Hybrid Sourdough Cruffins with Cinnamon Black Sesame Sugar

A friend of mine on Instagram was kind enough to share her formula for sourdough and hybrid sourdough cruffins/croissants.  My first attempt at making a laminated dough was my Danish loaf.  I unfortunately fermented the shaped dough in its pan at slightly too high a temperature so the better melted and was absorbed by the dough.  With that in mind, I chose a season with cooler weather, kept my range hood exhaust fan on, and opened my balcony door a bit to keep my kitchen temperature around 72°F.  I also kept the final proofing temperature of the shaped cruffins down to between 74-76°F instead of 82°F.  

For a first attempt at cruffins, I have to say I’m super happy with these.  They are so crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside with wonderful layers of pastry.  I just love Donna’s idea of coating them with cinnamon and ground black sesame, a flavour combination I hadn’t considered.  I have made some changes to the recipe, but the main things such as the ingredient ratios are all from Donna.  You can follow her on IG @thedonnakim she does a lot of fabulous baking and chocolate treats, really artistic work.

These are a fantastic way to try making a laminated pasty, you can do so many things with them by changing the sugar coating and or filling them with preserves or creams.  Perhaps I’ll try croissants at some point now that I’ve been able to fairly successfully make cruffins.

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BUTTER BLOCK 

• 250g unsalted butter, 82-84% fat, EU butter has minimum 82% fat.

ENRICHED HYBRID CROISSANT DOUGH

• 425g AP flour
• 192g water//or scalded whole milk
• 50g caster sugar
• 28g butter
• 50g egg, 1 large *subtract from water total if over 50g*
• 60g levain
• 5g-10g instant yeast (gold saf) (I’ll use 7.5 g, this moves very quickly so use less next time)
• 10g fine salt

ENRICHED SOURDOUGH CROISSANT DOUGH w/STIFF SWEET LEVAIN

• 388g AP flour
• 126g water//or scalded whole milk
• 50g caster sugar
• 28g butter
• 50g egg, 1 large *subtract from water total if over 50g*
• 170g sweet stiff levain
• 10g fine salt

Stiff Sweet Levain - for hybrid dough

13 g starter

11 g white sugar

15 g water

34 g AP flour 

Stiff sweet levain for sourdough (non-hybrid)

30 g starter

26 g white sugar

35 g water

79 g AP flour

Donna’s Cruffin flavoured sugar coating.

200g sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Around 2 tbsps ground roasted sesame seeds

EGG WASH (for croissants or pain au chocolat, not needed for cruffins)

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp Whipping cream/milk
• 1 tsp honey

METHOD  

Mix Your Dough

Weigh and scald the milk, if using (needs to get to 180°F - 185°F), then set aside to cool down.  If not, weigh water.

Mix all ingredients together using stand mixer - knead the dough until it becomes cohesive, about 5 minutes. Look for a rough/shaggy dough that forms into a ball.

*Don’t knead for long as you don’t need to develop gluten at this stage*

Set up aliquot jar, form dough into nice taut ball, place into a covered container and proof until doubled.

***First Proof: 80-82°F (I did this at 82ºF )

1.5-4 hours for Hybrid (dependant on added yeast weight + temperature)

10-12 hours for Sourdough (dependant on temperature)

Once doubled, gently degas and fold 4 corners in (a little stretch and fold over). Then work into an 17cm/8”ish square.

Wrap loosely in plastic/in ziploc and chill overnight.

Prep your butter block!

Cut a sheet of parchment so it’s big enough to make a folded over 17cm square. 

Cut the butter while it is cold and place into your prepared parchment square and fold to cover. Allow it to warm to room temperature, approximately 1 hour, and then flatten the butter to fill the 17x17 cm square right to the corners.  Try to get this an even thickness.  Do not allow the butter to get too warm and melt. Refrigerate until needed.

Lamination

Next day, if possible, get your kitchen to a cool 70-72°F. 

Pull butter block from fridge about 10 minutes before starting to roll out dough. Butter needs to warm up a bit first! 

Butter block temp should be about 55°F/13°C for lamination. 

**55 to 61°F (13 to 16°C), butter should be malleable, stiff yet bendy but not overly soft. Should be able to make a finger indent. Ideal dough temperature will be slightly cooler, at 36 to 43°F (2 to 6°C)**

Once it is at 55°F /13°C, grab dough from fridge and quickly start shaping into a 26 x 26 cm square. Lightly dust the counter and the dough with flour.  Once your dough square is prepped, the butter temp should be right in the zone!

Rotate your dough regularly while rolling it out to ensure that it isn’t sticking to the countertop.  Once it has reached the desired size 26 x 26 cm brush off the excess flour.  

Transfer your butter square from the parchment by opening the parchment and placing the butter square so it looks like a diamond in the square.  The edges of the butter square will be at 45° angle from the sides of the dough square.

Next enclose the butter fully with dough by lifting and gently stretching the corners of the dough into the center of the butter square.  Try to avoid trapping bubbles of air while doing so.  It is OK if the dough overlaps a bit.  Pinch the dough closed and your butter should be fully covered by dough now.  

Time to start rolling out your dough!  Aim for a long trimmed rectangle of about 20 cm x 80 cm.

