Enjoy a Slice of History and Deliciousness with Cinnamon Crescents: Easy Sweet Recipes at Home

Every year on 10th April, a certain dessert that is deliciously fragrant and buttery is celebrated; these are cinnamon crescent rolls that look like a miniature version of croissants and taste exactly like the American cinnamon rolls. Unlike croissants, these cinnamon rolls are easy to make and take only 15 minutes to bake. The inside of the rolls are often layered with a sweet cinnamon filling or the dough is simply brushed with the cinnamon filling. If that is not enough powdered icing sugar is often layered on the freshly baked crescents to sweeten it further.

Where did they come from?

Croissants are from Austria and just like France made it its official bready mascot, cinnamon was also not a part of it until spice trading started. Cinnamon was already a popular spice in ancient Egypt dating back to 2000 BCE, when it was being used for perfume for embalming. Asian and Middle Eastern countries were also using it in their cooking and sometimes to preserve food and flavour it as well.

As for reaching the European shores, it was when the Portuguese annexed Sri Lanka’s capital Ceylon around 1505 (Ceylon cinnamon is a popular kind of cinnamon today), that they brought back cinnamon to their home country to be used in baking in Europe. The Portuguese were said to have introduced the love cake, a speciality of theirs, to the Lankans who tweaked the original recipe by adding rose water, cinnamon and cashews to it.

The Dutch and English did not lag behind, they soon got into a tussle over the spice that was becoming the source of wealth in Europe and a symbol of global trading. This lasted till the 1700s when cinnamon saturated the market and the heated pursuit turned cold. By now cinnamon-rich baked goodies were ample in the market and cinnamon rolls and crescent cinnamon rolls were going around and enjoyed in abundance. So, here's a recipe from scratch to celebrate this day to the umpteenth.

Cinnamon Crescent Recipe

Ingredients

• 55 ml milk
• 1/2 tbsp white sugar
• 1 or 2 eggs (30gm)
• 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 145 gm all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 18 gm unsalted butter (room temperature)

Cinnamon Spread

• 18 gm soft Butter (unsalted, room temperature)
• 30 gm brown sugar
• 1/4 tbsp ground cinnamon
• For garnish, a bit of egg residue for the egg wash

Instructions

1. Get started with the dough first, mix the milk, yeast, egg and sugar in a mixing bowl until they are well incorporated. Save a bit of the eggs for the egg wash.
2. In another bowl mix the dry ingredients – flour and salt, followed by the unsalted butter, use a butter knife or pastry butter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Use your fingers or a spatula to mix the butter so the flour and salt no longer have any dryness.
3. Cover the bowl and set aside, leaving it to rise for at least an hour. The dough will double in size, then pop it in the fridge for an additional hour. Chilled dough is easier to handle since there is a lot of butter in it.
4. After the dough rises, bring it out and roll it into a lightly floured flat surface. Extend it to roughly expand into a 12x12 cm circle. Use a rolling pin if necessary and make sure the dough is around ¼ of an inch thick overall.
5. Cut this circle into 12 equal wedges using some kind of cutter, then roll from one edge to form the croissant (crescent)-like shape. Repeat until you have 12 crescents.
6. Now get working on the filling quickly, by combining the soft butter, sugar and cinnamon and spread it over these rolled crescents gently using a spatula.
7. Line a baking tray with parchment paper, spray it with cooking spray and place the cinnamon crescent dough on it. Use a muslin cloth to cover the crescents for an hour for them to rise.
8. While the dough rises, in its final minutes preheat the oven to 180°C and use the egg set aside earlier to brush on the cinnamon crescents, then pop the tray into the oven.
9. Bake for 15 minutes, the crescents will turn a beautiful golden brown colour and very fragrant.
10. For an extra touch of deliciousness, melt a little butter and brush them with it.