Hi everyone, I’m back with another laminated pastry, but this time with cruffins!
So before I go assuming you know what I am on about, what are cruffins you might ask?
Well, they are a mix of croissants and muffins, something dreamt up and brought to life by the famous Lune bakery here in Melbourne and made famous/viral by Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Fransisco.
So before tackling this recipe, I strongly recommend having a look at the “How to Make Croissants” recipe along with my “Pain au Chocolate recipe” as they would be able to provide with some tips and tricks when it comes to laminated dough.
However you could also simply be really adventurous and choose to throw caution into the wind and dive head first into this recipe.
The funny thing about this particular recipe is that whilst it makes it harder to “fail” given you are baking it in a mould, it is also harder to attain “perfection”.
Even up to this moment of writing this post, I feel like I’d still have a lot to play around with when it comes to the shaping as I continue my search for that perfect mould for my cruffins.
Why is it harder to fail?
Firstly we are doing lesser folds which means less handling of the dough thus reducing the chances of messing with the lamination (check out the diagram in the recipe below, took me a long time to whip it up so I hope it helps!).
Another thing is that because we are baking it in a mould, ultimately it will end up baking to the right “shape” and you don’t have to worry the crumb collapsing or not having enough structure etc.
And should we end up stuffing up the lamination or proofing by over proofing or proofing at too high a temperature thus melting the butter, it will still be a muffin shaped buttery pastry and you can still fill it with whatever you wish to fill it with 🙂 Sure, you won’t have a flaky pastry by that point, but it will still taste good 😉
Why is it harder to succeed?
You know me, (and to those new to the blog, “Hello there! :)”) you know that I am quite particular and usually have a vision in mind of which I am trying to obtain/reach.
I find that the cruffin crumb could be even more open than it currently is but you might be wondering… “But Sara, will you be able to taste the difference?”
I mean, I feel that you will be able to taste the difference, but the more important question is “will you care enough about the difference to be bothered with that perfect crumb structure”.
Unlike a traditional croissant, because of the shape it’s baked in, it will end up being more compact in it’s crumb either way as it has to conform to a certain mould and structure which pushes the pastry upwards as it bakes rather than upwards and outwards.
The current recipe produces a flaky butter croissant-muffin that’s crisp and shatters with a crumb open enough to allow you to fill the cruffins to your hearts content. As for whether that is good enough will be up to your personal preference 😉
I naturally find that I am happy enough with the current recipe which is why I feel comfortable with sharing it, so hopefully you will like the recipe too.
You’ll also notice in this recipe that I’ve provided a “cheat” Kouign-amann recipe. I say “cheat” because I hacked my original recipe to allow for this cruffin dough to be easily transformed into Kouign-amman. Which means you could make both Kouign-amman and cruffins at the same time.
My personal expectation of a Kouign-amman is for it to be in a round coin shape but many come in a round shape where the pastry is sliced into squares and folded in on itself and placed into a round mould like a cupcake tin. You could do that too if you wish.
But one non-negotiable part for me is that it has to be nicely caramelised with a lovely crunchy caramel base/shell that’s deep bronze in colour to take away some of that sweetness and ideally sprinkled with a mix of sugar and salt. (The salt bit is totally optional, but think of salted caramel. Isn’t it just that little bit nicer than regular caramel when it has that touch of salt? :p)
To achieve this crunchy base, you’ll need ample sugar on the base of your mould/tray and ample time in the oven.
What happens is that when the butter melts in the oven as it bakes and hits that sugar, that’s where the true magic happens. Caramel starts to form and turn all gooey and golden whilst hot, but sets into this crunchy crust once cooled.
These aren’t huge in size so treat this as a recipe ready-made in aiding with practicing portion controlled indulgence. 😉
Things to note:
- I use a taller mould than a regular muffin tin but you can definitely use a regular muffin tin or jumbo muffin tin. The mode space you give it width wise, the more it will expand outwards rather than upwards.
- Proofing time varies but please take note of the all the tips and tricks in my original “how to make croissants” and “pain au chocolat” recipe.
- Top level notes would be to ensure your butter is the right consistency and you have the right type of butter fat content in your butter for the best lamination 🙂
- Always keep things cool, if you see your dough warming up or butter melting, chuck it into the fridge or freezer otherwise you will end up with less of a flaky dough and more of a brioche dough.
- Size of moulds used in the video: Top diameter 7.5cm, base diameter 4.5cm, height 7cm.
Cruffin + Kouign-amman
Makes 6 cruffins or 9 kouign-amman or a mix of both.
