. all those buttery, crisp, flaky layers. Everyone will think you slaved all day to create them. Nobody needs to know just how easy they were. It can be our little secret! 😉
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