I have to admit, I wasn’t going to post these.
I thought they were a fail. To be even more honest, I still look at them and critique these. They could be higher, fluffier, smaller width, etc.
I even went as far as taste tested one bite then wanted to throw them away but figured the guys at the brewery might want to try them first. So I sent a big plate of them over and next thing I knew I was being told these were their favorite thing I’ve made so far. Ironic right?
These pear and cinnamon stuffed croissant cinnamon rolls with espresso glaze may not be the prettiest, or the most beautiful things I’ve photographed so far but I will say, they taste great. I saved one before I sent them all over to the brewery and waited a few hours. Then found myself finishing this in one sitting. For something I hated so much, I sure did enjoy the taste of it!
For some background, I’ve been pretty obsessed with croissants for some time now. Not actually eating the croissants but making them. And making them perfect. I have tried so many different recipes across the board, from a quick croissant dough to a 3 day process. I’ve made beignets out of croissant dough, some donuts, classic croissants and now cinnamon rolls. There are a few tricks I have come to learn that get the insanely flaky layers and honestly after a few failed attempts, I think I can now confidently say I know the secrets to getting these layers every single time.
Here are a few things I have learned over the years:
- Cold Butter. Yes, Keeping your butter cold while it may seem like an easy task, gets a bit harder when you are trying to make a folded croissant dough out of it. It’s important to put your dough in the fridge after each fold so that the butter gets stays cold. If the butter gets warm, it will start to melt and leak out of the layers resulting in super tough not flaky croissants and I would hate for you to go through the whole process just to have these turn out bad.
- Time. I have made one, two and three day dough and there is a difference, however, you don’t have to wait a significant amount of time between each fold in order to get the best results. These are capable of being made in a couple of hours. I only refrigerated my dough for 5-10 minutes in between each fold and these turned out great.
With that said, one of the biggest things to mention is the difference between and croissant roll and a crescent roll. Very similar in names but very different in texture and flavor.
I will start by explaining what a croissant is. It is a completely flaky rolled pastry that has a large amount of layers that result from the lamination of the dough. Laminating the dough is when you fold over the butter and dough mixture so that each fold results in more and more layers of dough and butter. When placed in the oven, the butter begins to melt and evaporate, resulting in the light fluffy layers that crisp up and give the most beautiful golden crunch with each bite.
A crescent roll on the other hand, does not take any lamination. Butter is only applied to the dough right before you roll it into the classic croissant shape and baked in the oven. A croissant can have up to 160 layers of dough, while a crescent will only have the layers from rolling into a pinwheel before baking. Both super buttery dough that tastes so amazing when baked, but only one gets the incredible crunchy layers that taste incredible warm out of the oven.
I really enjoy serving croissants with some butter and honey fresh out of the oven, however these are a bit different. I mixed in some cinnamon, sugar and cardamom in the butter before laminating resulting in a cinnamon roll flavor. I stuffed these with some ripe pears that I needed to use but you are more than welcome to use apples, peaches, blueberries or omitting the fruit. Whatever you feel like doing!
The dough is a classic brioche dough. I love using brioche because it incorporates butter in the dough itself. This gives you an amazing golden brown dough when baked and really is cohesive with the buttered center. Brioche is a classic dough recipe but here is the breakdown of the ingredients I use to give it the perfect fluff to golden brown ratio:
- Yeast for the perfect rise. I like to use active dry yeast and not quick acting because it develops over time.
- Milk, warmed so that it helps the yeast to activate early on before the oven.
- Brown Sugar. Yeast loves sugar, it helps feed the yeast and create structure in your dough, adding brown sugar gives this dough dimension but also great structure.
- All Purpose Flour. I don’t use bread dough here because it would make the dough a bit too tough, all purpose gives it the perfect flake so that the layers and nice and crispy.
- Salt, Cinnamon, Cardamom, all add extra flavor with a cinnamon roll taste. By incorporating cinnamon and cardamom in the dough, this makes the whole roll cohesive once baked.
- Eggs. At room temp. This will help to keep the yeast activated. If you don’t have time to get the eggs to room temperature, that is okay. It will still rise in the oven.
- Butter. Probably the most important part of this dough. The butter adds this creamy dimension that just tastes so good when baked.
Once the dough is made. You laminate the cinnamon sugar in the center and add the pear filling before rolling into a pinwheel. Slice and bake the pinwheels then when fresh out of the oven, add the espresso glaze on top and let the glaze soak into every layer of the roll. These are perfect fresh out of the oven or the next day when the glaze has had time to seep into the layers.
Croissant Cinnamon Rolls with Espresso Glaze
Ingredients
Brioche Dough
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm milk
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 stick butter, softened (8 tbsp)
Pear Filling
- 2 large pears, chopped
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Filling
- 2 sticks butter (16 tbsp)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- pinch of salt
Espresso Glaze
- 1/2 bag powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 tbsp espresso or coffee
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Start by making the brioche dough. Mix the yeast, warm milk, brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Let it rest for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. After 5 minutes add the flour, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and mix.
- Next add the eggs one at a time with the dough hook on low speed, then the vanilla. Once incorporated, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, waiting in between each one until the butter is incorporated. Knead the dough for an additional 10 minutes until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl but may still be sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise while you make the fillings.
- Next, make the pear filling. Mix the pears, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and vanilla in a small bowl. Set aside.
- For the cinnamon filling place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix until creamed. Next add the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and salt and mix until incorporated. Set aside.
- Finally prep the espresso glaze by placing all ingredients in a medium bowl and whisking together until there are no clumps. Set aside.
- When the dough has doubled in size (about an hour), turn upside down on a cool surface and roll into a rectangle about 14in x 9in. Spread the cinnamon filling all on the surface of the dough. Then with the longest end facing you, fold the left side in to the center, then the right side on top of the folded in left side. press down to seal the edges. This will look like a folded letter. Place in the fridge for 5 minutes until the butter has cooled a bit.
- Remove the cooled dough, and roll back out into a rectangle again. Repeat with the folding process so you get a letter again and cool for 5 minutes. Repeat one more time so that there are 3 rolling and folding processes. This is the lamination of the dough.
- Once folded 3 times, remove the dough from the fridge and once again roll out into a rectangle. Sprinkle the pear filling over the top. Then carefully starting at the shortest end (I like to make these really big) lift and roll into a pinwheel. This is tough to do without some of the pear filling falling out and that is okay!
- Slice the pinwheel into 12 portions. I like to trim the uneven edges first before I slice, then add small marks on top to measure even rolls before slicing. Then place on a Silpat lined baking sheet (you can use parchment if you don’t have a silpat). Let the rolls sit in a warm area spot on the counter for an hour so that they rise.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Once the rolls have had time to rise and double in size, bake until flaky and golden brown, about 30-35 minutes. Remove and let cool 5 minutes before pouring on the espresso glaze.
- These are incredible fresh out of the oven with warm espresso glaze or the next day after the glaze has melted into the flaky layers. Store covered at room temperature up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 2 months.
Nutrition
