A cross between a muffin and a croissant, cruffins are a delicious pastry that will be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Our version is made with a laminated sourdough pastry and then rolled in cinnamon sugar to make a deliciously sweet flaky and decadent treat. If you enjoy traditional French pastries, like croissants and pain au chocolate, give these Cinnamon Sourdough Cruffins a try! This relatively recent innovation in the pastry world is just as good!
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We use a straightforward croissant dough enriched with sourdough! This good old-fashioned croissant dough is perfect not only for Sourdough Cruffins, but also for Pain Au Chocolat and Ham & Cheese Croissants!
Ingredients
If you keep a sourdough starter, you are likely to be able to make these beautiful sourdough pastries without even having to run to the shop. Using common ingredients that most home cooks have at home, the transformation of them into a buttery flaky Sourdough Cruffin is almost incredible.
You will need:
- strong white bread flour: strong bread flour has a higher gluten content than all-purpose flour, which translates into a better rise, and higher water absorption, making the dough easier to roll and better moisture retention, making the inside of Sourdough Cruffins flaky but not dry.
- salt: just a pinch of salt will help balance the flavour of cinnamon sugar that these cruffins will be covered in.
- caster sugar: also known as superfine sugar. We prefer using caster sugar over granulated sugar because caster sugar is finer and dissolves in the dough more quickly. We will also use it to coat the pastries after baking.
- water: use lukewarm water to help the dough rise.
- milk: we used whole milk in this recipe, but semi-skimmed or skimmed will also work well.
- active sourdough starter: we use 100% hydration sourdough starter, bubbly and active.
- unsalted butter: you will need 300g to make this recipe: some for the dough and lots for lamination. If you can, use European-style butter, as it has a higher fat content compared to American butter.
- ground cinnamon.
Equipment Needed
You can make the main dough (détrempé) by hand, as it isn't sticky and can easily be kneaded by hand, however, if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, then absolutely use it! We love and use our Kenwood Mixer on an almost daily basis. You will also need:
- Rolling pin: stainless steel or marble rolling pins work wonders in pastry making.
- Sharp knife or pizza cutter.
- 2 x non-stick 12-hole muffin trays.
- A pastry brush.
NOTE: A standard 12-hole muffin tray won't give you a sleek bakery-style cruffin shape, so if you do want a tall cruffin, you may want to inverst into a cruffin tin or use a pop-over tin (like this Nordicware Grand Popover Tin!
Before You Begin
Sourdough Cruffins are naturally leavened and don't rely on commercial yeast for the rise of the pastry. As a result, it is critical that you use a strong active sourdough starter.
We always recommend weiging your ingredients using a digital scale for best results.
A Note On Sourdough Starter
A sourdough starter that is low in acid will work best. That simply means that your starter needs to be frequently refreshed prior to using it to make the laminated dough.
Détrempé (the dough) for sourdough cruffins is enriched with milk, butter and sugar and will require that little extra might of the natural yeast to rise the dough.
We recommend you feed a little bit of your starter for 2-3 days in a row before using it for cruffins. Regular feeds will ensure both low acidity and strong yeast. More on maintaining sourdough starter here.
Another important thing to remember is that sourdough starter is best when used at its peak (and never once it starts to deflate unless the recipe specifies 'sourdough discard').
Once you fed your starter one last time before making a laminated pastry, leave it in a warm spot for 4-5 hours. It should double (maybe even triple in volume) in that time and you're fine to use it then. If you leave it for longer, your starter may reach its peak and then start deflating.
If your starter hasn't doubled in 4-5 hours at 20-24°C, you may need to keep feeding it for a couple more days before it's fit for purpose (and there's only one purpose - to get our teeth on those great Sourdough Cruffin, right?).
Method
Step 1: Making Détrempé
Once your starter is at its peak, make the détrempé (the enriched dough that is one of the 3 main elements of cinnamon cruffins - détrempé, butter lamination and cinnamon sugar coating).
