Cruffins with Mandarin & Chestnut Jam
Duration: 1 hour 30 mins
Serves: 8
We don’t always have to get caught up in life, rush to the next big thing or for that matter spend hours in a kitchen. Sometimes it is important to take a break, slow it all down and enjoy the simple pleasures of life.
Today, I was in the mood for a cruffin – the love child of croissants and muffins, but I didn’t want to go through the convulated process of making a laminated dough. So, I grabbed some ready puff pastry (always handy to keep it in the pantry) and just rolled with it.
Although you can find a lot of variations all over the world, the cruffins were first created in Melbourne back in 2013 and became a signature pastry of Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco. Bizarrely in March 2015, someone stole the pastry chef Ry Stephen’s binders from the bakery kitchen, which contained the cruffin recipe and 230 other recipes, leaving valuables like money, iPad, computers and baking equipment intact. Should we find out what makes this light, flaky pastry so special?
Ingredients
- 2 x sheets of 10×10 inch ready to roll puff pastry (each weighing 230g)
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp mandarin & chestnut jam
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tsp milk
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Lightly grease a muffin tin.
- Mix cinnamon and sugar together.
- Roll out a thin sheet of the puff pastry into a 11×15 inch rectangle and spread a thin layer of half of the butter on to the sheet.
- Add a thin layer of the jam.
- Evenly coat with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.
- Roll the pastry tightly and carefully from the long edge and slice it into four equal strips.
- Roll up each piece into a swirl and place into the muffin tin.
- Repeat the process with the remaining puff pastry sheet.
- Brush the tops of each cruffin with egg wash.
- Bake for 45-50 mins until golden brown. Ensure they are well done.
- Allow to cool for 10-15 mins, before removing from the pan.
- Coat each cruffin with the cinnamon sugar.
- Enjoy with a steaming cup of tea or coffee.