Essentially puff pastry cinnamon rolls, these cruffins are made with flaky, buttery puff pastry filled with a perfectly sweet cinnamon filling. Butter and brown sugar give the filling rich, caramel notes while cinnamon and a tiny bit of optional cardamom give it the perfect spiced flavor. These are the ultimate breakfast pastries.
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Cinnamon Cruffins
Description
Essentially puff pastry cinnamon rolls, these are the ultimate breakfast pastries.
Ingredients
- 1 portion of my homemade rough puff pastry or 1 sheet store-bought puff pastry, thawed but very cold (see Bake Notes)
- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- 6 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2–1 tsp cardamom, optional
Instructions
- If using homemade rough puff: Preheat the oven to 425 F. If using store-bought puff pastry: Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- In a bowl, use a fork to mix together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom (if using), and salt until it forms a paste.
- Lightly dust your work surface with flour. Roll your pastry into a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick.
- Spread the cinnamon mixture into an even layer on top of the entire surface of the pastry.
- Use a pizza cutter or knife to slice the pastry dough lengthwise into thing strips (about 1/2-inch wide).
- Roll each strip up tightly (doesn’t have to be super tight).
- Place the cruffins in a muffin tin, leaving every other muffin cup empty. Some butter can leak out of the pastry while baking, so it will pool in the empty muffin cups. In a traditional muffin tin, you should have 6 cruffins in it and 6 empty cups. Place the rest of the cruffins on a plate and keep them in the fridge to be baked in batches.
- Place the muffin tray with the cruffins in the freezer for 7 minutes.
- If using homemade rough puff: Bake the cruffins for 15-23 minutes, until they are just golden brown. Check on them after 15 minutes to ensure they don’t burn. If using store-bought puff pastry: Bake the cruffins for 18-25 minutes. Check on them after 15 minutes to ensure they don’t burn.
- Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Use a fork to remove the cruffins from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- You can store any leftovers in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. To reheat, bake them at 400 F for 5-10 minutes.
Bake Notes
- My recipe for easy rough puff pastry makes one sheet of pastry dough. A typical package of store-bought puff pastry has two sheets. You only need one sheet for this recipe, which makes around 10 pastries.
- Store-bought puff pastry sheets are already rolled out pretty thin, so you shouldn’t need to roll it out too much; focus mostly on smoothing out the folds and rolling it just a bit wider (not any longer than it comes).
- Store-bought puff pastry can also get warm quickly. It’s important to keep the pastry dough very cold and firm so that it cooks correctly; work quickly to make this happen. If at any point you feel like the dough is getting too warm, pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes and then continue working with it.
- You want the butter to be softened but not warm. This way, it’ll form a cinnamon butter that has a pasty texture. Melted butter could make the pastry dough soggy.
Don’t Be Intimidated to Make Your Own Pastry
Rough puff pastry is, in my opinion, the most rewarding thing you can make. It can come off as intimidating, but it truly is so easy. The “labor intensive part” is just waiting around for it to chill and then completing the folds. Because it’s not a recipe that you can complete all in one go or step, it might seem like it’s too hard or complicated. But if you look at the steps, it takes only a minimal amount of work and none of the steps are hard or complicated. Anybody can do it! It can be used for anything from sweets, like in this recipe or my raspberry toaster strudel muffins, to savory appetizers like individual eggplant parm puffs or apple, beet, and goat cheese tarts.