In a bowl of a stand mixer (we absolutely love our Kenwood), fitted with a dough hook attachment, mix the dry dough ingredients: strong flour, salt and sugar. Pour in the water, milk and active sourdough starter. Turn the stand mixer on low speed until everything is combined. Then run it for 5 minutes at medium speed. The dough will come together into a rather stiff ball (don't expect it to look smooth or elastic at this stage, it may even look a bit dry). Leave the dough to relax for 15 minutes.
Run the stand mixer again on medium speed, and start adding 50g of room temperature butter a little bit at a time. Make sure your butter is soft (hard butter will have trouble combining with the dough).
Keep the mixer running for around 8-10 minutes until the butter is fully incorporated and you have a smooth dough. It shouldn't be sticky.
Shape a tight ball, and slash the dough with a sharp knife (a razor or a dough scorer) in a cross on top of the dough (see photo below). This will help you roll the dough out into a square/ rectangle rather than a circle.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and leave in a warm spot to bulk prove for approx. 4 hours. Ideally, you need a temperature of 21-23° C. If it is warmer, adjust the timing: your dough should rise x1.5 times.
Place the dough in the fridge for another 3-4 hours to finish proving and double in size. Finishing with a cold-proof helps roll the dough out later as it will be nice and firm.
Step 2: Laminating
Laminated pastry creates that flaky effect that good croissants and cruffins are known for. This is achieved by creating thin layers of détrempé and butter. The butter is encased in the dough and then rolled out, folded and rolled out twice more.
Prepare the Butter
Take cold butter out of the fridge in advance so it is soft enough to be rolled. Place it on a large sheet of baking parchment (we highly recommend Bacofoil Baking Parchment - it is strong and lasts forever), place another sheet of parchment on top. Using a rolling pin, gently bash to flatten the butter.
Then fold the baking parchment under into a neat 18x18cm (7×7 in) square and roll the butter inside the parchment parcel into all four edges, aiming for the same thickness across (see video below). Enclosing the butter block into the baking parchment square will help you get an even butter square with sharp edges. Still wrapped in the baking parchment, place the butter in the fridge to firm up.
Butter Temperature for Laminating Process
An important element of making the flakiest of cruffins is ensuring the butter doesn't melt into the détrempé dough in the lamination process. In order to achieve this, you need your butter and dough of similar temperatures (or the dough slightly colder).
What is more, you don't want the butter too cold either, otherwise, it will brittle instead of creating even layers when you try to roll the pastry. Judging the right temperature of the dough and the butter will come with practice, but if the butter is too hard, just leave it out to soften.
The pastry should also be chilled in the fridge between folds to ensure the butter stays cold and doesn't melt into the dough.
Reader Review
"These are my new obsession!!! So yummy. Thanks for such detailed instructions-I found them really helpful and you answered any questions I had."
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Lamination
Take the dough out of the fridge and place it onto a floured worktop. Knock the air out with the bottom of your palm and roll it into a rectangle around 18x36cm (7x14in). Try to make it even.
Unwrap the butter (keep the baking parchment). Place the butter in the middle of the dough.
Fold both sides over the butter to meet in the middle. Then pinch the edges of the dough together to seal in the butter. You should now have a 20x20cm (8x8in) butter parcel. Wrap dough in baking parchment and freeze on a flat surface for 10 minutes.
First Fold: Single Book Fold
Take the parcel out of the freezer, unwrap and roll the parcel out into a rectangle that's around 20x50cm (8x20in). Make sure your dough isn't sticking to the worktop as you roll: you want the butter encased and the dough may tear if it sticks. Dust with flour if needed. Using a sharp chef's knife or a pizza cutter, cut off any untidy short edges that don't have any butter in them.
Take the short edge of the pastry and fold it into the centre. Take the other edge of the pastry and fold it into the middle, so that the two edges align in the middle. Then close the two sides as if you're closing a book.
Wrap the dough in the baking parchment you kept the butter in, or cling film, and place in the freezer for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for 1 hour. This will slow down the yeast in the dough.
Second Fold: Letter Fold
Take the dough out of the fridge and place it short edge in front of you. Roll the dough out to 20x50cm (8x20in) again.
Fold the top third of the dough towards the centre and then the bottom third over (just like a letter or a pamphlet).
Wrap and place the pastry in the freezer for 15 minutes, then fridge for 4 hours. This is needed to slow down the yeast colonies rising the dough. It's not time for that yet 🙂 You can also leave the pastry to chill overnight.
