You might have seen these little crowd pleasers appear in the pâtisserie display of your favourite café in recent years. They’re usually sold out by eleven, so if you’re more of an afternoon-pick-me-up café-goer, a cruffin is something like a croissant shaped like a muffin and (usually) dusted in sugar. They’re great for dunking, but also go so well with an indulgent dollop of cream. If you’re not the dunking kind (I get it), give your cruffin an extra helping of decadence by topping it with a rich coffee custard.
SUGARED CRUFFIN WITH NESPRESSO COFFEE CUSTARD
TIME: 3 hours / SERVES: makes 8
for the sugared cruffin
150 g (270 ml) cake flour
150 g (270 ml) bread flour
10 g instant yeast
1 ml salt
50 g (60 ml) sugar
190 ml lukewarm water
50 g (55 ml) soft unsalted butter
165 g (180 ml) soft unsalted butter
caster sugar
for the coffee custard
250 ml milk
250 ml cream
40 ml Nespresso Cape Town Envivo Lungo (capsule)
80 g (100 ml) sugar
6 egg yolks
20 g (35 ml) corn flour
for the sugared cruffins
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Place the flours in the mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast, salt and sugar, then add the water and mix until a dough forms. Add the soft 50 g butter and mix well. Let the dough knead for 15 minutes.
Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Keep in a warm place and let the dough double in size.
Dust a working surface with flour and place the dough on it. Then, cut into 4 equal-sized pieces and roll each piece very thinly into a long rectangle.
Divide the 165 g butter into four portions and spread onto the rolled-out pastry.
Roll each piece of dough into a roll and cut each roll in half. Spray a standard-sized muffin tray with edible food spray.
Roll each half in a ball and place in the muffin trays. Place in the oven and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Carefully remove from the oven and roll in caster sugar.
for the coffee custard
Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Brew the Nespresso Cape Town Envivo Lungo coffee and add to the cream mixture, then heat the mixture but do not boil.
Beat the sugar, egg yolks and corn flour until smooth. Add the warm cream mixture to the egg mixture and beat.
Pour the custard back into the saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring all the time until thick. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
Once cooled spoon into a piping bag and pipe on top of each cruffin.
