Bakery Item Feature – Our Almond Croissant

Have You Tried Our Almond Croissant?

One of the bakery items that Beans and Butter has always had on the menu is the almond croissant. On Saturdays, you will always find our almond croissant. Other days of the week, you may luck out and be able to buy one before they sell out. There’s a reason they are so popular…

Baked the Traditional French Way

Our croissants are all made in house by the traditional artisanal French method. We start with our scratch croissant dough, made with ingredients that you will recognize from any grocery store. After the dough is made it will go through lots of transitions. It will need to rest and chill in the freezer or refrigerator. We use a slow rise method to get the absolute best croissant that we can. The dough will then be flattened and folded several times with a slab of softened European butter, a higher fat butter than our American butter. All of those delicious layers of pastry are formed by the many folds of dough and butter layers. If you have ever seen a baking show where they make puffed pastry, the croissant process is very similar. This folding process takes several periods of resting and chilling.

After the dough has been folded and flattened the final time, it is rolled out on a table and cut into triangles. These triangles are then chilled for a short while before they are weighed and rolled into the classic French croissant shape.

We then place the shaped croissants into the fridge overnight to start the slow rise. After this rise, we take them out and proof them at room temperature until they are ready to bake. We egg wash them, pop them in the oven, and bake them to a golden brown color. At this stage, they are our beautiful butter croissants.

The Double Baking of the Almond Croissant

The almond croissant is a double baked croissant. If you try our butter croissant, you will notice that it has a softer texture than the almond croissant, like the difference between toast and bread. In addition to double baking the almond croissants, we also load the inside of the croissant with our secret Beans & Butter syrup, and a layer of house-made frangipane, which is an almond pastry cream. Then we top the croissant with more frangipane and some sliced almonds. We bake them (second bake) until the frangipane is lightly browned on top, then coat them with a dusting of powdered sugar before they are displayed out front.

If you find that the bottom of the almond croissant looks dark, it is not burned. Caramelized syrup and the second bake turns the bottom the dark brown color, and gives the croissant it’s delicious sweet and crispy texture.

They Take a Long Time

We have had customers come in looking for our almond croissant and being disappointed when they are not available. One lady was frustrated enough to throw up her hands and demand that we just “make more!” If only it were that easy. The butter croissants alone take around three days to make, minimum, from the preparation of the dough to the finished product. Most people are accustomed to buying a croissant from the grocery store and not thinking twice about it. Grocery store croissants are not made the way ours are. They are mass produced in factories with lower quality ingredients. Ours are lovingly baked in the back of the shop with the finest European butter.

So next time you bite into a delicious Beans & Butter almond croissant, savor the love and effort that are put into each step to make this amazing French pastry.