Decadent croissant cinnamon rolls (“Croissannamon rolls”)

Buttery, decadent croissants get even more delectable when rolled with a cinnamon-sugar filling and topped with glaze.  Part croissant, part cinnamon roll.  All delicious. 

Makes 20 bite-sized rolls. 20 minutes baked time, plus 120 minutes prep & rest time.

Freshly baked butter croissants are a real treat.  There’s not too much to them:  flour, butter, yeast, and a liquid are the main building blocks.  It’s a puff pastry with yeast added to the dough so that chewy, sweet pockets of air are wrapped in buttery pastry that pulls apart in flakes.  They’re deceptively easy, as long as the butter in the dough doesn’t melt – your job is to roll and fold the dough, creating layers of butter and dough that bakes into a sublime experience.  This recipe also includes the best elements of cinnamon rolls:  a sweet glaze and a sticky cinnamon sugar filling.

Why combine a croissant and a cinnamon roll?

Umm, why not?  Years ago, the internet seemed obsessed with how unhealthy foods from chain restaurants were.  Every week, (before the term “click bait” was commonly used), you’d see articles like “Top 10 WORST things to eat from <insert chain/restaurant type/global cuisine here>”.  Articles constantly referenced a big-chain cinnamon roll that had more grams of fat than a Big Mac.  My husband (then-boyfriend) and I were perplexed.  Not because we’re calorie counters (this should seem obvious based on this blog), but because we couldn’t figure out where all the fat was hiding.  Sure, cinnamon rolls are delicious, but the bread part always seems a tad dry.  “I’d rather eat a croissant,” I said.  My husband agreed, but also added, “Yeah, but cinnamon rolls have the sugar and cinnamon bits – that’s the best part.”  So that’s when the “Croissannamon” roll was born.

After multiple attempts, I realized I couldn’t roll and cut the rolls the same way you would with a cinnamon roll.  The problem was that the butter would melt, and gravity would pull the butter out the bottom of the roll and pool in the baking tray.  I was better off rolling them up like croissants instead.

When the Cronut craze started, I stopped making these Crossannamon rolls in favour of Cronuts whenever we took snacks to peoples’ barbecues.  But now, likely because of another year far away from summer gatherings; and probably also in reminiscence of those sepia-tinted days before we and our friends became 1000% committed to growing careers/raising children/paying mortgages … there’s a longing for these silly, delicious rolls once again.  Here’s the full recipe!  Hopefully we’ll have them together again soon.

Take a turn for the better

To make those signature croissant flakes, you’ll need to seal a square block of cold butter in the dough, and then make four “turns” with the dough.  A turn is where you roll the dough into a rectangle (short side facing you), and fold the dough into itself by thirds.  That’s one turn.  At the next turn, you rotate the dough by 90 degrees so that the ‘new’ short side is facing you, and you roll the dough into a flat rectangle again.  These turns create layers of cold butter and dough. 

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Cinnamon and sugar

Freshly ground cinnamon really adds to any dish, but in this recipe, the payoff is huge.  I normally layer the bark between sheets of paper, place over a mat and hammer until smaller shards form.  Then, I pour the shards into a grinder (I use an old coffee grinder I’ve designated for spices) and grind until smooth.

Besides recommending freshly ground cinnamon, I also prefer white granulated sugar to brown sugar for this recipe.  Brown sugar has moisture in it, and when used in cinnamon rolls helps keep them moist and chewy.  But in a Croissannamon roll, I found that it made the roll soggier over time, especially for the next day.

Avoid eating the cinnamon and sugar mix off of your fingers as your make your crescents!

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