A croissant from a small bakery in the 9th arrondissement of Paris made the New York Times! That's the feat achieved by the boulangerie Louvard, which has created a worldwide buzz for its crazy invention: the crookie. This hybrid between a croissant and a cookie dough has created a veritable tidal wave on social networks, starting with the account of lifestyle influencer JohanPapz. "In the autumn, we were making around 250 croissants a day. Now, we produce over 2,000, 80-90% of which are dedicated exclusively to crookies," the head baker detailed to La Dépêche in February 2024.
The phenomenon of transmuting the croissant began a few years ago with the simple act of filling it with cream or praline. A method that we may owe to our Italian neighbours, who have long been accustomed to these practices. It was then "subjected" to: its increase in XXL version, its version fried like a doughnut, its placing in a waffle mould - the "croffle" - and was even transformed into an ice cream cone... .
In 2023, it was the New York Roll that was all the rage, imported from Lafayette Bakery, the New York bakery where it was born. This round croissant filled with cream opened the door to all the variations that followed, such as the crescent cake seen on the account of pastry chef Pierre-Jean Quinonero. It's hard to predict what tomorrow's new croissant trend will be, but the possibilities seem endless in this age of social networking.
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The croissant is not the only viennoiserie to undergo metamorphoses worthy of Ovid. Viennese pastries, and by extension puff pastry, have become a fabulous playground for pastry chefs in recent years. The pain au chocolat, the second best-selling Viennese pastry in France after the croissant, has not escaped its share of revisits. Whether it's a longer version from François Perret - hotel Ritz Paris - to make it easier to eat while walking, or filled with a triple dose of chocolate from the famous pastry chef Christophe Michalak, its shape is constantly changing. Like the crookie, it is also fused with other recipes such as the chocolatine-brownie from chef Jeffrey Cagnes, who runs his own business in the 17th arrondissement.
Other Viennese pastries that have come back into fashion include the Suisse or pépito. It is no longer the ugly duckling forgotten in shop windows thanks to its new look of inverted puff pastry, the type of puff pastry used for the galette des rois. The crème pâtissière that used to fill the pastry is now replaced by lighter creams, sometimes flavoured, like Anthony Nguyen's crème frangipane amande et muscovado suisse at La Datcha, a bistronomic restaurant renowned for its brunches. The cruffin, a round muffin-shaped croissant often garnished, and the Danish danish have also become commonplace in French bakeries.
As well as these revisited baking classics, chefs are using puff pastry in recipes that don't traditionally call for it. How can we forget the flan, the star of the bakery world, which has been given a new look with puff pastry layers by chef Maxence Barbot of the Shangri-La Paris hotel? Long live the Parisian viennoiserie!
