Sourdough Cruffins (with Vanilla Custard)

First things first. A cruffin is the young, trendy, delicious love-child of a croissant and a muffin. It's flakey, soft pastry-dough, baked in a muffin tin and rolled in cinnamon sugar. The ones I am always seeing are piped with a homemade custard. I included a simple vanilla custard recipe with mine, but I am feeling very inspired to try some new flavor combinations with these! I made a video with instructions and visuals, I will link it below.

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I will NEVER make pastry dough any other way again. The sourdough starter gave the dough that spectacular tart bready flavor. The pastry dough was both flaky and bouncy, and to my splendor- no butter leakage. The key to nailing this is bubbly, active starter and cooling time. Pastry dough has a reputation of being tricky and error-prone. I have made all the mistakes and done so many versions (and fails) so you don't have to. If you don't have sourdough starter, reach out locally!

This recipe starts the night before. These flaky buttery bombs of sweet custard take time. The custard needs to set overnight anyway, so it worked out when I was testing overnight dough. When the results came out and the cruffins were spectacular, I knew I was onto something. I made my custard on the stove,(15 min) while I made my dough in the stand mixer. The prep work the night before is about 25 minutes tops, and makes the whole process easier. I always get intimidated when recipes are time stamped, but then I realized that sourdough is all about time. I have made a time table for you below so you can replicate the recipe as accurately as possible.

Stay with me, I break some traditional rules in this recipe. I don't proof my dough at room temperature for this recipe... at all. The only caveat is that my biggest hack is prepping the dough the night before because 8-10 hours in the fridge is the sweet-spot. It proofs slowly and makes everything so much easier the next day when you go to make the cruffins.

What You'll Need For Croissant Dough:

• 500 grams AP flour

• 60 grams granulated sugar

• 200g whole milk (90°F)

• 1/2 TB vanilla

• 150 g bubbly, active sourdough starter

• 1 egg

• pinch salt

• 1/2 cup sugar and 1 TB (for rolling at the end)

• 2 sticks of butter (butter block)

For Vanilla Custard:

• 4 egg yolks

• 1 TB vanilla

• 1/3 cup granulates sugar

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Let's Make It:

The Night Before

1. Make your dough. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine your warm milk, flour, salt, sugar, egg, vanilla, and active sourdough starter.

2. Knead on level 1-2 for about 2 minutes. The dough will be sticky but uniform. DO NOT OVERMIX.

   
   

3. Transfer your dough to a floured surface and wrap in plastic wrap. Place immediately in your fridge overnight. (Min. 8 hours)

   
   

4. Make your butter block. Pound 2 sticks of unsalted butter between 2 sheets of parchment paper. I use a rolling pin to hammer it flat and then roll it out. Place directly in your fridge overnight.

   
   

5. Make the custard.

   1. heat your milk and cream together on low and stir often. Let it come to a low boil.

   2. In a separate bowl, whisk your egg yolks, sugar and vanilla together.

   3. lower your heat and whisk in your egg mixture, do NOT stop whisking because you don't want your eggs to cook. Let this simmer and thicken on low for about 8-10 minutes.

   4. Transfer to a bowl with plastic wrap and let set in your fridge overnight.

      
      

      

      Croissant dough proofing after being shaped.

      
      

      The Next Day

   6. Start your laminations:

   1. On a floured surface, roll your chilled dough out into a large rectangle. 14x16 ish. It should be about a half inch thick. (If you need to let your dough sit for 5 minutes to work it, that's fine)

   2. Set your butter block onto your dough and fold your dough over the butter block. Roll it together with your rolling pin.

   3. Do a "Letter fold" fold your dough over itself and press down (not too hard) while rolling out with your rolling pin.

   4. CHILL in freezer for 15-20 minutes.

   5. Take your dough out of the fridge and set on your floured surface again. Do a double fold/ book fold. Take your dough and fold it into itself and then repeat again. Roll out with a rolling pin and set immediately back in freezer for 15-20 min.

   6. Repeat the last step and chill the dough for an hour.

   
   

   7. In a bowl, Combine your sugar and cinnamon for rolling the croissant dough in before we shape and bake.

   
   

   8. Roll your chilled dough out into a 12 x 16 rectangle. (about 1/2 inch thick)

   
   

   9. Cut your dough into 1 inch wide strips. Cut each strip into thirds. The strips will be about 3 inches long, 1 inch wide.

   
   

   10. Stack your dough strips on top of each other and roll inward to make a 'cinnamon roll' type shape.

   
   

   11. Roll your cruffin in the cinnamon sugar and place into parchment paper- lined muffin tins.

   
   

   12. Preheat your oven to 375°F. While your oven preheats, cover your shaped croissants and let them rise slightly on the counter for 25 minutes.

   
   

   13. Bake for 20 minutes. They should be a golden/light brown.

   
   

   14. Once cooled completely, scoop your custard into a piping bag. I inserted a metal chopstick into the top of mine to make a small hole to fill with custard.

   
   
   
   

Cruffins Recipe Video