The croissant revolution

You could say it started with the Cronut, Dominique Ansel’s hybrid croissant and doughnut. That pastry sparked loads of imitators and innovators, with new croissant shapes and mashups springing up around the world. Many of these new takes are stunning to view, as The New York Times’ Julia Moskin explains when she dives into the new takes on this flaky, buttery pastry. (This is a gifted article so there is no paywall.)

Moskin notes that while other trends from the same era as the Cronut have come and gone, the boundary pushing uses for laminated dough show no signs of fading. Creative pastry chefs are shaping croissants into cubes, squiggles, circles, and even into pieces small enough to eat as a breakfast cereal. One chef is wrapping baguettes with croissant dough to create a loaf that Moskin says “tastes as if the salted butter you’d spread on a baguette is already there.”

While chefs are always exploring new flavors and techniques, it seems that this croissant revolution is more a product of Instagram and TikTok than the natural evolution of the craft. Restaurants and bakeries are hiring chefs with the goal of creating “viral” pastries that will grab the public’s attention and (hopefully) drive them to visit and buy the product. Purists (especially in France) may be horrified by these “abominations,” but many pastry chefs say their unique spins on croissants are what saved their business. Kate Reid, author of Lune: Croissants All Day, All Night, said that the inspiration provided by Dominique Ansel’s Cronut was vital to her bakery. “He opened the dam to a lake full of new ideas,” she said.