Step 3: Shaping Sourdough Cruffins
After four hours (or next morning), lightly grease the 2x 12-hole muffin tins with butter.
Take the pastry out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for 5 minutes at warm room temperature. Unwrap and, on a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out into a 40x45cm (16×18in) rectangle, gently getting all the air out of the pastry if it puffed up. You don't want pockets of air to burst abruptly though, exposing the butter.
Trim the pastry from all four sides to create even edges. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut the pastry sheet in half lengthways, then in half again (you should have 4 long 10x45cm thin strips). Then cut each long strip into 15 rectangles each measuring 3x10cm. You should have 60 small rectangles. You will need 3 of these per cruffin, making 20 small sourdough cruffins.
Place 3 pastry strips on top of each other, like shown in the photo below. Then roll them into a spiral.
Place each roll of pastry in a muffin tin hole, making sure that the lamination is showing on the top (see photo below).
Step 4: Proving Shaped Pastries
Importance of Temperature and Humidity
The optimal temperature for the second proof should be around 23-24 C (any higher and your butter will start melting into the pastry). The humid environment will ensure that the sourdough cruffins won't form a crust on top, preventing the pastries from rising.
*** If Your Kitchen is Very Cold or You Live in a Dry Climate: Boil a kettle of water. Pour the water into an ovenproof dish and place it in the bottom of your cold oven. Close the oven door and let the water steam inside for 10-15 minutes. Before you place the cruffins in the humid oven to proof, make sure it's no hotter than 23-24°C. I also like to cover the cruffins with a large sheet of lightly oiled clingfilm, when I proof them this way in the winter months. ***
Proof the sourdough cruffins for approx. 4 hours. The pastries should puff up significantly and the layers should be clearly visible.
Step 5: Baking Sourdough Cruffins
Once your cruffins have been proofed, we like to place them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. The butter in them will have time to solidify a bit again to help create perfect flaky layers.
Whilst the sourdough cruffins are chilling, take the ovenproof dish with water out of the oven and then preheat it to 190°C Fan.
Bake the pastries for around 18-20 minutes. The tops of the cruffins should be golden brown and crispy.
Leave the sourdough cruffins to cool in the tin for 1-2 minutes, but not much longer, as you want them hot for the sugar to stick to the surface better.
Step 6: Finishing Touches
In the meantime, mix caster sugar and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Drop hot cruffins into the mixture and toss them in order to fully coat.
TIP: if sugar doesn't stick to the cruffins, take them out of the muffin tin and, using a pastry brush, dab them with the butter that may have leaked out into the bottom of the muffin tin. Then drop the buttered cruffins into the cinnamon sugar.
Leave the finished pastries to cool down on a wire rack. They are best served within 4 hours of baking! We enjoy them most when they are still ever so slightly warm!
Cruffin Filling Ideas
We admit we do not fill our cruffins! Covered in cinnamon sugar, with all the buttery flakiness (especially served warm) this hybrid of a croissant and a muffins is delicious without anything added to it!
But, if you fancy something a little extra special, cool your sourdough cruffins to room temperature. Then make a small hole in the centre and pipe the filling into it using a piping bag. Here are some suggestions:
- Lemon Curd (skip the cinnamon though).
- Thick Vanilla Custard (a.k.a. Pastry Cream).
- Creme Mousseline.
- Chocolate Ganache.
- Biscoff Frosting.
Love cinnamon-flavoured bakes? You are in the right place! We love using cinnamon in sourdough adventures! Try our Sourdough Cinnamon Babka, Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough Bread and Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls next!
Storage
Sourdough cruffins taste best on the day that they are baked, but any leftover sourdough pastries can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You may also opt to freeze cruffins, but make sure to do so before rolling them in sugar.
Other Sourdough Pastry Recipes
If these sourdough cruffins caught your attention, we have a few more deliciously flaky pastries for you to try:
- Overnight Sourdough Croissants
- Sourdough Pain Au Chocolat
- Sourdough Kouign Amann
- Sourdough Cheese Twists
Christmas Sourdough ebook
Celebrate the holiday season with a unique twist this year with our 24 Christmas Sourdough recipes! Discover the magic of using active sourdough starter, sourdough discard, and leftover baked sourdough bread to create a memorable and flavoursome Christmas feast.
