The cruffin is a cross between a croissant and a muffin. It is essentially a muffin that's made out of croissant dough and filled with various fillings and flavors. I prefer ground nuts, cinnamon, and sugar.
Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Brunch, Coffee time, Dessert, Snack
Prepare a round loose bottom tin (18-20cm -8-10 in) by greasing and placing parchment paper on the bottom.
Take a cup or a mug out and place the yeast in with ¼ cup of lukewarm water and a tablespoon of sugar. Mix well until the sugar and yeast have dissolved. Set aside for 10-15 minutes until this starts to bubble up.
Place the spelt flour into a larger glass bowl (you may sieve it but it is not a must) and make a well in the middle of it. Pour in the yeast sugar and water mixture into the well. Add the remaining ingredients apart from the browned sugar.
Knead the dough gently and after 10-12 minutes of kneading, add the browned or the melted butter whilst you carry on energetically kneading the dough. You may do this using a free-standing mixer like Kitchen Aid.
Form a ball with the dough, place it into a glass bowl and cover with cling film or a clean kitchen towel. Place in a nice warm corner of the kitchen, a sunny one will be a real bonus as this will prove nicely.
Allow it to prove for at least one hour if warm or two hours if your kitchen isn't so warm.
Once prooving has been done, split the dough into two equal parts. Set one aside. Roll out one part into a sheet using the rolling pin. Make it as thin as you possibly can.
With the help of a brush, brush uniformly half of the browned butter on the dough sheet, sprinkle some cinnamon powder, half of the cane sugar (50g) and roll as tight as you possibly can.
With the help of a knife, cut the cruffin roll into two leaving the starting end uncut. start rolling it from one end and finish at the other end.
Place the first cruffin roll into the prepared tin. Sprinkle some toasted walnuts over and also in between when you roll it if you wish.
Repeat the exact process with the second part of the dough making it into a second roll. Place over the first roll.
Allow it to rest and prove again for at least 40 minutes depending on how warm your kitchen is, let it rest until has almost doubled in size. Eggwash before placing in the oven and sprinkle some more walnuts if you wish.
Heat the oven for 20 minutes before placing the cruffin in the oven. The oven has to be fairly hot when the cruffin goes in for baking.
Bake for 5-7 minutes at 200°C/400°F and then lower the temperature to 180°C/350°F for approximately 40 minutes. Di the toothpick test and if this comes out clean your cruffin is ready. It should be pretty nice and browned too.
Take out of the oven, remove from the tin pretty much immediately and place on a cooling rack. Dust with some icing sugar and serve.
Notes
Flour - I used 700g (44.8 oz or 3 cups) white spelt and 300g ( 10.6 oz or 1.27 cups) wholemeal spelt. You may use all-purpose flour or good bread (extra strong flour) - I have also made this with sourdough but I prefer the sweet and nuttier spelt flour version. Still a healthier option to use spelt flour. Yeast- you may use 30g (1 oz) of fresh yeast instead of the dry option. Any yeast would work well in this recipe. Butter - you may brush with butter after taking it out of the oven if you wish. The browned butter will give it such a nice touch. Sugar - you may add an extra ounce or more if you wish this to be sweeter.