Croqui: Paris has taken over the new croissant. Photo
Paris has created yet another variation of traditional pastries - a combination of a croissant and an American chocolate cookie called a croqui (from the words croissant and cookie).
Such creations may seem daring, especially given the respect for tradition in French gastronomy. But, given the complex history of the country's most famous pastries, this novelty is not as blasphemous as it might seem at first glance, the BBC reports.
This croissant was launched in Paris in October 2022.
The idea, according to the inventor Stephane Louvard of Maison Louvard on Rue de Châteaudun, came one Saturday morning after he baked a very good batch of croissants. "I thought... you know what? Let's have some fun."
He split the croissants in half and stuffed them with chocolate chip cookie dough, and baked them again to set the cookies.
They were a moderate success - 100-150 were sold every day - until a tik-tok influencer found out about them in February 2024. Since then, Louvard has been working overtime to keep up with demand, creating 1,500 croqui a day - and 2,000 on Saturdays.
However, croqui have become so popular not only because of the influence of social media.
They begin with the baking of a croissant that takes three days to prepare, giving it enough time to ferment and develop its full and rich flavor.
After baking, the croissants are left for several hours - as Louvar explained, long enough to be carefully cut down the middle. Then they are filled with 60 g of cookie dough, and another 40 g is placed on top, after which they are baked for 10 minutes to ensure that the chocolate inside remains viscous long after it has cooled.
Louvar explained that this was made possible by chocolate from Xoco Gourmet, a producer that grows terroir cocoa that is roasted in half the time of industry standards and at a temperature 20% lower than the industry standard. The resulting chocolate has a rich flavor without bitterness. For the production of croqui, 62% chocolate called Mayan Red is used.
As TravelWise reported earlier, experts have named 5 things worth spending money on in Paris.
