Lemon Meringue Cruffins
These are a labour of love, but if you want to go plain old cruffins, not so difficult. We think you will be showing off your skills very soon!
Cruffins are a little bit naughty. Especially when we turned them each into little lemon meringue pie cruffins. SO good. Seriously. Put these on your 'One Day I Will Do It' menu. They are not difficult. In fact we have made the cruffin part of this recipe so easy that you really don't need to focus on the rest if you don't want to. Stop with plain cruffins!
If you wish you can fill them with Nutella, jams, ganaches, or be a renegade and don't put anything in centre, though as this is not a sweet dough, that is pretty boring! Cruffins originated in Melbourne with bakery Luna Croissanterie and their dough recipe is certainly not pizza dough. But we are all about making your life easier dear Insiders, so this is our take on a pretty challenging treat that I must say is to die for.
The video is pretty key to making it easy for you, but if you have a Thermomix, and you are keen, these can be on your table by morning!
You're welcome!
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Need
-
The Cruffins
- 1/3 Batch EVOO Fridge Dough ready to roll Recipe
- 100 Grams butter, softened to room temp
-
Lemon Filling
- 3 lemons, finely grated zest
- 170 Grams raw caster sugar BUY
- 200 Grams fresh lemon juice
- 5 Drops doTERRA lemon oil (optional) BUY
- 50 Grams cornflour or cornstarch
- 5 egg yolks
- 100 Grams Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) BUY
-
The Meringue
- 150 Grams egg whites aged, room temperature
- 300 Grams raw caster sugar heated as per video instruction BUY
Do
- 1
To make the cruffins the EVOO Pizza dough must be ready to work with. So partially risen and not fridge cold.
- 2
Divide the dough which should be approximately 580g in weight into around 150g pieces and roll into tight balls.
- 3
Stretch the first piece of dough gently into a long rectangular piece, being careful not to tear it at all. If you tear a hole in the dough you are also breaking the gluten strands and this will make an inferior cruffin.
- 4
Roll that piece until very thin and long and slightly more fragile, so again be careful not to tear it.
- 5
Trim the ends so that you have an evenly shaped piece of dough if you wish, otherwise see the video.
- 6
Using your fingers, butter the entire surface of the dough, roll it up, from the short end. Place the roll of dough onto a lined tray and put back into the fridge for at least 30 minutes or longer until the butter is hard. Repeat all the steps with the remaining portions of dough.
- 7
Grease a muffin tin generously with butter and dust with flour, tipping out any excess.
- 8
When you are ready to form the cruffins, remove one roll of dough at a time from the fridge and cut it lengthways down the centre to reveal the buttered layers. You will get 2 cruffins per roll of dough.
- 9
Turn the layers outwards as you roll the dough into the cruffin or knot shape and place into the prepared tin.
- 10
Repeat with the other half. Then repeat these steps with the remaining dough. Cover the tray and allow to rise until dough has doubled. Probably on a warm day around 2 hours, on a cold day, 4 hours. The more time you have to leave these the flakier they will be.
- 11
While they are rising, make the lemon filling.
- 12
To make filling, place zest and sugar into clean, dry Thermomix bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10. Add juice, lemon oil, cornflour, eggs and yolks and blend 5 sec/speed 7.
- 13
Cook 8 min/90ºC/Butterfly/speed 3. Remove Butterfly.
- 14
Add EVOO and mix 20 sec/speed 5. Scrape down sides of bowl and lid and repeat. Spread into a shallow dish and refrigerate immediately. It doesn't have to be fridge cold to pipe into the cruffins but it must be cool.
- 15
Preheat oven to 200°C fan forced and place the oven rack into the centre of the oven.
- 16
Bake risen cruffins for 25 minutes. They should be a fairly dark golden brown when finished. Remove from the muffin tin and cool on a wire rack.
- 17
Place the lemon filling into a piping back with 1cm round nozzle. Cut a small cross in the top of the cruffin with a sharp knife and push the piping nozzle into the pastry. Fill each one with a good couple of squeezes of the lemon filling until you can just see it coming out.
- 18
Set aside while you make the meringue.
- 19
Preheat oven to 200°C and line an oven tray with baking paper. Weigh out sugar onto the paper and bake 7 minutes.
- 20
Place egg whites into a very clean and dry Thermomix bowl and whip 4 min/37°C/Butterfly/speed 3/MC off.
- 21
Wipe off moisture from lid and top portion of the bowl with paper towel as necessary.
- 22
Slowly add the hot sugar through the hole in lid, a teaspoon at a time, 6 min/Butterfly/speed 3/MC off.
- 23
Place meringue into a piping bag and pipe on top of the cruffins with big sweeping pushes on the bag. Alternatively you can ladle it onto the top of the cruffins manually but we had a bit of trouble doing it that way.
- 24
Torch the meringue until golden using a kitchen torch. Serve the same day.
Served with
Tenina Holder is a wife, mother of five and grandmother of eight, who started cooking in the olden days before Thermomix was even a thing.
Tenina has become the premium go to source for all Thermomix expertise and of course fresh and easy recipes that work. Her cooking classes and foodie trips are sold out in literally hours, her cookbooks appear on the Australian best seller lists and her social reach is in the millions. Her Insider Club is the most fun you can have with a Thermomix and you really should join her! She believes chocolate, butter and salt are health foods. Her food positivity mantra is, eat everything, just not all at once!
