🎉 Welcome to my newsletter, The Boy Who Bakes, a subscriber-supported newsletter, dedicated to all things baked. For more bonus posts, filled with exclusive recipes, you can become a paid subscriber for the weekly newsletter, Second Helpings. It costs just £5 a month and, as well as the weekly recipes, that also unlocks access to the full archive of past recipes. To subscribe, to either the paid or free newsletter, click the link below.🎉
Maybe it has always been this way. Maybe we’ve always chased the new and jumped on the latest trend, but right now, it seems like we are obsessed with trends like never before. I think it can probably be traced back to the unparalleled success that was the Cronut, all the way back in 2013. I cannot remember a time (maybe Sprinkles and the cupcake trend) where people seemed to lose their collective minds over a baked good. The Cronut seemingly came out of nowhere; Dominique Ansell’s eponymous shop in Manhattan, NYC, was successful but if I am remembering correctly, it wasn't exactly on the top of anyones must try lists, it was a solid bakery but it wasn't the hot new thing. Seemingly overnight, the release of the Cronut catapulted this bakery into just about every local, national and international media outlet, you couldn’t escape the hype around the Cronut. The bakery had to institute first a queue and then a limit on how many you could buy; the popularity led to a trademark registration, an incredibly fast expansion of the bakery, a splashy media career for Ansell and, for todays purposes, the most important, a raft of copycat versions.
The demand for Cronuts was so high that bakeries all across the world tried to replicate the Cronut, to get in on the action; for a while they were the ‘it’ pastry and every bakery worth its salt was making them. Because I wanted to touch on trends, I guess it’s worth noting that Cronuts are well past their sell by date, at least in terms of whats hot in baking, rarely do I see these in bakeries anymore; these days you’re more likely to see a Cruffin or a Supreme, probably largely down to the fact neither require frying. This seemingly unique explosion, of a specific pastry item, did spark its own trend, that of bakeries chasing the next big trend. As mentioned, the Cronut has has had various upstart replacements over the years, first came the Cruffin and second came the Supreme and these days it seems like there is a new ‘it’ pastry every few weeks, most not lasting more than a flash in a pan before the shine and newness wears off and customers and bakers start looking for the next new thing. The current ‘new thing’? Well, we've thankfully moved on from giant croissants (I hated that trend) and now were on to Crookies, a croissant mashed together with a cookie. By the time you read this, who knows, maybe this will passé now too.
The Crookie (can we please be done with the portmanteau names) has a slightly different origin story, compared to the Cronut, it was far from an instant hit. The Crookie was conceived of by a Parisian pastry chef, Stephane Louvard, back in 2022; his bakery was known for both its croissants and, oddly enough for Paris, its cookies. After a shift in the bakery, he thought, why not, and set about combining the two items. If the Crookie was to follow the path of the Cronut, the next stop should have been instant fame and success, but that just didn't happen. The Crookie was met with modest success, they sold 100-200 a day but it wasn’t setting any records. The only reason you are reading this now, and why the Crookie has taken over our collective pastry minds, is a single tiktok video. When the croookie made an appearance in the bakery only a few regulars were buying them, then a Paris based instagram account pushed demand up to 100-200 a day but the demand stalled there until a Tiktoker, Johan Papz, visited in 2023 and subsequently posted about this new pastry creation. The video went viral and it started an avalanche of other Tiktokers and of course, customers followed; the bakery now sells up to 2000 Crookies every day.
A quick aside: until recently I would have said it was close to impossible to get a good cookie Paris, the chocolate chip was elusive. Apart from Mokonuts, every cookie I’d seen in Paris looked and tasted incorrect, like they were created by someone who’d never actually had a chocolate chip cookie before. So, I was surprised on my recent visit, to Paris, to find that cookies has taken over the city, there was great looking cookies everywhere I turned, especially in coffee shops.
Of course, after the success Maison Louvard had with the Crookie, soon came the imitators. You can now find a version of the Crookie at bakeries all over the world. It seems like the Crookie was ripe for imitation because there is no real secret to its production, it’s a croissant and cookie dough, its easy, and it also plays well to a social media led audience - the Crookie is a bit ooey, a bit gooey and packed full of melted chocolate, no wonder it went viral.
London Crookie Spots
London is, of course, not immune to the following of trends and so there are multiple places that you can get your Crookie fix.
Phillipe Conticini - This bakery has something of a reputation for jumping on the pastry bandwagon and have made versions of all the recent trends, they were the main producer of giant croissants in London and they were one of the first to make a version of the Crookie. Their version stays pretty close to the original with no update or twist.
Creme - Londons most social media savvy cookie slingers, this might be the most unusual version of the Crookie, they mix croissant scraps into the their cookie dough and bake them so that you get a nice mix of textures.
Chestnut Bakery - This belgravia based bakery has had a lot of success with their very elegant version of the Crookie. They make three mini croissants and bake them together in a ring and once baked they top it with cookie dough and bake it again, just briefly to set the cookie dough. They only serve it on weekends
Qima Cafe - this is probably the loosest interpretation of the Crookie, they make a round ring like pastry using croissant dough and it is filled with cookie dough, caramel and hazelnuts.
A Homemade Crookie For 2
It’s rare you would be making a large batch of Crookies at home, but two, for a weekend treat, that sounds like a good idea to me. And of course, you could make the croissants yourself, but they work perfectly well with shop bought croissants. I went to my local bakery, Suba Bakehouse, bought a couple, and used those. For the cookie element, I adapted my emergency cookie (from my book Small Batch Bakes) meaning these are incredibly quick and easy to make.
2 bakery style croissants (will also work with softer supermarket croissants but they wont have that bakery vibe or taste)
45g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
40g light brown sugar
40g caster sugar
30ml milk
80g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Slice the croissants in half and set aside for the moment.
To make the cookie dough add the butter, sugars and milk to a small bowl and mix together until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix to form a cookie dough. Add the chocolate and mix briefly until evenly distributed. If you’ve ever made my Emergency Cookie recipe before you should find that this version is slightly looser than thee original, this makes it easier to spread in and on the croissant.
Divide the cookie dough in half and spread half of each portion onto the base of each of the two croissants, sandwiching with the top half of the croissant. Spread the remaining cookie over the top of each croissant. Place the croissants onto the prepared baking tray and bake, in the preheated oven, for 10-12 minutes, just until the cookie dough is lightly browned and set. The cookie dough inside the croissant will be gooier than the outside but that just gives you the best of both worlds.
Allow the Crookies to cool for a few minutes before enjoying.
Brown Butter Sweet and Salty Crookie Bars
For paid subscribers, this week, I have my own personal take on the Crookie, what I would make if I were to mash up the cookie and the croissant, Sweet and Salty Brown Butter Crookie Bars. They’re a touch more involved than the take above, but still easy to make and it results in a fabulous sweet and salty treat with wonderful texture. Upgrade to a paid subscription to get access to this recipe and every recipe in the newsletter archive as well as weekly exclusive recipes delivered straight to your inbox.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Boy Who Bakes to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.