Homemade Cruffin Recipe (SO EASY!)

Cruffins are the beautiful combination of a croissant and a muffin. Flaky puff pastry dough is baked in a muffin tin then coated with cinnamon sugar. And this homemade cruffin recipe is so easy, it requires just 5 ingredients!

What is a Cruffin

Cruffins are made when you combine the flaky, buttery layers of a croissant with the shape of a muffin. Hence the name, cruffin. They taste similar to churros, except they're baked instead of fried. With the cinnamon sugar filling and coating, they also taste similar to cinnamon rolls, except they're not as gooey and soft.

Traditional cruffins require several days to laminate the pastry dough before being ready to bake. But by using store-bought puff pastry dough, we can skip all that and get straight to the good part - eating cruffins!

If you feel so inclined, you could make cruffins with homemade croissant dough from scratch. This would be more labor-intensive, but possibly more rewarding. And once you get the hang of traditional laminated dough, you can feast on homemade German cinnamon roll croissants.

This easy homemade cruffin recipe requires just 5 ingredients and it'll have hot, flaky, sugary cruffins in your hands in just one hour. All you need is a rolling pin (or a large heavy bottle) and a muffin tin.

For more puff pastry recipes, try German puff pastry chocolate twists, which taste great for breakfast.

Ingredients

• Puff pastry - buy frozen puff pastry from the store and thaw overnight to room temperature
• Unsalted butter - allow the butter soften to room temperature overnight
• Cocoa powder - optional, but I like the rich flavor it adds to the cruffin filling
• Granulated sugar - sweetens these tasty morsels
• Ground cinnamon - adds a warm hint of spice

How to Make Cruffins

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a muffin tin.
2. Use a rolling pin to roll out the puff pastry dough. Both sheets should each be rolled out to about 11 inches by 15 inches.
3. In a small bowl, combine the softened butter and cocoa powder. Use a spatula or pallet knife to spread the cocoa butter mixture evenly on both sheets of puff pastry dough.
4. In a separate small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle 1 to 1½ Tablespoons of the cinnamon and sugar mixture onto each sheet of puff pastry dough to evenly coat them.
5. Starting at a longer edge, roll the first puff pastry sheet into a tight log. Cut the log width-wise three times, into four equal pieces. Repeat with the other sheet of dough so you have a total of eight pieces.
6. Cut each of the eight pieces length-wise once to get a total of 16 pieces.
7. Roll each piece with the layers of cocoa butter and cinnamon sugar around your finger, with the cut layers facing the outside.
8. Place the rolled-up cruffins into the muffin tin. Keep any cruffins that don't fit in the muffin tin in the fridge until you're ready to bake them.
9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until they are golden brown.
10. While still warm from the oven, toss them in the remaining cinnamon and sugar. Enjoy!!

The Original Cruffin

Back in 2015, my family and I spent a few days in Northern California to visit San Francisco and Sequoia National Park. It was on this epic family trip that I first tasted a cruffin. Fast forward years after that love-at-first-bite, and I'm still drooling over the memory of those cruffins.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse was where cruffins became all the craze here in the U.S. They would bake cruffins fresh each day, and the line outside their door was insane. We had to get in line an hour before the bakery even opened. Everyone was allowed just one cruffin per person, and by the time we left the bakery that morning, they were already sold out. I'm telling you, they are insanely delicious.

Less than a month before our visit to the famed bakehouse, they experience a grand theft. But the thief left the cash in the till. The iPads and computers remained untouched. The only stolen items were the prized recipes for cruffins and a few other pastries. I told you these cruffins are good! They are worth stealing over, apparently! Mr. Holmes Bakehouse bounced back after the theft and the news stories did nothing but crank up the public obsession over cruffins to a new height.

Unfortunately the bakehouse fell victim to the pandemic, filed bankruptcy, and permanently closed their doors in San Francisco. Which, in my opinion, is all the more reason to learn how to make homemade cruffins.

Recipe Tips

• Cover with cinnamon sugar right after baking by gently rolling them in the bowl of cinnamon sugar or by sprinkling the cinnamon sugar on top with a spoon. The cinnamon sugar will stick the best to the cruffins while they're warm.
• Set the puff pastry dough and butter out the night before you plan to make this cruffin recipe to soften to room temperature.
• If you plan to fill your cruffins, I suggest to bake them in a high-walled muffin tin to obtain the height required to hold the filling inside. Once your cruffins are baked and cooled, use a sharp knife to cut a hole in the top about two-thirds down into the cruffin. Then use a piping bag to fill the hole with your desired filling.

Recipe Variations

• Fill baked cruffins with peanut butter filling, jam or caramel.
• Top with icing sugar like cinnamon rolls.
• Add chopped nuts with the cocoa butter filling.
• Top with yogurt and serve for breakfast.
• Serve with a scoop of ice cream for dessert.
• Use crescent roll dough for more buttery and soft cruffins.
• Substitute the cocoa powder in the filling for ground cardamom, nutmeg and cloves, or ground ginger.

Storing

Room temperature: Store cruffins in an air tight container at room temperature for up to three days.

Fridge: You can refrigerate unbaked, formed cruffins covered with plastic cling wrap in the fridge overnight.
I don't recommend storing baked cruffins in the fridge, since the humidity will cause them to lose their flaky texture.

More Muffin Recipes

• Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins