Manhattan is known for being a bagel city, a pizza city, and could it also be considered a croissant city?
Over the last twelve years, numerous individuals have directed their focus towards revamping the traditional pastry. From those early days onwards, Cronut , bakers based in New York have been altering butter-laminated dough to produce a variety of items ranging from Sicilian pizzas to various other dishes. Dubai-style chocolate bar pastry.
To grasp the appeal of croissants, one must trace the path of butter,” asserts Gadi Peleg, who founded the New York-based bakery chain Breads Bakery. According to him, croissants serve as an incredibly versatile blank slate and represent the pinnacle of skill due to the intricate process required for laminating the dough.
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He feels that the increasing accessibility of both local and international artisanal butter enhances the appeal of these baked goods, making them highly desirable items for pastry chefs and their clientele.
Despite the escalating costs of nearly all essential croissant components—particularly butter—a number of pastry chefs in New York are presenting highly unconventional versions of the classic curved bread.
However, if there is one thing inflation cannot diminish, it is the enduring allure of a dish enriched with butter. This is particularly true when these dishes come in enchanting forms and tastes.
In recent years, TikTok has transformed numerous visually appealing, short-run pastries into online phenomena.
The beginning
In 2013, Dominique Ansel Ignite the flaky rebellion at his namesake bakery in New York with the Cronut; this viral crossover of a croissant and doughnut continues to attract long lines during weekends.
The resulting creations combined with the audience-generating force of social media have contributed to making New York a center for laminated dough innovations.
Lamination is an essential method used in making French pastries, which entails folding and rolling butter into dough to produce fine, light layers. The croissant stands out as the quintessential illustration of this process; crafted using yeast-based dough enriched with both sugar and plenty of butter.
Peleg refers to Ansel's Cronut as such a "brilliant" creation that it made many people wonder, "How did I not come up with this myself?"
David Zaquine from Sweet Rehab, a French bakery, notes that unusual croissants continue to be popular as they tap into people’s desire for both nostalgia and novelty. These pastries boast an “unforgettable” buttery flavor, a sumptuous mouthfeel, and offer “countless opportunities for creative reinterpretation,” which makes them beloved worldwide.
In 2013, when Peleg launched Breads Bakery shortly before Ansel unveiled the Cronut, he presented a decadent and chewy layered chocolate bread. babka .
In 2021, Peleg introduced a croissant-inspired black-and-white cookie. This treat features layered pastry enclosing a chocolate and vanilla shortbread cookie, topped with both vanilla and chocolate glazes.
TikTok gold
In 2022, Scott Cioe, who serves as the executive pastry chef at Lafayette Bakery, hit it big on TikTok with The SuprEme—a croissant variation that is first baked in a cylindrical mold before being stuffed with flavored creams like their renowned Sicilian option. pistachio .
The outcome has been frequent, sneaker-like releases accompanied by long lines; each day, Lafayette sells as many as 1,000 of the $10.50 coiled treats. Cioe now uses an astounding amount of 725 kilograms (1,600 pounds) of these per day. butter every month.
In that very year, the croissant adopted an unusual form when Gautier and Ashley Coiffard presented $50 boxes of homemade croissant cereal at their compact bakery called L'Appartement 4F.
Now, the creativity with croissants is expanding even more broadly.
Last fall, the Italian-American bakery Angelina hopped onto the Dubai chocolate bar trend.
The daintiness of this item, priced at US$8, is stuffed with pistachio buttercream and has a crunchy texture. kataifi , or thinly sliced phyllo pastry, topped with white chocolate ganache and garnished with crushed pistachios and additional kataifi .
When ZoE Kanan launched her New York-style Jewish bakery called Elbow Bread, she chose challah – a favorite in Central European and Jewish cuisine – as her signature dough.
"This opened up a fresh perspective for me on how to experiment with it," she mentions, which includes crafting challah using the lamination method.
The highest-demand item is Elbow Bread’s US$7 Honey Bun, weighing in at approximately 25 percent butter. She crafts each portion as a single-strand challah braid and finishes it off with a topping of vanilla honey caramel.
At Sweet Rehab, Zaquine combines a rich American brownie with a delicate croissant. The outcome is a delectable brownie blossom crafted from intricately woven layers of gently chewy, alternating brown and white pastries, encasing a luscious, gooey chocolate custard core.
Savoury improvisations
Moreover, there are some savory innovations. At Hani's, which features an American-themed concept created by pastry chef Miro Uskokovic, the upscale version of pigs-in-a-blanket stands out as the ultimate party snack.
This item consists of a beef frankfurter encased in flaky layered pastry, complemented by a dash of zesty mustard and topped with a sprinkle of poppy seeds. At Time and Tide, their revamped lobster roll offered during lunch features a crunchy and light brioche bun that highlights its rich, buttery texture.
At Somedays Bakery located in Long Island City, they have recently started offering the Sicilian pizza croissant. This substantial, square pastry is quite heavy. as a loaded slice made from laminated dough scraps that would usually be thrown away.
Featuring pockets filled with flavored ricotta and smothered in marinara sauce, topped off with melted Cheddar cheese and fresh basil, this dish merges the sweet, zesty, savory depth of a traditional pizza slice with the exceptionally buttery crispness of croissant dough.
If you're searching for a perfectly crafted, traditional croissant that isn’t trying to pass as a pizza, Somedays offers one as well.
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