Sourdough chocolate cruffin

Name: Sourdough chocolate cruffin
Ingredients: 150 gram bread flour; 80 gram all purpose flour; 90 gram water; 70 gram sourdough starter (100% hydration); 20 gram suger; 30 gram butter; 4 gram salt; 150 gram butter; 20 gram cacao powder; 15 gram sugar

November 9, 2018 36 Comments

In 2013, Kate Reid of Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne, Australia invented something special.
She created a hybrid between a croissant and a muffin that got the aptly named Cruffin.
A year later, the small pastry began its journey towards world fame when Ry Stephen and Aaron Caddel of Mr. Holmes Bakehouse of San Francisco started marketing it.
Today you find it everywhere in endless different versions.

I have to admit that I have long been a little hesitant about Cruffins.
I mean, a croissant and a muffin. There are not very many similarities, except that they both contain flour and butter.
One is crispy and delicate and is eaten for breakfast, especially in France, while the other is compact.

As I saw it, one of them had to sacrifice its uniqueness, and I felt it was the croissant that was the loser.

Nobody likes a semi-compact croissant, I said to myself.

However, there are lots of people who believe that Cruffins is the best that has been invented since puff pastry, so I realized that my reasoning perhaps fell short.

There was only one way to find out, so last weekend I baked some Cruffins.

With sourdough starter.

Using a sourdough starter was not my idea. I was inspired by Sylvain Vernay at The Bread Logic.
To make it a bit unique, I added some cacao powder to the butter filling.

A few tips before you start.

A pasta machine is not a must. If you don’t have one, an ordinary rolling pin works fine.
If the dough feels sticky, don’t be afraid to work in some more flour. Running a sticky and loose dough through a pasta machine is a nightmare.
Don’t forget that this is NOT a recipe for a croissant. Just so you remember.

PREPARATIONS

Make sure your starter is lively and mature. I fed mine three hours before it was time to bake.
Cut the butter into thin slices with a cheese slicer. That will make it soft in no time.

MIXING THE DOUGH

Most recipes recommend that you should mix the dough in a dough mixer to get the butter fully incorporated. My dough mixer doesn’t work so well with small quantities like this, so I decided to do it by hand.
And it worked just fine.
The thin and soft butter slices made it easy to combine it with the flour.

After that, I added water, sourdough starter, sugar, and salt.
I kneaded everything into a stiff dough and let it ferment for one hour in room temperature, about 73ºF / 23ºC.

ROLL OUT THE DOUGH

I used a pasta machine for this, but it works with a rolling pin as well.

How thick you want the dough is up to you to decide. Just remember that the thinner the dough is, the harder it is to handle.

Flour the working space regularly to prevent the dough from sticking.

ROLL UP THE DOUGH

Spread the rest of the butter with sugar and Cacao powder, and spread the batter evenly over the dough and roll it from one end to the other to a cigar-formed log.

Cut the log lengthwise with a floured knife, and fold each piece of dough together with the cut side facing outward.

Place the pieces of dough in a muffin cup or pan and let them ferment for about 3 hours.

TIME TO BAKE

Preheat the oven to 400ºF / 200ºC.
Bake the Cruffins for 20 minutes, or until they have got a nice golden color.

You can eat these Cruffins as they are. I think cacao butter is enough for filling. But if you want something extra, why not add some vanilla custard. Everything that tastes good with chocolate works fine. This was my first meeting with Cruffins, and it was a very pleasurable acquaintance, even if I think that most similarities with a croissant were lost.

But I suspect it may depend on my approach to the mixing of the dough. Perhaps it is necessary to laminate at least some of the butter into the dough to get the right flakiness. This method, however, is quicker and easier, and the result is a delicious little creation, that will cause you to regret that you did not make a bigger batch.