From Good to Great – Morning Buns with Pillsbury
Morning Buns made with Pillsbury Crescent dough products. Front plate (blue) uses Crescent Butter Flake dough. Back plate (white) uses Crescent Rounds dough.
As I mentioned in my previous post, sometimes you really don't have the time to make things from scratch. While being able to say that something is homemade carries more weight, using pre-made ingredients is a practical option. I would probably never serve Pillsbury Crescent Rolls as-is, but when combined with other ingredients, it has the opportunity to transform into something special. There's something really cool about being able to do that, to go from ordinary to extraordinary.
In this recipe, pre-made dough was combined with sugar (white and brown), butter, cinnamon and orange zest. For me, the secret sauce ingredient was the orange zest. It gave the morning buns that special little kick that made the difference.
I also used two different types of Pillsbury dough, Butter Flake and Rounds. Both came out nicely—golden brown and crispy on the outside, soft and velvety in the middle. Flavor-wise, Butter Flake was the obvious winner. The Rounds tasted too salty. The recipe is below. The only adjustment was in the baking time. The recipe calls for 45 minutes in the oven, these buns were ready in 20.
Taste: Surprisingly decent!
Ease of recipe: Easy
Time: 1 Hour
Total calories* per recipe: 4985 <--highlight this area with your cursor to see the calories
* Calories based on substituting Tartine Croissant dough for Pillsbury Crescent dough and calculated using the recipe calculator from MyFitnessPal.com
Can pre-made dough make the cut? The Morning Bun Trial.
Pillsbury Crescent dough – ready for the challenge!
A friend of mine came across Tartine's Morning Bun recipe that she thought I would like since the directions suggest using Tartine’s Croissant recipe as the dough.
And while croissants are hands down my favorite breakfast pastry and is coincidentally the first recipe in the Tartine cookbook, it is probably the last recipe I will attempt to make. Why? Just reading through the instructions will test one's will. The process is time intensive and will likely require a good two days of preparation, especially if you’re like me with limited time and competing agendas.
Not a problem though. My friend generously gave me several tins of pre-made Pillsbury Crescent dough with the Morning Bun recipe. So, why not? Anything made with butter and sugar can’t turn out too bad…I’ll find out this weekend.