Croissant Dough Gems

These little gems were devised out of necessity while I was making all those croissants. What was I to do with those dough scraps I cut off the ends? I certainly couldn't throw them away! I mean really, duh! So, I thought that I might toss them in some cinnamon and sugar and see what happened.

Wow! I mean, double, triple, holy fantastic, wow. Wow, like, I may just make batches of this croissant dough to make these, wow. I made these twice. The first time I had the proportions more right than the second. The first time, I had more sugar than butter and the end result was an almost crunchy, caramelized crust on the outside of each dough ball. The second time, I must have used less sugar and, while they were still good, they ended up a bit too rich and did not have quite the tasty crunch from the sugar. Moral of the story? Use more sugar and less butter.

Snip your left over dough into one inch pieces using a pair of kitchen shears. Mix together a small amount of soft butter with a lot of sugar and cinnamon. Obviously, how much you need would depend on how many scraps you have. I think a ratio of butter to sugar of 1:3 is probably good. Add cinnamon based on your taste preferences. I would err on the side of too little... cinnamon is pretty strong and a little goes a long way. Add the butter mixture to the dough bits and stir to coat.

Spray a shallow baking dish with cooking oil. You want the dough bits to only be one layer thick, so plan accordingly. Let the dish sit in a warm place for 30 minutes to let the dough rise slightly. Place in a preheated 425° F oven. Bake until very golden, maybe 20-30 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating. That sugar will be hot!