Sourdough Cruffins With Cinnamon Sugar
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 is just as good!
Equipment
- Rolling Pin ideally, stainless steel
Ingredients
For Détrempé:
- 450 g strong white bread flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 40 g caster sugar
- 130 ml water
- 90 ml milk
- 150 g active sourdough starter 100% hydration
- 50 g unsalted butter room temperature
For Lamination:
- 250 g unsalted butter room temperature
For Coating:
- 120 g 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
*For best results, always weigh your ingredients.
Nutrition
Calories: 190kcalCarbohydrates: 22gProtein: 3gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.4gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 76mgPotassium: 29mgFiber: 1gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 321IUVitamin C: 0.01mgCalcium: 13mgIron: 0.2mg
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