A croissant story
Croissant. This French bread-cum-pastry is made from puff pastry or laminated dough, producing a soft and airy interior with a crisp, flaky exterior that is heavenly to the bite. Whether shaped like a crescent or a crab, whichever way you look at it, this bread has become a favorite, not only among the elite but also among middle-class bread lovers who enjoy rich, flaky textures.
Croissant is both rich and flaky because its dough consists of several thin layers separated by butter and water.
While most chefs keep the croissant classic and traditional, lately, several creative pastry chefs have been experimenting with the dough to create something new and exciting.
Perhaps one of the most significant of these croissant “babies” was the Cronut, a pastry that marries the croissant and the doughnut. It was invented and trademarked by famed French pastry chef Dominique Ansel in 2013. It’s made from croissant dough shaped like a doughnut, deep-fried, filled with flavored cream and topped with a dusting of powdered sugar.
In the Philippines, it was Wild Flour that made the Cronut famous. Several other bakeries and bakeshops followed suit, making quite a killing from enamored Filipino diners who found the croissant hybrid both new and exciting.
The following years saw other croissant hybrids popping up in both international and local food scenes.
One particularly successful creation, which World of Flavors personally enjoyed, is Donatella Chua’s Croissaymada from her brand, Croissant Lady PH. While she sources her croissant dough from a reputable supplier and offers both regular-sized croissants and mini versions freshly baked for her clients, she also creates other classic flaky pastries, such as Pain au Chocolat, using the same dough. Then she started experimenting and came up with a winner: Croissaymada, a croissant and ensaymada hybrid. She simply tops her croissants with everything that makes an ensaymada, including cheese and sugar, in a carefully determined proportion, baking them to golden perfection. They are still available via The Croissant Lady.
Recently, Masa Madre Bakehouse’s talented head chef, master baker and owner, chef Kris Edison Tan, developed a croissant and bread loaf hybrid he calls Croloaf. He wanted a loaf that was buttery yet flaky for his to-go sandwiches, and the idea of making a loaf out of his croissant dough struck him. The result? Crusty and flaky on the outside, yet pillowy soft inside with a rich, buttery aroma. You can slice it as thin or thick as you like and make a delicious sandwich out of it. Perfectly delicious!
Chef Kris has also developed Crobites, small bite-sized morsels of croissants flavored with different toppings. He was making Kouign Amann when he suddenly thought of creating Crobites. “I like the texture and mouthfeel of the Kouign Amann, so why not make bite-sized versions of it?” he recalls. Aside from the Original, which consists of plain Crobites coated with sugar, chef Kris has created seven other flavors -- Coffee, Chocolate, Cookies & Cream, Coconut, Matcha, Truffle White Chocolate and Ruby Almond. They are all still available in jars at the Masa Madre Bakehouse store in BGC and via online. Then there’s the croissant and cookie hybrid called Crookies, created by chef Kalel Chan for Jones All Day. The restaurant had been selling freshly baked croissants and cookies for a while, so chef Kalel thought of combining them to create Crookies.
Four flavors emerged —Choco Chip Crookies (cookie dough and dark chocolate combined with croissant), White Chocolate Macadamia Crookies (cookie dough, white chocolate and macadamia nuts), Double Chocolate Crookies (dark chocolate cookie dough, white chocolate and walnuts) and Unicorn Crookies (cookie dough and rainbow sprinkles). All are combined with croissant before being baked. Surely, other croissant hybrids are in the offing, just waiting for the perfect time to debut in the market.