Sourdough Cruffins With Cinnamon Sugar
Equipment
- Rolling Pin ideally, stainless steel
Ingredients
For Détrempé:
- 450 g (3⅝ cups) strong white bread flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 40 g (¼ cups) caster sugar
- 130 ml (½ cups + 1 tbsp) water
- 90 ml (¼ cups + 2 tablespoon ) milk
- 150 g (¾ cups) active sourdough starter 100% hydration
- 50 g (3½ tablespoon) unsalted butter room temperature
For Lamination:
- 250 g (8.82 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
For Coating:
- 120 g (1 cups) caster sugar
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Make Détrempé
- Once your starter is at its peak, make the détrempé. In a bowl of your stand mixer (we absolutely love our Kenwood), fitted with a dough hook attachment, mix the strong flour, salt and sugar. Pour in the water, milk and active sourdough starter. Turn the stand mixer on and knead for 5 minutes at medium speed. The dough will come together into a rather stiff ball (don't expect it to look smooth or elastic at this stage, it may even look a bit dry). Leave the dough to relax for 15 minutes.
- Run the stand mixer again on medium speed, and start adding 50g of room temperature butter a little bit at a time. Make sure your butter is soft (hard butter will have trouble combining with the dough). Keep the mixer running for around 8-10 minutes until the butter is fully incorporated and you have a smooth dough. It shouldn't be sticky.
- Shape a tight ball, and slash the dough with a sharp knife (a razor or a dough scorer) in a cross on top of the dough (see photo below). This will help you roll the dough out into a square/ rectangle rather than a circle. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and leave in a warm spot to bulk prove for approx. 4 hours. Ideally, you need a temperature of 21-23° C. If it is warmer, adjust the timing: your dough should rise x1.5 times. Place the dough in the fridge for another 3-4 hours to finish proving and double in size. Finishing with a cold-proof helps roll the dough out later as it will be nice and firm.
Butter Parcel
- Take the butter out of the fridge in advance to soften slightly. Place it on a large sheet of baking parchment, place another sheet of parchment on top. Using a rolling pin, gently bash to flatter the butter. Then fold the baking parchment under into a neat 18x18cm (7×7 in) square and roll the butter inside the parchment parcel into all the edged, aiming for the same thickness across. Enclosing the butter into the baking parchement square will help you get an even butter square with sharp edges. Still wrapped in the baking parchment, place the butter in the fridge to firm up.
Lamination
- Take the dough out of the fridge and place it onto a floured worktop. Knock the air out with the bottom of your palm and roll it into a rectangle around 18x36cm (7x14in). Try to make it even.
- Unwrap the butter (keep the baking parchment). Place the butter in the middle of the dough.
- Fold both sides over the butter to meet in the middle. Then pinch the edges of the detrempe together to seal in the butter. You should now have a 20x20cm (8x8in) butter parcel. Wrap it in baking parchment and freeze on a flat surface for 10 minutes.
First Fold: Book Fold
- Take the parcel out of the freezer, unwrap and roll the parcel out into a rectangle that's around 20x50cm (8x20in). Make sure your dough isn't sticking to the worktop as you roll: you want the butter encased and the dough may tear if it sticks. Dust with flour if needed. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut off any untidy short edges that don't have any butter in them.
- Take the short edge of the pastry and fold it into the centre. Take the other edge of the pastry and fold it into the middle, so that the two edges align in the middle. Then close the two sides as if you're closing a book. Wrap the dough in the baking parchment you kept the butter in, or cling film, and place in the freezer for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for 1 hour. This will make slow down the yeast in the dough.
Second Fold: Letter Fold
- Take the dough out of the fridge and place it short edge in front of you. Roll the dough out to 20x50cm (8x20in) again. Fold the top third towards the centre and then the bottom third over (just like a letter or a pamphlet). Wrap and place the pastry in the freezer for 15 minutes, then fridge for 4 hours. This is needed to slow down the yeast colonies rising the dough.
