Orange Cranberry Glazed Cheese Croissants are a quick and easy recipe for homemade croissants made with cottage cheese, stuffed with dried cranberries and drizzled with a heavenly orange glaze. These sweet cheese pastries would make a sweet addition to a holiday breakfast.
What's The Best Flour For Croissants?
I'll be honest with y'all, I tried making these croissants with whole grain white wheat flour on my first attempt and they tasted like poo. Lesson learned, don't sub the white flour for wheat it makes them too dense and grainy. On the next try, I went for the unbleached all-purpose version. King Arthur flour is my favorite, it always yields great baked goods. I'm always looking to make things healthier, but it's not worth sacrificing the quality of the recipe, or the happiness of my taste buds. This recipe turns out great with King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour for the base. You can even swap out ⅓ of the flour for pastry flour for an even flakier croissant texture.
This holiday croissant recipe has been adapted from a recipe found on MarthaStewart.com.
Recipe Tip
I love these low sugar cranberries to add to recipes. Most recipes have enough sweetness, so it's a great way to cut some of the sugar. If you don't love cranberries, just leave them out. The orange-glazed croissants are tasty all by themselves.
Most importantly, don't skip the fresh orange zest in the glaze!
Eat one of these cheese croissants fresh from the oven, after glazing. Trust me, they are best fresh and warm.
A few more favorite breakfast quick bread recipes are oat flour banana bread, Greek yogurt strawberry muffins, and old-fashioned date nut bread.
Orange Cranberry Glazed Cheese Croissants
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup small curd cottage cheese Good Culture cottage cheese recommended. Also, I use regular, not low-fat
- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg white
- ½ cup dried cranberries * I use a low-sugar version
- ½ tablespoon orange zest
- 2 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 ¼ cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 tablespoon half and half or whole milk
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine softened butter, cottage cheese, flour and salt
- Blend until cottage cheese is well incorporated
- Form mixture into a flat circle and wrap with plastic wrap
- Refrigerate dough for 2-3 hours, or until firm
- Dust a large cutting board with a little flour and roll out the dough to form a 12-14" circle
- Cut circle into eight pieces (like a pie) and place a few dried cranberries at the top section of each triangle
- Roll up croissants from wide end to narrow tip and place onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet
- Brush each croissant with the egg white and bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly golden
- Whisk together orange zest, orange juice, half and half and confectioner's sugar in a medium size bowl.
- Cool croissants for 5 minutes, then drizzle glaze over top.
- Serve warm or room temperature.
Nutrition
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Emily @ Sinful Nutrition
OMG these sound awesome! Glad that there's actually a lower sugar dried cranberry without a bunch of artificial sweeteners in them. Definitely keeping my eyes peeled for them!