What you’ll need
- 250g bread flour (I used T65 flour)
- 30g granulated white sugar
- 10g unsalted butter (for dough)
- 6g salt
- 140g water, room temperature
- 1.25 tsp instant dry yeast (4g)
- 125g unsalted butter, 82% butter fat minimum (for butter block)
Making it
The Night Before
Add bread flour, salt, yeast into the bowl of your stand mixer and give it a mix.
Add the water and butter and knead with the dough hook attachment until smooth.
Speed 2 – 9 mins, speed 3 – 3 mins.
Dough may feel sticky but it should feel manageable. To ensure the dough is at the right consistency, it should pass the window pane test.
Shape dough into a round and pat dough out into a 1″-1.5″ rectangle and place on a tray.
Wrap the tray with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of 9hrs.
To make your butter block, ensure the butter is at a malleable consistency, not soft but not hard.
You should be able to bend it back and forth and it shouldn’t snap or melt.
Fold a baking paper into a 12cm x 16cm package and place butter in it. Roll the butter out into a 12cm x 16cm block within the baking paper.
Place into fridge until needed.
The Next Day
First Fold – Book
Next morning roll your dough out to 18cm x 27cm
Place your dough into the fridge for 20mins to let the gluten rest and take out the butter and allow it to come to the pliable/malleable consistency (refer to my original croissant video).
Encase the butter in the dough by placing butter in the middle and bringing the right and left side of the dough towards the middle overlapping slightly where it meets.
Seal the butter within the dough by pressing down on any open seams.
Roll the dough out until it is 48cm long
Trim the top and bottom (this is optional, I like to remove any excess dough that might not have butter encased within it) until approximately 45cm,
Fold from top towards the bottom 1/3 and fold from bottom to meet the top seam. Then fold the dough in half again. This is your first book fold (please see video for reference)
Rotate the dough so the open seam faces your right.
If the dough is under 19C and still cold, continue with your next fold.
But if it has warmed up whilst you were working with it, freeze or refrigerate for 10-15mins until its around 17C.
Second Fold – Single
With the open seam facing your right. Roll the dough out to 40cm long, trim the top and bottom and do a single fold.
To do a single fold, take the top dough and fold it down by 2/3 until only the bottom 1/3 of the dough is exposed. Then take the bottom dough and fold it to overlap the top fold fully.
Rest your dough in fridge/freezer for 10-15mins. (I like to flip midways through the chill time to help it cool evenly)
Slice and Shape
Roll your dough to 22cm x 29cm. Keep in mind that your dough will shrink sightly as it sits, so feel free to roll it a little bit bigger.
Trim the edges of the dough to 20cm x 27cm so it is nice and neat.
Slice your dough in 3 cm intervals along the length and halve the dough along the width.
You should get 9 strips along length and 2 along width to make 18 short strips in total.
For each cruffin, take 3 strips and stagger them slightly.
Roll into a coil and tuck the tip of the top piece (no.3 in the diagram above) under the roll.
Press down gently to lock the tip in.
Place each coil in a metal cup shape mould or regular/jumbo muffin tin that has been buttered and push them in so that the base makes contact with the surface for even browning.
Proof until slightly less than doubled. Approx 3hrs 25-27C.
It should look really puffy and like a pillow and some of the layers should look really obvious.
Bake
Preheat oven to 200C whilst the cruffins are proofing and when cruffins are ready to be baked, place the tray into the oven and reduce the heat to 180C and bake for 20mins until deep golden brown.
Let cool in the tins for 1-2 mins to allow the cruffins to reabsorb the butter before coating in sugar by tossing the warm cruffin in a bowl of granulated sugar. Handle hot items with care, feel free to let your cruffin cool further if you are worried about burning yourself.
Dust off any excess sugar.
Let cool on a tray fully before filling them
Kouign-amann
Roll the dough into a 29x22cm rectangle and trim to 27x20cm rectangle.
Cut into 3cm wide long strips and sprinkle each strip with sugar on both sides.
(You can add a pinch of salt to the sugar to give it a slightly salty sweet kick.)
Roll the strip up nice and tight into a coil.
Butter and sugar muffin tins or 7cm ring molds. Add a thin layer of sugar to the base of the mould. (This will melt when you bake the pastry as the butter leaks from the pastry dough and mixes with the sugar. It will then caramelize and form a nice crunchy caramel base.)
Place the rolled up dough in the moulds and let proof until layers start to seperate and increase in size by 70%.
In an oven preheated to 200C load your proofed dough and immediately reduce the temperature to 180C and bake for 15-20mins until nice and deep golden. (You want a nice golden colour on it for that lovely caramelised crust)
Let cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before gently removing the kouig-amman.
I like removing it from the tart rings whilst the caramel is still warm to ensure it doesn’t stick as once the caramel cools it solidifies and hardens into a crunchy caramel.
Enjoy!
