Flat chocolate croissant from the Amaquia bakery, in O Porriño (Pontevedra).
Image provided by the establishment.
“
It seems like a crime, commented one colleague.
” (It seems like a crime, a friend commented).
This is how forceful the article that the gastronomy magazine
Eater
published on February 1 about the latest creation of Alexander's Patisserie, a bakery in California, United States, begins.
The bun in question was none other than a completely flattened croissant, lacking the characteristic volume of laminated dough.
After the
cronut
, the
NY Rolls
or the cubes - made from croissant dough, but with different shapes -, little by little the umpteenth variation of the classic arrives at the bakeries, this time flat, which is already beginning to be seen in some workers of Spain.
The debate on whether they will permanently find a place on the counters or are just a passing phenomenon amplified by social networks and of dubious execution is open.
“After talking to at least a dozen bakers over the years about croissant techniques and how they strive to get those perfect, airy, laminated layers, seeing one smashed to a crisp seems contradictory to the entire art of the pastries,” says
Eater
editor
Dianne de Guzmán to explain her reluctance toward the product.
An argument that Claire Chen, manager of the establishment, tries to refute, explaining that, in reality, making them is not just about flattening them, but that it is a “completely new way of doing it.”
The pastry shop, in fact, claims in one of its posts on Instagram that the recipe has been developed in-house after a customer asked for a “palm tree” while watching “the flat croissants that are popular in Korea” on her phone.
The creation was announced on their networks on January 18 in a video that began by saying: “This seems illegal to share, but…”, while a hand crushed a traditional croissant.
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by Alexander's Patisserie (@alexanderspatisserie)
Korean videos or videos with references to the country are the majority when searching for content on TikTok about the flat croissant, but in recent weeks publications of foreign bakers making them have also proliferated, even reaching a Lebanese pastry shop, Mont Croissant, as well as homemade versions trying replicate the recipe.
And with its arrival, the divergence has manifested itself as to whether it is an aberration or a delight worthy of devotees.
“What a waste of beautiful puff pastry that took effort to make!” comments one user on a post by French pastry chef Julien Sion.
In the case of the video shared by Alexander's Patisserie, another follower says: “In the top 5 of the dumbest things I saw on TikTok.
Ruin a
croissant
.”
Others comment on how delicious it is to eat a “palm croissant” or how much they love the idea.
The production method is almost always the same.
An already formed puff pastry croissant is sprinkled with sugar to seek caramelization and flattened with a heavy tray that is left on top when it is placed in the oven to prevent the dough from rising.
Coverage is left to individual creativity.
More information
The puff pastry revolution in Spain
In Spain, there are several workshops that have already replicated it, precisely reflecting this existence of conflicting opinions.
The Amaquia bakery, with several points of sale in the province of Pontevedra, began selling them a few days ago under the name "suelas", as Montse Fernández, owner of the bakery, decided to call them, completely unaware of the name they receive on social networks. .
In fact, she claims that she started working on the recipe about a month ago after the failed attempt at making a waffle-croissant and without having seen it anywhere else before.
“You try to make it crispy, but not too dry and you end up eliminating what the croissant is, so that it is juicy,” she says.
Given the diversity of opinions, she is one of those who believes that “the customer is the boss” and so far the reception has been good.
From making between 12 and 15 pieces in each of their three stores, they have gone to 50 a day in each point of sale.
“We are making a variety every day: Nutella, Lotus, toasted yolk... and now we are trying to come out with a salty one,” she explains.
The unit sells for 3.50 euros and has a little filling “so that when you eat it it is creamy.”
For Fernández, innovation is necessary, but being an artisan workshop, where each piece is worked by hand and given its time, it is essential to play with the masses already available such as the croissant.
Furthermore, she believes that creative pieces and trends are “a claim” for people to get to know them.
“You don't live off of these things, but maybe in passing, whoever comes looking for it, takes the loaf of bread or four or five of the normal croissants.
“It’s a way for them to come into your bakery.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by La Tahona de Sotillo (@tahonasotillo)
In Valencia, La Brioxeria, they sell them using the term
planxat
(ironing, in Valencian) to refer to them.
The trend has even reached Sotillo de la Adrada, a town in Ávila that has less than 5,000 inhabitants, and where the bakery La Tahona de Sotillo sells them, with three different toppings: strawberry, chocolate and Lotus cookie.
In this case, according to Ángel Rodríguez, the third generation in charge of the establishment, they have decided after several tests not to add sugar to caramelize it because it is "too sweet."
“At first it was even difficult for me because this goes against everything that pastry chefs and bakers have fought for, that we spend all day looking for the layers so that the puff pastry is crispy and airy and now we flatten them, but I saw it as something that “It could serve as a substitute for toast,” says Rodríguez, specifically thinking about serving it to one of his clients, Taberna Merche, in Piedralaves.
That's how after seeing it months ago in London and having kept it in mind, he began testing it at the beginning of March and ended up selling it at 1.50 euros on weekends, which is when they sell the most.
Rodríguez himself cites the Californian bakery Alexander's Patisserie as the place that has made it fashionable, despite the fact that the bun was already around some other establishments and social media profiles.
Nuño García, from Clan Obrador, on the other hand, never put them on sale.
After posting a story on his Instagram profile of him making a flat croissant, he later settled the matter with a photo of the perfectly aerated interior of a
pain au chocolat
along with the message “Definitely not a flat croissant.
Classic Viennoiserie
.
Always”, and the label “never ever”.
He discovered the trend on networks, where he is quite active showing his own creations, and where this time he came across the
flat croissant
in the profile of a Ukrainian baker, Dima Zhukovets, who has also decided to get out of the new trend and stop make them.
“I made one without any sugar, others with a little, some more and others less baked and the result was a little mediocre in all of them,” says García, about his experience.
The baker believes that if you are looking for “a flat, crunchy piece with a butter flavor, you can make an inverted puff pastry (palm tree) or a millefeuille and that “it is not worth taking a piece that requires a very long and laborious so that it remains with a lot of volume, crispy on the outside, but airy and juicy on the inside, if later when it is time to bake it it flattens."
“It's fun and you can play it, but it seemed dry to me and when it came to selling it I found it uncomfortable.
It hasn't been my thing,” he adds.
He, who is committed to innovation in the product, believes that “the power of the networks is very great and you can get on, until the product dies” and defends that “in the classic there are also options.”
“You don't have to reinvent the wheel every day.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Nuño García (@nunopastry)
You can follow EL PAÍS Gastro
on
and
X.