Cinnamon Croissant Ring

Today I'm really excited to share this treat with you. A Cinnamon Croissant Ring! I know croissants are super intimidating to some people but I've taken tons of pictures to show you how things should look as you go along. This post probably will have more pictures than any of my other posts. Which should be really helpful :). My husband always teases me that I never make him croissants because I used to make them about once a year and he hasn't had them homemade in probably over two now. This was a great surprise for him and I thought you all would like it too!

This ring is also called a Princess ring but I can't find any information on why so if anyone does know I would love for you to share :). I have always loved yeast doughs and a challenge. I don't view croissant so much as a challenge as much as a do a test of patience, they definitely take some time to make. Once you get the yeast activated and mixed into the dough then you are good to go on a yeast dough. You know it's good yeast if you see it start foaming a few minutes after it's been mixed into the liquid in the recipe. If it doesn't foam, toss it, it's not good anymore. Yeast lasts a pretty long time though. I buy it in bulk and keep it in a sealed container in the refrigerator and haven't had any problems with it going bad.

This post will be a little different because I'm putting a line of pictures below this instead of mixed into the directions. Some of my pictures may be a hint blurry if you enlarge them but I wanted to include them anyway to give you an idea of what you are looking for during the recipe. The directions (which are long but don't be alarmed) are at the bottom of this post with a "printable recipe" link. If you look at the recipe and read over it you will see some repetition such as the "turns" for rolling out the croissant dough. You only want to use 1/2 of the recipe of the croissant dough for the cinnamon croissant ring. You could also just make two princess rings and freeze one of them that is already baked. 

You want to keep it in the pan though and freeze it, then wrap it tightly for up to one month. When you want to serve it, take it out of the freezer, take off the foil, and bake the frozen ring at 325F for 30-40 minutes. If you don't want two cinnamon croissant rings then tomorrow posts is croissants! So, even if you get wild and make the dough today it still needs to sit in the refrigerator overnight and you can make croissants with it tomorrow.  

Here with go with the steps in pictures!

 The croissant dough with the butter on it ready to be folded. (Croissants Step 4)

One fold in (still Step 4)

After it has been folded, re-rolled out, and re-folded. This is the first "fold" and I like to use my finger to put an indention in the dough to keep track of how many "folds" I've done. (Step 5) 

The dough after all four folds that is ready to be turned into something delicious!

This is half of the dough. The other half has been re-wrapped and placed back into the refrigerator for later. 

The dough rolled out (Croissant Ring Step 2)

Sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar (Croissant Ring Step 3)

On the springform pan (Croissant Ring Step 4)

After rising and ready to be egg washed and sprinkled with streusel (Croissant Ring Step 5)

Cinnamon Croissant Ring
Makes 1 ring

Ingredients:
For ring:
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon (half of a 3-inch stick)
- ½ recipe croissant dough (1 lb 6 oz), chilled (recipe follows)
- 1 large egg, beaten

For streusel topping:
- ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ stick (1/4 cup) frozen unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Directions:
Prepare ring:
1. Butter a 24-centimeter (about 9-inch) springform pan and line with a round of parchment paper. Butter paper and remove side of pan.
2. Stir together sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary, into a 24- by 9-inch rectangle. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush and trim edges with a pizza wheel or sharp knife.
3. Arrange dough so that a long side is nearest you and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over dough, leaving a 1-inch border along bottom edge. Brush border with some beaten egg and chill remaining egg. Fold top edge of dough over about 1 inch. Using both hands, roll dough toward you: Use your thumbs to tuck dough under and tighten as you go, working your way down entire length of log (as when rolling up a poster), and gently rock dough back and forth to keep it taut and even. When finished, roll log back and forth over seam to seal.
4. Transfer log, seam side down, to bottom of springform pan, bringing both ends of log together to make a ring. Beginning 2 inches from where ends meet, make vertical cuts from outside of ring toward center at 2-inch intervals, cutting halfway through ring.
Let ring rise:
5. Attach side of pan and slide pan into garbage bag, propping up top of bag with inverted glasses to keep it from touching dough, then tuck open end under pan. Let ring rise until slightly puffy and spongy to the touch, about 2 1/2 hours. (I covered the pan with a kitchen towel and it was fine)
Make streusel while ring is rising:
6. Blend flour and sugar in a food processor. Add frozen butter and pulse until very finely chopped. Chill streusel until ready to use.
7. Preheat oven to 375°F.
8. Gently brush top and center of ring with some of remaining beaten egg, then sprinkle with streusel. Bake in middle of oven until top is browned and streusel is crisp, about 45 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around edge to loosen and remove side of pan.

Croissant dough
Makes 1 princess ring and 12-16 croissants (or two princess rings)
 

Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups milk, heated to warm (105°F–110°F) (I used 1%, but whole is recommended)
- ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)
- 3 ¾ to 4 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) cold unsalted butter

Directions:
Make dough:
1. Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn’t foam, discard and start over.) Add 3 3/4 cups flour and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and very soft, about 7 minutes.
2. Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Form dough into a roughly 1 1/2-inch-thick rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until cold, about 1 hour.
Prepare and shape butter:
3. After dough has chilled, arrange sticks of butter horizontally, their sides touching, on a work surface. Pound butter with a rolling pin to soften slightly (butter should be malleable but still cold). Scrape butter into a block and put on a kitchen towel, then cover with other towel. Pound and roll out on both sides until butter forms a uniform 8- by 5-inch rectangle. Chill, wrapped in towels, while rolling out dough.
Roll out dough:
4. Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and lifting and stretching dough (especially in corners), into a 16- by 10-inch rectangle. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold as you would a letter: bottom third of dough over butter, then top third down over dough. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush.
Roll out dough:
5. Turn dough so a short side is nearest you, then flatten dough slightly by pressing down horizontally with rolling pin across dough at regular intervals, making uniform impressions. Roll out dough into a 15- by 10-inch rectangle, rolling just to but not over ends.
Brush off any excess flour. Fold in thirds like a letter, as above, stretching corners to square off dough, forming a 10- by 5-inch rectangle. (You have completed the first "fold.") Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 1 hour.
Make remaining "folds":
6. Make 3 more folds in same manner, chilling dough 1 hour after each fold, for a total of 4 folds. (If any butter oozes out while rolling, sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking.) Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours but no more than 18 (after 18 hours, dough may not rise sufficiently when baked).

Printable recipe

Recipe adapted from Epicurious

This recipe may be linked up to:

· Inside BruCrew Life - Trick or Treat Tuesday's

· Crazy For Crust - Crazy Sweet Tuesday’s

· Mrs. Fox's Sweets - Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party

· A Pinch of Joy - Busy Monday Link Party 
· House of Hepworth's - Hookin up with HoH 
· Cups by Kim - Sweet & Simple Sunday  
· Couponing & Cooking - Mealtime Monday 
·  Grateful Belly - What's New Wednesday