fitlife 
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Hello, friends, I have so much to share today so this will be a long post! It’s been a very busy time here the past two weeks with spring birthdays and a belated Easter celebration with family this past weekend.
Today, I’m sharing a recipe that I have become totally obsessed with. TOTALLY. I’ve made these Cruffins (croissant meets muffin) three times in the past two weeks and my jeans are feeling a little tight. I’m thinking an intervention or rehab might be in order. When I first saw the technique using a pasta roller to thinly roll the dough for these cruffins on Lady and Pups I immediately imagined how wonderful they might taste with cinnamon sugar added as in Morning Bun pastries.
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I got out my KA mixer pasta attachment and got rolling! Flaky, croissant-y layers of butter and cinnamon-sugar deliciousness. I was hooked when I tasted the first one.
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I’m not adding a tutorial because the one you’ll see on Lady and Pups is very thorough if you decide to try these (although mine are not nearly as beautiful as hers). From now on, I promise
to only eat these on the weekend. Promise! Fingers crossed~
For our Easter celebration, I made Bunny Cakelets for my grandsons with my new cakelet pan from Williams Sonoma. WS is already sold out of them but you can still find them on Amazon. Aren’t they adorable?
Last, and certainly not least, things are growing and blooming here at last! It certainly is a time to celebrate!
I’ll be back soon to share a recipe for the delicious birthday cake that I made for my daughter!
Please see tutorial on Lady and Pups as a guide.
The major change I made to her recipe (other than my addition of
cinnamon sugar) was in the cutting of the dough ‘logs’ after they are
rolled out in the pasta roller and covered with butter and cinnamon-sugar
mixture. I tried cutting
them ‘crosswise’ as she did but most of the cinnamon sugar oozed out
with the butter during baking which made a caramelized mess
and kept them from rising properly. Therefore, for my morning bun
adaptation, instead of cutting the
logs lengthwise before twisting into buns, I cut my logs crosswise
instead and rolled them with my hands until long enough to twist into
the
pretzel shape. Two successful batches later can’t be bad (unless of
course you become addicted to these as I have).
It
is best to use a digital kitchen scale to measure the flour and water,
but if you don’t have one, loosely pile the flours in a measuring cup
and scrape the top level with a knife.
150 grams (1 cup + 1 tbsp) bread flour
150 grams (1 cup + 1 tbsp) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp (6 grams) instant dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp (11 grams) salt
130 grams (1/2 cup) luke-warm water + 30 grams (2 tbsp) if more is needed
50 grams (3 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature
115
grams (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, divided into 4 equal parts (2 T each)
and softened to room-temperature (I placed mine in four small individual
ramekin dishes)
1 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 hours before starting the dough, leave the butter on the counter for it to completely come to room-temperature.
Mix 1 cup of sugar with 4 teaspoons of cinnamon and blend thoroughly and set aside.
Butter a muffin pan or spray with baking spray with flour, such as Bakers Joy.
In
a stand-mixer with dough-hook (or large bowl with hand-held mixer with
dough-hooks), whisk together flours, yeast and salt until blended. Add
130 grams of luke-warm water (around 95F/35C) and knead on low speed for
3 min. The dough should be slightly shaggy and stiff, but if it has
difficulty coming together, add the additional 30 grams (2 tbsp) of
water and knead again. Then, add the 50 grams of cubed butter and knead
on low speed for 5 minutes until completely incorporated. Increase to
medium speed and knead for another 10 ~ 15 minutes until the dough is
extremely smooth and elastic. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for
20 minutes at room-temperature. It should expand slightly.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, and divide it into 4
equal portions. (Use your digital scale to proportion them if you have
one). Work with 1 portion at a time covering the rest loosely with
plastic wrap. Dust the dough with just enough flour so it doesn’t stick,
then pat into 1/3″ (1 cm) thickness. With a pasta machine at its
thickest setting, feed the dough through the machine.
Very
lightly dust both the dough with a bit of flour, then start running the
dough through the machine, until you reach the thinnest increment
(should be very thin but not falling apart). If necessary, cut the dough
in half if it gets too long. On my pasta roller attachment I rolled my
dough to the second thinnest setting.
Lay the very long piece
(or two pieces if you had to cut it side by side) on the counter. With
your fingers, gently rub a thin layer of the room-temperature butter
(has to be very soft but NOT MELTED) evenly across the dough, extending
all the way to the edges. A pastry brush may help with this step. Do
this to both sections of the dough if you had to cut it in half. Keep in
mind that this is a 1/4 of the entire dough and you should use up 1/4
of the butter.
Sprinkle 1/8th cup or so of cinnamon sugar over the buttered dough.
Once
finished, start rolling the dough from one end to the other, as tightly
as you can, into a firm log. If you had to cut the dough into two
pieces, then place the first log on end of the other buttered section of
dough, and roll it up again. Now, cut the log in half cross-wise with a
floured knife. Roll the two cut pieces with your hands on the counter
until they are about 6 inches long and then twirl the dough and shape it
into a semi-knot and tuck the ends underneath. Place the knots inside
buttered muffin-pan. Repeat the process with the other 3 portions of the
dough and butter.
Bake
in a preheated oven at 400F/200C, for about 20 minutes (more or less,
depending on your oven) until puffed and golden browned
Note:
You can wrap the entire muffin-pan with plastic wrap and leave it in
the fridge without allowing the dough to rise and bake them the next
day. They may take up to 3 hours or more to rise after being chilled.
