You probably already got it from the name, Cruffin is a combination of a croissant and muffin. My family nominated it to be one of the best desserts they’ve ever tasted. The dough is so delicious and can be used for danish or danish rolls as well.
Thank you for the recipe and inspiration @bennys_baked.
I adjusted the original recipe by adding sourdough starter to it and lowering the amount of yeast.
Ingredients
Danish Dough (for 12 cruffins)
- 500 g bread flour (protein 12-13%)
- 100 g water
- 110 g milk
- 60 g sugar
- 60g sourdough starter on it’s peak
- 1 egg
- 10 g salt
- 3g instant yeast
- 40 g butter at room temperature
- 250 g roll-in butter (pastry butter with 82% fat or more)
Pastry Cream
- 250 g heavy cream
- 250 g milk
- 100 g egg yolk
- 100 g sugar
- 20 g corn starch
- 10 g plain flour
- 1 vanilla bean
Cherry Compote
- 1/2 cup frozen tart cherries
- 3 tbs sugar
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup of orange juice
Directions
Night before
- Dissolve yeast in water and milk mixture add sourdough starter, add an egg, sugar, salt and all flour. Mix by hand , or on a slow speed of your mixing machine. Add soft butter. There’s no need to develop strong gluten. Dough can remain little lumpy. Gluten will develop by itself overnight.
- Cover in plastic wrap, put in the fridge until next morning.
- Learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch here.
Next day
- Prepare butter for rolling. Butter has to be playable (temperature about 64F/18C), use parchment paper to roll it into a block, about 7×9 inches/18x25cm each side), transfer it to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes before rolling.
Please note, the butter shouldn’t be too cold, or too warm: If its too cold, then during lamination, it will start to break into pieces. if its too warm it will melt in between the layers.
- Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll it as a rectangular 12×31 inches/30x80cm
- Place butter block inside the dough, the way it showed on the picture.
- Seal the edges, to let butter stay inside.
- Start rolling by pushing the butter from 1 side to another (lengthwise).
- Cut the edges. Place on top of the dough. It will release the tension during rolling
- Fold the dough as a letter(1st single fold).
- Turn the dough 90 degrees, and continue rolling lengthwise. Cut the edges, put them aside, fold the dough as a letter(2nd single fold)
- Cover the dough, transfer it to the fridge for 1 hour.
- Remove the dough from the fridge.
- Roll it in a rectangle with sides about 12×20 inches /30x50cm.
- The dough should be 4-5mm thick.
- Cut the dough in strips about 1×3 inch/3x9cm.
- Shape them as shown in the picture as a roll, pinch the sides under.
- Place each shaped cruffin into cruffin mold or big muffin mold.
- Poke a hole in a center of each cruffin with your finger.
- Note: at this point you can transfer covered shaped cruffins to refrigerator until 9-10pm, then you can remove them and let them proof overnight at 68-72C/20-22C. And you’ll be able to bake fresh cruffins for breakfast.
Or
- Cover cruffins and let them proof for about 4-5 hours at 74-78C / 24-26C until they double in volume.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Bake cruffins for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Pastry Cream
- Meanwhile prepare the pastry cream by preheating milk and cream on low heat.
- In separate bowl combine yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch, mix until no lumps remain.
- Temper yolk mixture with warm cream mixture, whisk, put it back to a low heat. Keep stirring constantly, until the cream will get thicker, add vanilla paste or vanilla bean.
- Let cool down.
Cherry Compote
- Cook frozen cherries over low heat, until juice will start to appear. Add orange zest and orange juice.
- In separate bowl mix cornstarch and sugar. Add to a cherry mixture. Continue cooking over low heat snd stirring constantly until compote will get thicker.
- Let cool down.
- Fill cruffins with pastry cream first, then top with cherry compote.
Enjoy!
Thank you for amazing recipe, I like hybrid recipe!
I have one question, Can I use raspberry instead of cherries?
Thank you!
Sure!
You can use any fruit or berries filling
I wish that you would also include the amounts of ingredients in conversion to cups and spoons please. I do not want to waste time trying to figure out the grams which I am not comfortable with. chaseone66@gmail.com
Thank you for your feedback! We will definitely take your suggestion into consideration and work on including the amounts of ingredients in conversions to cups and spoons in our recipes. We want to make sure our recipes are accessible and easy to follow for all our readers. If you have any more suggestions or requests, please feel free to let us know.
Hello, what if I want to make it with yeast? An you help with the amount please and thank you.. Can’t wait to make it 🙏
I’d like to know this too please!
I’d like to use yeast as well and would appreciate the amount, type, etc. TIA
Susan W
Please convert measures to cups, spoons etc!!!!! Please
Can’t wait to try! Could you possibly include more pictures of rolling the dough out with the butter on it prior to refrigeration? Also which edge of the dough am I supposed to cut?
Thank you!
Thank you!
Will do more pictures next time I’ll make them.
Is the butter sweet ?
What kind of brand do you use ? Or can I make it . I’m a bit confused on which butter to use .
Thank you
Hi!
I am using pastry unsalted butter. With 82.5% fat
Hi this looks amazing!
Quick question Is the butter sweet ? What kind of brand do you use ? Or can I make it . I’m a bit confused on which butter to use .