Have a cookie sheet with two sheets of clingfilm ready.  After each fold you can place the dough on the clingfilm, wrap it up and transfer it into the fridge.  You can keep this in the fridge to keep it cold.

First fold is a double/book fold.

Aim for a (trimmed) rectangle around 20cm x 80cm.

Trim dough short ends and (optional) recycle them back into your dough by placing them underneath your folds. They will roll out with your next turn. The trimmed ends can also be used to fill any gaps when doing the first fold of the book fold.  Brush off excess flour.  First fold covers 2/3 of the bottom then the second fold covers 1/3.  This is so the seam isn’t centered under the fold.  Brush off excess flour.  Then ‘close’ the book by folding in half to complete the book fold.  Place your now book folded dough onto your cookie tray and cover it with plastic wrap.  Rest dough for 30 mins in the fridge.

Next, is a single/letter fold.

After the 30 mins rest, roll your dough out with one of the open ends facing you aiming for a trimmed rectangle of 20 cm x 60 cm.  Brush off excess flour.  Then do a single/letter fold.  Place your now letter folded dough onto your cookie tray and cover it with plastic wrap.  Rest dough for 30 mins in the fridge.

While the dough is resting in the fridge, butter you muffin pans.

Time for your final roll out!

Basically will be rolling dough out to a trimmed rectangle 17 cm x 60 cm, hopefully with 4-5mm thickness.  Trim one end and both long sides.  At 2.5 cm intervals, make a mark with a pizza wheel down each of the long sides of the dough.  Next cut from one marked side to the other creating twenty four 2.5 cm x 17 cm strips of dough.

Alternatively you could roll out to trimmed 34 cm width x 30 cm length, 4-5 mm thickness.  Give dough a quick fold in half to mark 17 cm.  Trim the 30 cm sides and one 34 cm side.  Mark dough at 2.5 cm intervals on each of the 30 cm side.  Then cut from one marked side to the other creating twelve 30 cm strips of dough.  Then cut then all at once down the marked centre to create 24 strips of dough 2.5 x 17 cm.

Shaping

Prepare your muffin pans by buttering them. 

Each set of two strips will form one cruffin.  Place one strip lengthwise over another leaving about 1-1.5 cm of the bottom strip exposed at one end.  Pinch the end of the top strip with the surface of the exposed strip to adhere them.  Starting from that same end placed furthest from you, gradually roll the two strips of dough up into a disk.  This doesn’t need to be super tight but it shouldn’t be really loose.  

Once fully rolled, place it down on one of the flat sides.  We will be using the free ends of the dough to close the disk on one side which will become the base of the cruffin.  First pull one of the free ends, just enough so that it covers half of the disk.  Pinch the strip down to the edge of the disk to keep it in place.  With the other free end, do the same to cover the other half of the disk.  Pinch the strip down to the edge of the disk to keep it in place.  Pinch the two strips together where they meet to close it up completely.  Flip the disk of dough over so that the exposed laminated dough is facing up and your newly closed part is facing down on your countertop.  Gently rotate the disk of dough to tighten it and ensure that the ends do not come apart during proofing and baking.  

Transfer your shaped cruffin into one of the buttered spots in your muffin pans.  Repeat with each set of two strips until you have 12 cruffins in their pans.  Finally, using a floured fingertip, press down through the centre of each cruffin until you tough the bottom of the pan.  Still will help keep the cruffin from opening up while baking.

Proofing

Proof at 74-76°F, with humidity. Butter will melt at or above 82°F so it is important to keep the temperature of the final proof well under that, otherwise the butter will melt and be absorbed into the dough.  When baked, they will still taste great but you will lose the layers you worked so hard to create during lamination.  The steam will help them expand and prevent a crust from forming on the skin.  I placed a wet warm cloth inside each bag that I put my cruffins into, that way they would rise without forming a skin.

Proofing times:

For hybrid croissant variations, around 2-6 hours

For sourdough, around 12 hours

Fully proofed cruffins will pass a gentle poke test and have a bit of a jiggle when you shake the muffin tray.  About 30 mins prior to being fully proofed  preheat oven @ 375°, convection.  But will bake at 350ºF convection.  

When ready to bake, drop the temperature down to 350°F convection.  Place the muffin pans on a lined baking sheet to bake since there may be some melted butter especially if they are under-fermented.  Bake the cruffins on the lowest rack preferably on a baking steel for 25-30 mins rotating halfway through.

For Cruffins

Once you put your cruffins into the oven to bake, prep any toppings if you’d like.  No need to egg wash cruffins especially if you are going to cover with flavoured granulated sugar.

It seems the most popular is to toss them in cinnamon sugar, or dust with some icing sugar.

When you take your cruffins are out of the oven let them rest in the pans for 5 mins.  Then carefully remove them from the pan and roll immediately in cinnamon sugar mix (while warm). Then place on cooling rack to fully cool.  The warmth of the cruffin will help adhere the sugar topping to the cruffin.

Let them cool on a rack placed on a cookie tray to catch falling sugar.

They are delicious slightly warm.  Store them in an airtight container.  They can be refreshed by reheating them at 300°F for a couple of minutes.  There is some effort to making cruffins, but it is well worth the effort.

My index of bakes.