Shaping Sourdough Cruffins
- Lightly grease the 2x 12-hole muffin tins with butter. Take the pastry out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for 5 minutes at room temperature. Unwrap and, on a lightly floured worktop, roll the pastry out into a 40x45cm (16×18in) rectangle, gently getting all the air out of the pastry if it puffed up. You don't want pockets of air to burst abruptly though, exposing the butter.
- Trim the pastry from all four sides to create even edges. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut the pastry sheet in half lengthways, then in half again (you should have 4 long 10x45cm strips). Then cut each long strip into 15 rectangles each measuring 3x10cm. You should have 60 small rectangles. You will need 3 of these per cruffin, making 20 small sourdough cruffins.
- Trim the pastry from all four sides to create even edges. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut the pastry sheet in half lengthways. Then each long strip into 12 rectangles each measuring 18x5cm (7x2in). You should have 24 even rectangles (see photos below).
- Place 3 strips on top of each other, like shown in the photo below. Then roll them into a spiral.
- Place each roll of pastry in a muffin tin hole, making sure that the lamination is showing on the top (see photo below).
Proving Shaped Pastries
- The optimal temperature for the second proof should be around 23-24 C (any higher and your butter will start melting into the pastry). The humid environment will ensure that the sourdough cruffins won't form a crust on top, preventing the pastries from rising.
- *** If Your Kitchen is Very Cold or You Live in a Dry Climate: Boil a kettle of water. Pour the water into an ovenproof dish and place it in the bottom of your cold oven. Close the oven door and let the water steam inside for 10-15 minutes. Before you place the cruffins in the humid oven to proof, make sure it's no hotter than 23-24 C. I also like to cover the cruffins with a large sheet of lightly oiled clingfilm, when I proof them this way in the winter months.
- Proof the sourdough cruffins for approx. 4 hours. The pastries should puff up significantly and the layers should be clearly visible.
Baking Sourdough Cruffins
- Once your cruffins have been proofed, we like to place them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. The butter in them will have time to solidify a bit again to help create perfect flaky layers.
- Whilst the sourdough cruffins are chilling, take the ovenproof dish with water out of the oven and then preheat it to 190°C Fan.
- Bake the pastries for around 18-20 minutes. Leave the sourdough cruffins to cool in the tin for 1-2 minutes, but not much longer, as you want them hot for the sugar to stick to the surface better.
Finishing Touches
- In the meantime, mix caster sugar and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Drop hot cruffins into the mixture and toss them in order to fully coat.
- TIP: if sugar doesn't stick to the cruffins, take them out of the muffin tin and, using a pastry brush, dab them with the butter that may have leaked out into the bottom of the muffin tin. Then drop the buttered cruffins into the cinnamon sugar.
- Leave the cruffins to cool down on a wire rack. They are best served within 4 hours of baking! We enjoy them most when they are still ever so slightly warm!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Elisa says
Love this Cinnamon Sourdough Cruffins recipe, they look so delicious and easy to make. Definitely will have to make them for this weather with hot cocoa. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ieva Greber says
Sounds like a wonderful plan! Hope you enjoy making them as much as you enjoy eating them 🙂
Ashley says
Omg, I'm working on my own sourdough starter and I can't wait to make these cruffins when it's ready!
Ieva Greber says
Cruffins will be a perfect reward for working hard nurturing that starter...
Ann says
I'm excited to try something different with my starter with this recipe. Thanks!
Ieva Greber says
Yes! I love how far beyond a loaf of bread sourodugh starter can take you 😀
Bobby says
Wow, these are so good! It was my first time making something like this so the pictures were super helpful. I always stick to regular sourdough. Thank you!
Ieva Greber says
Glad you tried the recipe - it's amazing what you can do with sourdough starter, right?
Chelsea says
These are my new obsession!!! So yummy. Thanks for such detailed instructions—I found them really helpful and you answered any questions I had.
Ieva Greber says
Thanks, Chelsea! Really glad you liked the recipe!
Claudia says
Cinnamon Sourdough Cruffins are the perfect blend of buttery croissants and cinnamon rolls, creating a flaky, sweet, and tangy treat with a sourdough twist!