Best Of CLE: Leavened Bakery's Cruffins

At Leavened, you only get one shot at getting a cruffin ($4.50), so don’t blow your chances. Head baker Ian Herrington makes a limited number, selling only about 80 a week, and only on weekends. Crunchy on the outside but buttery and flaky on the inside, cruffins (first popularized in San Francisco in 2014) are texturally similar to a croissant but shaped like a muffin.

Herrington, who opened his artisan bakery last fall, launched his weekly cruffin sales this summer to immediate sellout success. “Right as we open on Saturday mornings [at 8 a.m.], we post to Instagram what the cruffin flavor is going to be,” he says. “We’ve got people coming in within the half hour being like, ‘Lemme get a cruffin.’ ”

Past favorites have included a light peanut butter pastry cream with a whipped raspberry jam, and a coffee and chocolate version rolled in cocoa sugar and topped with mocha sauce. Herrington almost never offers the same kind twice — and with such limited weekly runs, he’s mentally stocked up on an endless supply of flavor profiles to come. 1633 Auburn Ave., Suite 1, Cleveland, 216-260-1666, leavenedcle.com

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