Nutella Stuffed Pumpkin Cruffins
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Nutella Stuffed Pumpkin Cruffins with Pumpkin Glaze – a cross between a muffin and a croissant these cruffins are amazing. No chilling, no folding, no copious amount of butter required, yet still flaky and delicious.
This here my friends, is a labor of love, sometimes they make their way onto the blog! I’ve been wanting to make cruffins for a few months, waiting for God knows what, until I finally decided it was time. A cruffin is a cross between a muffin and a croissant, two of my favorite breakfast items.
But I wanted something seasonal and it just so happens that pumpkin is in season now, so I thought pumpkin cruffins stuffed with Nutella would be completely scrumptious. I cheated a bit today and grabbed my pasta maker to get our dough sheets nice and thin. If you don’t have one just roll up those sleeves and get ready to get reacquainted with your rolling pin.
What Is A Cruffin
Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, first things first, what exactly is a cruffin? Well a cruffin is the love child of a muffin and a croissant. Resulting in a flaky, buttery, melt in your mouth pastry that still gives us a bit of chew and density. It also fits in your hand oh so perfectly, croissant made ergonomic!
Ingredients
Dough
- Active dry yeast – If your yeast does not foam up after step #1, your yeast is dead and the cruffins will not turn out. Buy a new jar or package and store it in the freezer so it’ll last longer.
- All-purpose flour – While you can use bread flour in this recipe, I find it’s much more convenient to use all-purpose. We all have it in out pantries, and it makes fantastic bread. The difference is that bread flour has a higher protein content, resulting in better gluten formation.
- Salt – You can adjust the salt in this recipe to suit your own sodium preference. I wouldn’t leave it out, though. That touch of salt really brings out the buttery flavor.
- Sugar – We want just plain white granulated sugar to feed our yeast.
- Butter – Make sure you use unsalted! I only ever cook with unsalted butter so that I have full control of the salt content. Since most of the flavor of these croissants come from the butter, make sure to find a good quality brand.
- Pumpkin – We’re using both canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice today to create a lot of delicious and drool worthy dimension and flavor.
- Vanilla – Just a bit of extract to bring out the flavor of our cruffins, consider it a flavor secret weapon.
Filling
- Nutella – Is there anything I need to say about Nutella other than that it’s completely delicious? If you don’t feel like going for the brand name just grab any chocolate hazelnut spread you can find.
- Butter – Unsalted. When we combine the butter with Nutella it will create a filling that is more fluid once it heats up in the oven and will act a bit like a lava cake when bitten into.
Glaze
- Icing sugar – This finely ground sugar dissolves easily and is perfect for icing and glazes. Don’t be tempted by the granulated used earlier, it will give your glaze a gritty texture.
- Pumpkin – We want both a bit of canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice.
- Butter – Melted down, either salted or unsalted.
- Milk – Used sparingly to thin out the glaze if need be.
- Vanilla – Just a bit of vanilla extract to bring out all of our beautiful flavors.
Can I Use Instant Yeast?
Absolutely! It will even make your job easier since no proofing is required. That is basically the only difference between instant yeast and active dry yeast, whether proofing is required or not. Simply add the yeast to the rest of the ingredients and mix, it’s that easy.
How To Make Pumpkin Cruffins
Cruffins
- Spray a muffin tray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Prep the yeast: Start by testing and prepping your yeast. In a small bowl stir together the yeast, sugar and water. Let the yeast mixture rest for 10 to 15 minutes. If your yeast is good you will notice the mixture get foamy.
- Form the dough: To the bowl of your mixer add the flour, salt, melted butter, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract and the yeast mixture. Mix on medium using the dough hook attachment for about 5 minutes, the dough should come clean from the sides of the bowl but soft to touch. If the dough is sticky add more flour as needed.
- Rest: Spray some cooking spray over the dough, place it in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until it doubles in size, should take about 30 minutes or so.
Assembly
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Using a pasta maker roll out the dough until it’s very thin, I ran it through #7 setting twice, then once through #4 setting, then finally once through #2 setting. In the end the dough should be almost paper thin. Each strip will end up being 4 to 5 feet in length.
- Assemble the cruffins: Brush the dough with melted butter and add 1 tbsp of Nutella at one end of the dough strip. Start rolling the dough at the end with Nutella all the way to the other end as tight as you can until you end up with a log. Twirl the log into a semi knot and tuck the ends underneath. Place the cruffin in the prepared muffin tray and repeat with remaining dough pieces.
- Preheat oven to 375 F degrees
- Bake the cruffins: Let the cruffins rest for about an hour or until they double in size. Brush with melted butter. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Glaze
- Assemble the glaze: Meanwhile place all the glaze ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and mix for a couple minutes until the glaze is smooth.
- Finish the cruffins: Let the cruffins cool for about 5 minutes before drizzling glaze over the top of them. You can also sprinkle them powdered sugar instead.
No Pasta Maker?
If you don’t have a pasta maker, you can roll out the dough by hand, using a rolling pin and get it as thin as you can. It’ll take a bit more elbow grease but you’ll love the final outcome!
What Else Can I Use In My Filling?
