Have you heard of these delights? Flat croissants, that’s right, completely flat croissants are all the rage right now! These flat croissants originated in South Korea, then were picked up by some TikTokers and the rest is history. They are everywhere now, at least in Hong Kong.
Why flatten a croissant, for God’s sake, you may be wondering. In fact, at first, that’s what I thought. Why the hell would anyone want that flatten the damn things after putting in so much effort to inflate it with layers upon layers. But after finally tasting one of these flat croissants I changed my mind! The many, many layers of the original croissant, when flattened, create a sort of crunchy biscuit now wrapped inside a caramelized exterior. And to top it off, many of these flat croissants are further dipped in flavored coatings, yum!
Start with stale croissant. Or maybe I should say, let’s start with the soft croissants. As soon as they come out of the oven, the croissants are crispy. Which makes them difficult to flatten. After about a day the crunchiness softens and you can then flatten the croissants quite neatly. However, if you buy pre-packaged croissants at the supermarket, they are probably already soft. Just press to check.
To flatten your soft croissant, use a rolling pin but do not roll. Instead, starting from the center, use the rolling pin to press down. Gently at first, then more decisively. Don’t worry if the croissant is not so flat and bounces despite the pressure. The main idea here is to tell the croissant how you want it to lay when it is flattened with a weight later during caramelization.
Ok, let’s see how to caramelize the outside of the croissant. We initially tried caramelizing with butter and white sugar. Um…that didn’t work for us at all. I ended up with white sugar crystals pressed neatly into the croissants that had to be removed from the heat to prevent them from burning. 😥
So we tried another method that I didn’t want to try at first because I was afraid it would make the croissant too sticky to hold comfortably. (It wasn’t like that.) This time we used butter and honey to make the caramel. Butter is added to a hot pan to melt it. The honey is the one added to the melted butter (see photo above left). The mixture is then cooked over low heat until it turns into golden brown melted caramel (photo top right). Oooo, the caramel color is so pretty!
Into that molten gold goes your partially flattened croissant. The side facing down will caramelize first. But as it caramelizes, we’ll need to add a little “weight” to the croissant to make it as flat as possible.
For this purpose you need to add a weight on the croissant to weigh it down. We used our cast iron pot which is really heavy and it worked like a charm. Remember to add a sheet of baking paper between the weight and the croissant!
After a couple of minutes it’s time to remove the weight and check the caramelization on the bottom. If it has a layer of golden caramel then the croissant is ready to be turned. Also note how the croissants have flattened due to the weight.
Use a spatula to push the caramel towards the center of the pan before turning the croissant. Replace the paper and weight and wait for the second side to caramelize. After a couple of minutes, the weight is removed again and with a quick twist the most beautiful golden brown caramelization is revealed on the second side. Damn, that’s not as nice as cake!
Repeat for all croissants. If you have a larger pan you can do more than one at a time, just make sure you have enough weights to use for flattening. Once caramelized and flattened, place the croissants to cool on a sheet of kitchen paper. As they cool, the caramel will harden.
At this point you have your fabulous flat croissants ready to eat or share (These make fabulous gifts!). But if you want to take it a step further and make them even more fabulous, you can dip your flat croissants in chocolate! Whoopee, do it! I love me a bit of chocolate!
That’s why this time we tried a new method for dipping chocolate: mixing chocolate with chocolate wafers. Chocolate wafers are also known as compound chocolate or melted chocolate. You can find them in the sweets section of the supermarket. Dark chocolate wafers contain vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, so they don’t need to be tempered to stabilize but, alas, they don’t taste like real chocolate.
By mixing the two you get the best of both. The melted wafers stabilize so the chocolate hardens properly without the need to temper it, while the chocolate gives the sauce the wonderful, full flavor of real chocolate. I have to say that we were very pleased with the results of this method of making chocolate by dipping! A “to die for” chocolate sauce (which hardens) made easy!
Look at that velvety chocolate sauce! Beautiful, amirite?! Dip flat croissants halfway into it. Use a spatula to push the chocolate up if the bowl (like mine) is too shallow. You smile, a devious, chocolatey smile.
Once the chocolate has hardened, your covered flat croissants will be ready for the party! Caramelized on the outside, crunchy on the inside and with a delicious chocolatey finish, these flat croissants are fantastic: fun and delicious at the same time! Be too cool for school, try it and get addicted!
(makes 12) Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Deflate the croissants: Do not roll, use the rolling pin to press from the center outward until the entire croissant is completely flattened. Don’t worry if the croissant bounces a little, it’s normal.
Caramelize the croissants: Heat a non-stick pan over low heat. Divide the butter into 12 equal pieces. Add 1 stick of butter to the pan and 1 tablespoon of honey. Leave to cook until the honey butter caramelizes, becoming amber in color. Place a croissant on honey butter. Place a piece of baking paper to completely cover the croissant before adding a heavy weight on top. Leave to cook for 2-3 minutes or until the bottom of the croissant is golden and caramelised.
Lift the croissant from the pan. Use the spatula to move the honey butter to the center of the pan before turning and returning the croissant to the pan. Replace the baking paper and weight. Let cook another 2-3 minutes or until the second side is golden and caramelized.
Leave it to cool on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Repeat for all croissants.
Prepare the chocolate dipping: Chop the chocolate and melted wafers into small pieces. Prepare a double boiler by placing a stainless steel bowl over a small saucepan filled with 1 inch of water. The bowl should not touch the water. Heat the water until it boils. Add the chopped chocolate and wafers to the bowl. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is all melted.
Dip the croissants: Turn the heat setting to low. Take the croissants and dip them in half. Use a spatula to help the chocolate get where you want it. Do both front and back. Lift and shake the croissant slightly to remove excess chocolate. Leave to cool on a baking tray covered with baking paper. It will take a couple of hours to cool completely.
Eat immediately for best effect. Or store in an airtight container for 1-2 days. If I kept it longer I would put it in the fridge. Have fun, have fun!!
