Forget trends, bring back the croissant

June 18, 2024 by
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We’ve written before about croissants made in various shapes plus croissant mashups like the Cronut, the Cruffin, and more recently, Crookies. While chefs like Lune’s Kate Reid say that the evolution of yeasted, laminated dough is helping the bottom line of bakeries around the world, Eater’s Jaya Saxena says enough is enough. She believes the trends are harming the pastry and that chefs should just let croissants be croissants.

Traditional croissant from Lune by Kate Reid

Saxena notes that by baking croissant dough in tight molds to create unique shapes the pastry becomes dense and prone to greasiness. She takes particular aim at recent innovations like the triangular ongiri croissant, the cube croissant, and the round Supreme pastries by NYC restaurant Lafayette. “I’m ready for the day when taste and texture take precedence over visuals,” she notes, continuing “Or at the very least, the day when people who want a dense pastry do not turn to croissant dough. Danishes are right there!”

I’m with Saxena – I like croissants to be light in texture, which in my mind balances out the fact that they are dripping with fat (which of course makes them delicious). However, I haven’t tried any of the pastries noted in the article so take my criticism with a grain of salt. One thing I don’t factor into my calculus is that people stand in long lines to get these unique pastries. Clout chasers will always flock to things that are uber-trendy so the fact that there are crowds clamoring for the items doesn’t make them great. Judging from the responses to the Crookie post, I’m wagering that a lot of our Members will agree with Saxena.

Category: Antipasto

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5 Comments

  • sanfrannative  on  June 19, 2024

    I mean I’m not against innovation…but the classic croissant shapes are classic because they spotlight the flakiness of the dough so gorgeously. All those delicious shards that pop off the classic shapes when you are eating them are heaven…and the rolled up crescent shape makes them possible!

    I’m with Jaye!

  • Indio32  on  June 19, 2024

    It all started going down hill once they stopped doing crescent shaped croissants.

  • Jillyb3  on  June 19, 2024

    I agree, I just want a croissant to be a croissant. It has reached nirvana already, it needs nothing more!

    To be fair, I haven’t tried any of these trends, but they don’t sound good so I haven’t sought them out.

  • FuzzyChef  on  June 20, 2024

    Well, there’s a reason for this.

    Speaking both as a former professional baker and as someone who just did a croissant tour of Paris: making really good croissants is hard. And also requires expensive ingredients, mainly good butter.

    Making gimmicky croissant-things is way easier, and also cheaper.

  • annmartina  on  June 21, 2024

    I was super disappointed when Marc Heu, in the Twin Cities, jumped on this trend with the chocolate chip cookie croissant. I don’t think they look attractive or delicious. I am getting tired of the trend of piling on/mashing up and I think it can make for lazy pastry making. Maybe baking needs to adopt Coco Chanel’s advice: Before you put it in the oven or on the plate, remove one element :). I’d rather have an exquisitely made croissant AND a chocolate chip cookie than a puddle of collapsed croissant and underdone cookie dough.

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