Learn how to make an easy cruffin recipe using a simple rough puff pastry dough! Perfectly flaky like a croissant and shaped in muffin form, these cruffins use no eggs, are dairy free, and filled with a vegan cannoli filling!
Why you’ll love these cannoli-filled cruffins:
When you’re craving a croissant, but don’t want to spend all of that time doing the laminations, then you need this super easy and fun cruffin recipe.
This is for when you want something a bit different from cinnamon rolls (or even small batch cinnamon rolls), but you still want something fancier than muffins (though don’t get me wrong, my vegan chocolate chip muffins are a treat!).
And because I’m a fan of filled-doughnuts and all things my Italian great grandpa used to make (including cannoli), we’re putting a cannoli-inspired spin on these cruffins.
A super flaky and “buttery” pastry dough studded with chocolate chips and filled with a lush and creamy “cannoli” filling!
It’s all homemade- yes, we’re fans of learning how to do everything by scratch here- but we’re also keeping it simple using a quick and easy rough puff pastry dough instead!
And the coolest part? These cruffins are 100% and unbelievably vegan, dairy free, and made without eggs. And you’d never know!!
Prep these for a fun Christmas morning breakfast treat or pair with a cup of coffee whenever you want an extra treat 😉
What is a cruffin?
A cruffin is essentially a mix between a croissant and a muffin. It’s much easier to achieve than a croissant (though I do have a step-by-step tutorial for you!), and sort of similar to puff pastry, though it’s rolled and proved until double in size, like a cinnamon roll, but this time in a muffin tin.
The key is leaving larger chunks of butter in visible in the dough.
When the cruffin bakes, it will puff up and create an almost muffin-like dome on top! But when you bite into it, it’s as flaky, buttery, and soft as a croissant!
Now the fun part: the fillings. Like a cinnamon roll, you can easily fill these cruffins with any number of toppings.
Today, I wanted to go with the cannoli theme, so I added chocolate chips to the dough. However, you can do a cinnamon sugar cruffin, vegan Nutella, biscoff, use any fruit jams, etc.
How is this recipe vegan?
Instead of using a store-bought croissant dough (which there are currently none that are vegan!), crescent roll dough, or even puff pastry (which therearesome vegan brands of), we’re making our own rough puff pastry dough.
But don’t fret- this is NOT as complex as making homemade croissants. In fact, it’s as easy as going to the store and purchasing a pre-made dough.
With our rough puff pastry, however, we’re usingvegan butterandno eggs. Don’t worry- you’re still going to get those beautiful laminations!
The remaining ingredients are all considered vegan and plant-based, so no need to swap anything out there!
Overview: How to make Homemade Cruffins Easily By Hand
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
A quick and easy rough puff pastry dough:
This is my favorite baking secret to super flaky dough without the lamination. Rough puff pastry is basically baking cheat that uses chunks of butter (in our case, vegan) that are rubbed into the dough almost like making a pie dough.
However, this time, we have yeast in the mixture. After a few easy laminations (without the beurrage layer!), we’ll refrigerate the dough.
Dairy free cannoli filling:
This is as simple as my vegan pastry cream- only we’re stirring in some vegan cream cheese (although you can use store-bought vegan ricotta if that’s available to you!).
Can I omit the filling?
Yes you can! If you just want to leave these as chocolate chip cruffins, by all means, omit the cannoli filling.
However, around Christmas time, these are super fun and nice to have a sweet cream piped into the middle!
Can I make these cruffins overnight?
Absolutely! I have detailed instructions in the recipe card below. But essentially, you’ll make and shape the dough the day before and allow them to rise overnight in the fridge.
Then bake the next morning, and fill!
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
Easy Vegan Cruffin Recipe From Scratch with Cannoli Filling
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star4.7 from 3 reviews
- Author: Britt Berlin
- Prep Time: 20
- Proofing Time: 240+
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 6 large cruffins 1x
- Category: Pastry
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make an easy cruffin recipe using a simple rough puff pastry dough! Perfectly flaky like a croissant and shaped in muffin form, these cruffins use no eggs, are dairy free, and filled with a vegan cannoli filling!