Keep the butter in your filling, as it’ll ensure our molten center is ooey gooey melty magic, but other than that do whatever you’d like! Here’s some suggestions:
- Dulce de leche
- Chocolate
- Peanut butter
- Jam
- Caramel
Get The Most Out Of Your Yeast
- Always check the expiration date on your yeast and make sure it hasn’t expired. All your yeast products whether it’s in a jar or a package should be stamped with a “Best if Used by” date. Always make sure you check this date, even when you purchase the yeast.
- To keep your yeast fresh and longer lasting, unopened yeast packages or jars should be stored in a cool or dry place such as your cupboard.
- However, you can also store your yeast in the fridge or freezer. If you do store it in the freezer and need to use yeast for your baking, make sure you take out the amount you need and let it sit at room temperature for at least half hour before using.
- Once your yeast package or jar has been opened, you must refrigerate the yeast or freeze it in an airtight container.
- One thing to remember about your yeast, is that it is a living organism and over time it will lose activity, even if you’ve never opened the jar or package. So if you don’t bake often, buy the smaller yeast packages rather than a big jar of yeast.
- If after dissolving the yeast in the lukewarm water with the sugar, the yeast didn’t start to froth up, do not continue with the rolls, your dough will not rise.
Storage
Make sure to keep these pumpkin cruffins in an airtight container, freezer bag, or tightly wrapped in foil so that they don’t dry out. These cruffins will last about 2-3 days. In the fridge, they can last up to 1 week.
Freezing
To freeze baked pumpkin cruffins, let them fully cool down to room temperature. Place them in an airtight container, a freezer bag, or wrapped tightly in both plastic wrap and foil. They will last 1-2 months frozen. Thaw them by letting them sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
More Delicious Breakfast Treats To Try:
- Banana Buzz Scones
- Lemon Blueberry Scones
- Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Apple Cinnamon Scones
- Classic Pancakes
- Easy Waffles
- Banana Fritters
- Pancake Muffins
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Nutella Stuffed Pumpkin Cruffins with Pumpkin Glaze
Prep: 1 hr 30 mins
Cook: 25 mins
Resting Time: 1 hr
Total: 2 hrs 55 mins
Serves: 8
Nutella Stuffed Pumpkin Cruffins with Pumpkin Glaze – a cross between a muffin and a croissant these cruffins are amazing. No chilling, no folding, no copious amount of butter required, yet still flaky and delicious.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup water lukewarm
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1/2 stick, melted
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the filling
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter 1 stick, melted
- 8 tbsp Nutella
For Pumpkin Glaze
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tbsp milk I used 2% milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp canned pumpkin
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tbsp butter melted
Instructions
Cruffins Dough
- Spray a muffin tray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Prep the yeast: Start by testing and prepping your yeast. In a small bowl stir together the yeast, sugar and water. Let the yeast mixture rest for 10 to 15 minutes. If your yeast is good you will notice the mixture get foamy.
- Form the dough: To the bowl of your mixer add the flour, salt, melted butter, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract and the yeast mixture. Mix on medium using the dough hook attachment for about 5 minutes, the dough should come clean from the sides of the bowl but soft to touch. If the dough is sticky add more flour as needed.
- Rest: Spray some cooking spray over the dough, place it in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until it doubles in size, should take about 30 minutes or so.
Assembly
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Using a pasta maker roll out the dough until it's very thin, I ran it through #7 setting twice, then once through #4 setting, then finally once through #2 setting. In the end the dough should be almost paper thin. Each strip will end up being 4 to 5 feet in length.
- Assemble the cruffins: Brush the dough with melted butter and add 1 tbsp of Nutella at one end of the dough strip. Start rolling the dough at the end with Nutella all the way to the other end as tight as you can until you end up with a log. Twirl the log into a semi knot and tuck the ends underneath. Place the cruffin in the prepared muffin tray and repeat with remaining dough pieces.
- Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
- Bake the cruffins: Let the cruffins rest for about an hour or until they double in size. Brush with melted butter. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Glaze
- Assemble the glaze: Meanwhile place all the glaze ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and mix for a couple minutes until the glaze is smooth.
- Finish the cruffins: Let the cruffins cool for about 5 minutes before drizzling glaze over the top of them. You can also sprinkle them powdered sugar instead.
Recipe Notes
- You can store your yeast in the freezer. Before using your yeast, take the amount required and place it in a small bowl. Let the yeast sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes after which you can add a bit of sugar and warm water. Let this rest for about 10 to 15 minutes and if your yeast is good, you will notice it get foamy and bubbly.
- If you don’t have a pasta maker, you can roll out the dough by hand, using a rolling pin and get it as thin as you can.
- Prep time includes time required for dough to double in size.
- Make sure to keep them in an airtight container, freezer bag, or tightly wrapped in foil so that they don’t dry out. These cruffins will last about 2-3 days. In the fridge, they can last up to 1 week.
- To freeze baked cruffins, let them fully cool down to room temperature. Place them in an airtight container, a freezer bag, or wrapped tightly in both plastic wrap and foil. They will last 1-2 months frozen. Thaw them by letting them sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1cruffinCalories: 608kcal (30%)Carbohydrates: 76g (25%)Protein: 7g (14%)Fat: 30g (46%)Saturated Fat: 23g (144%)Cholesterol: 50mg (17%)Sodium: 168mg (7%)Potassium: 245mg (7%)Fiber: 4g (17%)Sugar: 39g (43%)Vitamin A: 3543IU (71%)Vitamin C: 1mg (1%)Calcium: 62mg (6%)Iron: 4mg (22%)