Thank you
Will you please review the measurements of the dough rectangle and the strips. They don’t match the pictures.
Results were fair, an incredible amount of work though. Thank you
Mihaela, sorry it didn’t work out for you. All measurements are correct. So many factors involved to get great results: flour and butter quality,temperature of the environment and dough, dough handling.
I’m sure with some practice it will get much better.
Can I skip instant yeast? Will they still rise and be as good?
Yes, but final proofing will take much longer.
hello! So I followed the instructions and instead of 12 I made 8 haha soooo should I lengthen the bake time and decrease the temp in the oven so they don’t burn? A little butter was coming out too as I rolled them
It might take little longer to get them baked properly
Hi why do you poke a hole in the cruffin before chilling? What does it do? And can I do it after proving but before baking? Or must it be done before proving?
It will help for cruffin to keep its shape. After proofing you will ruin the structure.
Do you need 3g of yeast or could I replace it with more SD starter?
I poked it before the overnight proof, and it disappeared by morning, so I tried poking it again and it started to deflate my cruffins. They puffed up so much in the oven anyway that the hole disappeared, so I wouldn’t bother with poking the hole again. Instead, I just stuck a knife down the top after baking and wiggled it around a bit so there was enough room for all that tasty filling:)
Thank you for sharing your experience with poking the cruffins before and after baking! It’s great to hear that you found a method that works for you by using a knife to create space for the filling after baking. Experimenting with different techniques is all part of the fun in baking. Enjoy your delicious cruffins!
Прекрасный рецепт. Спасибо. Я бы хотела приготовить без дрожжей. Как рассчитать время расстойки? Спасибо
Без дрожжей может занять до 12 часов
Doing this recipe right now! For overnight proof on the counter- is that based on 8hours? Just trying to gauge so I don’t over proof!
Thanks!
Hi!
Yes, about 8 hours
I was nervous about the overnight proof too, but it was the perfect amount of time!
I’m glad to hear that the overnight proof worked out well for you! It can be nerve-wracking to leave dough overnight, but the results are often worth it. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Hi
Where did you get the cruffins molds?
They look fantastic
I just used a normal muffin tin, but I did it with tulip liners since they’re a bit bigger. It seemed to be the perfect size!
How much yeast do I use if I do not have sourdough starter?
Use 1% of yeast from total amount of flour (5g in this recipe)
“Shape them as shown in the picture as a roll, pinch the sides under.”
Is it only me, but I don’t see a picture there…?
I don’t see it either but look for the video she made.
Se puede reemplazar la masa madre por levadura?
I just rolled it up, much like a cinnamon roll!
Hi I am making these and the first proof in the fridge I couldnt get to them until much later. can I still use this dough? Or should i restart
Do you have to use sourdough starter? Thank you.
These are so tasty! Although the recipe was a bit confusing in a few cases, I pushed through and ended up with delicious Cruffins for easter breakfast! The important thing is to read the recipe through and make sure you will have enough time to properly execute the recipe- I made a little schedule for myself on an index card like I always do for laminated doughs or fancy breads. I will say that the dough was SUPER hard to roll. I’m guessing I just overdeveloped the gluten, as I let my stand mixer do the work to mix the ingredients together, but I will say that although I was nervous that they would be very tough, they were still light, flaky, and quite delicious at the end. These are not the most flaky pastry you will ever eat, but they still had a good amount of flake to them and I was very happy with the result. If you wanted more, you could probably do a fold or two more. Once I cut them into 12 strips, I rolled them into thinner strands and rolled them up (much like cinnamon rolls) before putting them in muffin tins. I did use larger tulip liners so they had enough room to expand. I did poke a hole in the center before the overnight rise and after, and it just disappeared in the oven and partially deflated the cruffins before baking. In the end, I just took a knife and hollowed out a small hole after baking and it worked wonderfully- I won’t bother with poking a hole with my finger again. I will say, I was sceptical about letting them rise overnight at room temperature- I almost put them in the fridge anyway- but I had faith and followed the recipe and they were perfectly proofed in the morning! Considering this, I’m not sure if the 4-hour eating on the same day proof would be long enough, and I would definitely opt for the overnight option. As far as the pastry cream and compote topping- WOW! Best pastry cream I’ve ever tasted! Better yet, there was a decent amount of extra, so I used it in a plethora of wonderful ways the week following 🙂 I did change it up and make a raspberry compote instead, so I just subbed raspberries for cherries and used lemon juice instead of orange. It was so good, and added the perfect bit of tartness to the recipe, while the pastry cream brought some sweet creaminess, and the cruffin itself brought good flavor and wonderful flaky layers- it was a textural and flavorful dream! I ended up using a piping bag and round tip to really get the fillings in there. After eating, I just stored them in the fridge, and they kept very well, not really losing any of that flaky charm, so don’t be afraid to make a big batch so you’ll have extra!
WOW that was a long review. To sum it up- Make these NOW!!!
Thank you so much for your detailed and enthusiastic review! We’re thrilled to hear that you enjoyed making and eating the Cruffins, despite the slight challenges you faced with the recipe. Your tips and insights on the process will be incredibly helpful for other bakers looking to try this recipe. It sounds like you put a lot of care and effort into perfecting these Cruffins, and we’re so glad that your hard work paid off with delicious results.