Manhattan is a bagel city, a pizza city and โฆ a croissant city?
Over the past dozen years, many have focused their attention on transforming the classic pastry. Since the days of the Cronut, New York-based bakers have been modifying butter-laminated dough to create everything from Sicilian pizzas to a Dubai-style chocolate bar pastry.
โTo understand the popularity of croissants, you have to follow the butter,โ says Gadi Peleg, founder of the New York-based chain Breads Bakery. He sees croissants as both a highly adaptable blank canvas and the ultimate flex, given the technical mastery needed to laminate dough.
He also believes the growing availability of artisan domestic and imported butter makes the pastries an irresistible product for bakers and their customers.
Even with the rising cost of almost every core croissant ingredient โ especially butter โ many New York pastry chefs are serving increasingly outrageous interpretations of the crescent-shaped pastry.