By Laura Rancie.
Rewind a few years in Australian food culture and you could not read about food without coming across the famed macaron or croissant hybrid, the cronut. While these hypes have somewhat dissipated, the trajectory path that cronuts set Australian Pastry Chefs and bakers on, is not slowing down.
The latest installation of the croissant hybrid does not peak at its latest flavour combination but rather on its shape morph - let us introduce you to the square croissant.
The story is linked back to a 2018 viral TikTok clip from Swedish pastry Chef Bedros Kabranian, who posted about his creative cube croissant. You would expect no less from a member of the Swedish National Pastry Team, but it was really a team effort, with Le Deli Robuchon in London doing on Instagram, what Bedros did for TikTok.
These days, at precisely 11 am each morning the Mayfair location has fans queueing up patiently for a shot at obtaining ‘le cube Robuchon” before they sell out.
Also trending, circle or half-moon flattened croissants. Expertly crafted here by The Providore, Adelaide.
The trickle-on effect has finally hit Australia and we are here to spread the goodness. With the abundance of excellent bakers and Pastry Chefs in the country rolling out exquisitely flakey and light doughs, we are very lucky that when a trend of this magnitude hits, we know we can participate in a world level where our cube croissants will be talked about by other countries.
Pain au chocolat by Pierrick Boyer, Reverie Cafe.
HISTORY OF THE CLASSIC CROISSANT:
In 1999 an ambitious publication titled 'The Oxford Companion to Food' was edited by Alan Davidson, whose aim was to ‘cover the nature and history of foodstuffs worldwide’. It was uncovered that there were no printed croissant recipes in any French recipe book before the early 20th Century.
It was an 1839 bakery by the name of Boulangerie Viennoise at 92 Rue de Richeliue in Paris where the croissant first originated. Becoming instantly popular for serving pastries from Vienna, the Boulangerie also is responsible for coining the term 'Viennoiseries', which today refers to French baked goods that are buttery, yeast-leavened doughs - back then, it simply meant a sweet dough coming out of Vienna. Traditionally, a croissant could only be shaped in a crescent shape.
PAIN-AU-CHOCOLAT:
The pain-au-chocolat is made from the same dough as a croissant but with the addition of a strip or two of chocolate and baked as a rectangle.
ALMOND CROISSANT :
This may surprise you but the almond croissant was born out of the necessity to not throw away that day’s croissants that hadn’t sold. Pastry Chefs now dunk the dried-up, day-old croissants into a sugary water syrup and add a delicate frangipane to the middle with a good sprinkle of flaked almonds on top.
As far as tradition goes, those three are it. Croissants, pain-au-chocolat and almond croissant.
Until now!
ENTER THE CUBE CROISSANT:
While Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane are rolling out square croissants at selected patisseries, we haven’t yet uncovered them in South Australia. We have however spotted the croissant wheel at The Providore in Adelaide Central Market, while Crumbs Patisserie in Perth has cornered the croissant cube market with a laminated offering filled with Couverture chocolate custard, cherry jam and dark chocolate shavings.
Gold Coast and Tasmania – please come to the rescue and join in the great cube croissant revolution.
In this case, we would love to be proved wrong, so AGFG readers, if you know of a city we haven’t mentioned making room to be square, please let us know.
Pandan Croissants invented by Agathe Kerr, from Agathe Patisserie
THE NEXT PHASE?
Agathe Patisserie makes daily sold-out green pandan croissants that are delicate in flavour, light in texture and buttery enough to melt in your mouth while still retaining the classic pandan taste of grassy vanilla and a hint of coconut. However, we’re not yet sold on croissant ice cream cones, flat spiral croissants (aka the supreme), the tacro (croissant taco), the crotilla (tortilla) and the croissushi, which is obviously ridiculous but croissant-sushi nonetheless.
We're thinking Australians may equalise the shapeshift by going straight to semi-circle and half-moon croissants, as seen below by Drom Bakery in Melbourne's Bayswater.