Ingredients
Scale
Cruffin Dough:
- 2 1/4 cups (315 g) bread flour
- 3/4 cup (180 g) vegan butter, cold and cubed
- 1/2 cup (120 mL) warm dairy free milk, like soy milk or oat milk
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granualted sugar
- 7 g active dry yeast
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (120 g) vegan chocolate chips
- Vegan egg wash: 1 tbsp maple syrup + 1 tbsp dairy free milk
Cannoli Filling:
- 2 cups (480 mL) heavy vegan cream
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp (60 g) cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120 g) vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Prep:Read through all instructions before beginning. You can easily make these as an overnight option, which is what I will describe below. Measure out all ingredients for the cruffin dough. If you want to proof these overnight in the fridge, you’ll start the dough in the morning, and finishing shaping them in the afternoon or evening before proofing them once shaped overnight.
- Bloom the yeast:Whisk together the warm dairy free milk and 1 tbsp of the sugar. Then add in the yeast, cover and set aside to bloom. The yeast should be frothy, foamy, and smell yeast-like. If it doesn’t after 10-12 minutes, you might have a bad batch of yeast and will need to start over.
- Rub the butter into the flour:In a large bowl, whisk together flour, remaining sugar, and salt. Add the cubed vegan butter, and use clean hands to begin to rub the butter into the flour, like you would pie dough. Try not to warm up the butter too much and there should still be decent sized chunks of butter visible in the flour. Refer to the images above for reference!
- Finish the dough:Pour in the yeast mixture and either by hand or with a large spoon, begin to mix the dough until you form a slightly shaggy dough ball, but the dry ingredients are all absorbed. You should still see chunks of butter visible in the dough.
- Refrigerate the dough:Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap or parchment paper, and refrigerate the dough for 3 hours or overnight. If you’re making these for the morning, you’ll be refrigerating the dough for 3 hours or until the afternoon or evening, when you’ll shape them again.
- Laminate and fold in the chocolate chips:When ready to make the laminations, lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough to be about 12-16″ (it doesn’t have to be exact, we’re going to do multiple laminations and the idea is to just create the folds). Sprinkle the dough with 2 tbsp of chocolate chips, and fold the top third of the dough in towards the middle, followed by the bottom third of the dough towards the middle to create a letter fold. Turn the dough clockwise by a quarter and roll out the dough again. Repeat this process 3 more times for a total of 4 laminations. Wrap the dough again in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for just 30 minutes to allow the dough to rest.
- Shape the cruffins:Grease a large 6-muffin muffin pan (or a regular 12- muffin muffin pan) with olive oil or cooking oil. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to be 12×9″. On the 9″ side, make a slice every 1.5″ to make create 6 large cruffins. If you’re making 12 smaller cruffins, then instead, mark every 1″ on the 12″ side to make 12 regular cruffins. Slice the dough into strips, and roll the dough like a cinnamon roll. Place the cruffin into the greased muffin tin.
- Proof:Cover the pan. If you’re making these overnight, place the pan to proof in the fridge. If you’re baking these right away, let proof until double in size by the oven and preheat the oven to 400.
- While the cruffins are proofing, make the cannoli filling:You can either do this the night before or before you take the cruffins out to proof again next to the oven. In a small saucepan, whisk together the vegan heavy cream, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Turn up the heat to medium, and continue whisking the mixture until it begins to thicken, about 5-7 minutes. Once thickened, remove from heat and add in the vegan cream cheese. Vigorously whisk in until the cream cheese completely dissolves into the thickened cream. Let the filling cool covered in the fridge in a bowl before folding in the chocolate chips. Once chilled, add in the chocolate chips and fold to evenly distribute throughout.
- Bake:If you’ve made the chocolate chip cruffins overnight, place the pan by the oven from the fridge to warm up as the oven preheats to 400. Brush the cruffins with the vegan egg wash. Bake the cruffins for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
- Pipe:Allow the cruffins to cool for 15-20 minutes. Gently make a hole with a butter knife in the middle of the cruffin for a cavity to put the filling. Then fill a piping bag with the cannoli filling. Pipe the cannoli filling into each cruffin.
- Serve and enjoy!Serve immediately, and enjoy! Store any leftovers in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer of up to 3 months.
Notes
See blog for tips & tricks
