Cinnamon Crescent Rolls Recipe For National Cinnamon Crescent Day
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April 10th is National Cinnamon Crescent Day, an ideal warm, fragrant companion to a cup of coffee or tea. Crescent is the English translation of croissant, the buttery, crescent-shaped laminated dough breakfast rolls so integral to French breakfasts. Cinnamon Crescents are an American adaptation of the croissant. Because Americans have a sweet tooth, the crescents have a filling of cinnamon sugar and are topped with a vanilla glaze. Below: > The recipe for cinnamon crescents from scratch. > How to make cinnamon crescents from Pillsbury refrigerated dough. > The history of cinnamon crescents. > Other crescent-shaped baked goods. Elsewhere on The Nibble: > The different types of bread: a photo glossary. > The different types of pastry: a photo glossary. > The year’s 20+ bread holidays. > The year’s 15+ pastry holidays. Thanks to Taste Of Home for the recipe. Ingredients For 4 Dozen Small Rolls 1. COMBINE the flour and baking powder in a large bowl; cut in the butter until crumbly. Stir in the milk and egg. Divide into three portions; shape each portion into a ball. 2. COMBINE the sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle a third of it over a pastry board or a surface. Roll one ball into a 12-inch circle; cut the circle into 12 wedges. 3. ROLL UP from wide edge. Repeat with the remaining dough and cinnamon sugar. 4. PLACE the rolls with the point side down on a lightly greased baking sheets; form into crescent shapes. Bake at 350° for 16-18 minutes or until lightly browned (do not overbake). 5. MAKE the glaze. Combine the confectioners’ sugar, cinnamon and milk until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled crescents. For a faster result, you can make crescent rolls from the Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough. The concept was the winner of the 1973 Pillsbury Bake-Off! Just press the pre-cut triangle perforations of a crescent sheet together, spread it with butter and cinnamon-sugar, roll the whole sheet into a log, and slice it into rounds. Meaning “crescent” and pronounced kwah-SAWn (the “n” is just a hint of the consonant at the end of kwah-SAW) in French, this rich, buttery, crescent-shaped roll is made of puff pastry that layers yeast dough with butter—a technique known as laminating. Traditionally a breakfast bread served with jam and butter, two classic variations include the almond croissant, filled with frangipane (almond paste) and topped with sliced almonds, and the “chocolate croissant,” correctly called pain au chocolat, baked with a piece of dark chocolate in the center. In the early 1970s, croissants became sandwich substitutes as they evolved from their two traditional fillings, chocolate, and almond paste, into many savory variations, from broccoli to ham and cheese, as well as additional sweet varieties. There’s also the Bavarian croissant or pretzel croissant, made of a pretzel-like dough that combines bread flour and whole wheat flour with salt sprinkled on the top, like a pretzel. Some are made of puff pastry, others of soft pretzel-type dough in a triangle wrap, like a croissant. |
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The Real Vs. Alleged History Of Croissants Stories of the croissant being made in the shape of the crescent of the Turkish flag, after the defeat of the Turks in the Siege of Vienna in 1683, are a perpetuated myth. Recipes for croissants do not appear in recipe books until the early 1900s, according to the Oxford Companion To Food. The earliest French reference is in 1853. The croissant is a descendant of the Austrian kipfel, a yeast roll usually filled with chopped walnuts, dried or candied fruit, or other filling, and shaped like a crescent. It arrived in Paris in 1838 or 1839 with August Zang, an Austrian military officer. He opened a bakery, Boulangerie Viennoise, and introduced Viennese techniques which would one day lead to the baguette and the croissant. The crescent-shaped kipfel was ultimately made with puff pastry by French bakers. You can read this history in Jim Chevallier’s book, August Zang and the French Croissant: How Viennoisserie* Came To France (Kindle edition). While the concept of crescent-shaped pastries is and old European traditions, the prominence of crescent (croissant) rolls and pastries in the U.S. began with the invention of the packaging technology: the metal tube can that pressurized dough and opened with a “pop.” In 1931 the pressurized can format, created by a third-party inventor†, was patented, subsequently becoming iconic for refrigerated dough products. Pillsbury acquired the patent in 1951, and launched its line of refrigerated biscuits. The refrigerated dough in a pop-open tube, portioned to bake quickly, allowed home cooks to serve the “home-baked goodness” of cookies and rolls frequently. Pillsbury Original Crescent Rolls arrived in 1965, along with the Pillsbury Doughboy (his name is Poppin’ Fresh). Crescent shapes in baking show up often: in pastries, rolls, and even cookies. A few examples: Although they’re half-moons rather than crescents, we give a shout-out to baked savory pastries like calzones and empanadas; and another nod to sweet turnovers. _______________ *Viennoiserie are buttery, flaky breakfast breads and pastries made with laminated dough, a technique of layering and folding a yeast dough to create brioche, croissants, danish, pain au chocolat and other so-called “Viennoiserie.” It is a marriage between traditional bread baking and sweet pastry baking. The technique of lamination produces many buttery layers that can be pulled apart to reveal thin leaves within. You can see the striations, or layers, of pastry when you look at the top of the Viennoiserie or when you cut into them (photo ##5). This technique is time-consuming and expensive (because of the amount of butter needed). †The pressurized can/tube was patented in 1931 by Lively Willoughby, a Kentucky bakery owner, to sell his biscuits. He later sold the patent to Ballard & Ballard Flour Co., and biscuits had become a key refrigerated dough item by the 1950s, when Pillsbury acquired Ballard (1951), enabling it to expand into packaged refrigerated biscuit doughs. In 1958 Pillsbury filed a patent for the “breakable tube,” which was granted in 1961. CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.
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