"You know why the French hate us so much? They gave us the croissant. And you know what we did with it? We turned it into our croissandwich, thank you very much." Denis Leary
Today, my husband bought this big box of croissants - 12 large ones - from Coles. He does it from time to time when I'm not looking and can dissuade him. He was particularly happy about this morning's purchase because the big box is cheaper and a bargain - always - but today they had knocked it down in price and so it was even more of a good deal. A good deal is important to him. Never mind that these are definitely not the best croissants in the world. They are not even the best in the everyday supermarket world of croissants. Anyway I could not prevail and we now have lots of croissants. Most of them are now in the freezer, but I'm sure he has also left several in the fridge.
Anyway it prompted me to look around to see what else I can do with them, other than breakfast in the morning with more butter and home-made jam. I will admit he has a knack of reheating them so that they are nice and crispy on the outside and I do love the everyday breakfast in bed. But I do feel daunted by all those croissants.
Having now completed my 'research' I see that this post is going to divide into two sections - what you can do with dying croissants and what the world out there - TikTokers, Instagrammers and innovative chefs are doing with croissants - abominations many purists say. Others say quite the reverse.
So what to do with dying croissants? Well mostly it's pretty simple and you probably know the options which split basically into two main categories, bread and butter puddings and sandwiches - both savoury and sweet, both cold or cooked. First of all the bread and butter pudding option of which there are hundreds on the net - with any kind of fruit or vegetable combination that you can imagine. So I have just chosen a few: Tom Hunt's Croissant and pastry pudding which is chocolatey; Blackcurrant jam croissant 'torrijas' from Thomasina Miers; and Croissant strata with spinach, feta and Gruyère from Salt Sugar Spice.
Then there are the sandwiches - any kind of filling you can imagine of course, but some are taken a step further, such as Nigel Slater's Baked croissants with ham and cheese; Croissant smoked salmon bake from BBC's Good Food, although I don't think you can access the recipe; Cheese bacon and egg croissant from Taste; Apricot and cardamom fried croissant hand pies from Charlotte/Binns-McDonald/delicious. and Almond croissants from Coles Magazine;
Then there are a few outliers: Ottolenghi's Jammy croissant strawberry sundae which is a bit of a cheat in that the croissants are really a crouton like topping for the sundae - somebody suggested croutons as a waste beater; Cheese and bacon croissant puffs from Taste; Pear and chocolate croissant cakes from delicious.; and ending with two very unexpected ones - Croissant butter - there is a video on Instagram and Croissant bread sauce - which sounds like it should be a TikTok thing but actually comes from the BBC Good Food website
To end this section a few suggestions from Tom Hunt on what to do with dying croissants:
"If your pastries are lifeless, simply give them a quick blast in a hot oven. Day-old croissants make a decadent toasted sandwich when filled with cheese and tomato. If croissants are two days old, try a deluxe version of eggy bread: dip the croissant in egg, then gently fry in butter, before serving sweet with icing sugar or savoury with salt, pepper and fried smoked tempeh or bacon."
On to what many call abominations - crossovers that had been a big hit either in restaurants or on TikTok - all of which deserve at least a section in one of my oddments posts, but which I shall just list here: Flat croissants - you flatten them and bake them so that the end result is like one reviewer said:
"The crust is brittle but not so delicate that it shatters. The entire thing tastes like that one crisp shard you peel off the top of a good croissant.
And some take it a step further and add toppings, icings ... Then there is Le Crookie in which you stuff cookie dough inside and bake - watch the YouTube video - it's only a moment or two; Croffles - squash them in a waffle maker and then treat them as you would a waffle; Cronuts - a cross with donuts that seem to only possible for a professional; Cube croissants and Cronigiri - from Japan - and they definitely require a closer look.
I never know whether to be appalled - as many are - amused or struck with admiration for the imagination and innovation that goes on out there in the foodie world. I certainly won't be trying any of this last lot however - maybe some of the savoury things. although somebody did say - why would you do savoury things to something that is sweet? A stupid question I suspect.
LONG AGO
November 13
2023 - Nothing
2022 - Trifles - an oddments post
2020 - On simplicity
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Nothing
2017 - Nothing
2016 - Oven-dried tomatoes
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