The Best Croissants?

Believe it or not, we didn’t go to Beaulieu-sur-Mer for the croissants. Once a month, on the first Sunday they have an Italian market and we went to scope it out. The croissants were a happy accident. We had gone through the market and stopped at the café across the road to have a coffee. A pain au chocolate caught my eye and I ordered a croissant. By mistake they brought a pain au chocolate, which my friend decided shouldn’t go to waste. We were drinking our coffees and as we were eating, we started to realize that what we were eating was really good. Slowed down to enjoy every very buttery mouthful. Delicious, really delicious. Certainly within my top 3 croissants since I’ve been in France. When I went in to pay the bill, I asked the woman where the croissants came from. “I make them. With lots of butter.” Oh yes.

When the month rolled around to the next market, I went back with another friend. This time we weren’t so fortunate. The market was only okay (maybe everyone was still en vacances) and when we ordered croissants, they were out, so pain au chocolate would have to do. This time when I went to pay, I spied a basketful of croissants, so I asked to have a couple to go. A pair of warm croissants came to the table. By some huge act of willpower (and a belly full of pain au chocolate), they weren’t devoured on the spot.

There were two women at the next table that we’d been chatting with and they suggested that we try the bakery down the street—their croissants were made with AOC butter. We walked down and stood in line (always a sign of a good bakery). Soon I was heading home with 4 croissants, 2 from each place and the idea of doing a taste test.

I tried the tips of both croissants when I got home. Both were great, but I was leaning towards the one from the café. The next morning we warmed one from each place and shared them. The one from the bakery was perfectly laminated with hundreds of separate layers. The other one had more dough at the bottom and not so many layers—most likely the butter melted when the dough was being formed (yes, I’ve watched too many episodes of the Great British Bake Off), but it had tons of flavor.

A week later, we heated up the two remaining (from the freezer) and came to the same conclusion. For us, the winner was the café croissants. They weren’t as technically perfect, but boy, did they taste good and that’s what really counts, right?

If you’re wondering, in the big photo, the bakery croissants are the 2 on the left.