After cronuts, the croissant is getting another makeover

Croissant fillings are going beyond cheese, sausages and ham. Source: Wally Gobetz/Flickr

Once thought of as an elegant, classic French breakfast pastry, the croissant has been undergoing a major makeover. A popular tag on Instagram shows filled croissants, first created by Thiago Dsilva, a chef at Union Fare, in New York. His flaky creations include flavours like funfetti and cookies-n-cream . Textbook Boulangerie Patisserie, in Sydney, is wildly popular for its weekly rotating croissant menu, with flavours like blood orange and ginger custard, truffle custard, blueberry, to name a few. Several cafés, patisseries and boulangeries the world over have jumped on the #stuffedcroissant bandwagon, like Harliman Boulangerie in Indonesia with their raspberry and dark chocolate variants. And the buzz is this one will be a big trend.

Like the cronut, these stuffed croissants haven’t yet hit Indian shores in all their glory yet, but we reckon they will, sooner rather than later.  The Rolling Pin, in Mumbai, does a croissant called Chocola Chocola that incorporates the chocolate element in the usually savoury, flaky bun, and according to Aditya Gupta, Consulting Chef and Partner, it is an interesting, new take on the regular croissant. But, while they welcome the trend, the folks at The Rolling Pin also feel that most croissants in the country resemble breads, and aren’t as flaky as the pastry needs to be. At the other end of the spectrum is Chef Rachelle Andrade, Head Baker at Mag Street Bread Co by Magazine Street Kitchen, who is all for the classics. “I’ve seen both bi-coloured and stuffed croissants on Instagram and know of a few Indian chefs who are experimenting with them. For me, the croissant is a classic and this trend may or may not catch on.” For chef Rachelle, this new avatar of the flaky pastry seems similar to the cruffin (croissant and muffin hybrid), or a cronut that can be a tad too indulgent. As a patissier, she’s in favour of sticking to the basics, with fillings like vanilla, chocolate or Bounty instead of going for a combination that is crazy, simply for the shock value.