Days-old croissants are the new dessert du jour.
A viral “crunchy croissant” hack on TikTok is taking carb lovers by storm.
It involves flattening down the grocery-store pastry — which can be one, two or even three-days old — so that they are paper thin, frying them in butter and then dousing them in honey.
And voilà! You have something that essentially mimics the taste of French Toast Crunch cereal.
Some local New York chefs say the trick is the perfect way to maximize the shelf life of a bread that’s labor-intensive to bake.
It’s the latest croissant concoction to capture attention on social media. There is, of course, the OG — Dominique Ansel’s cronut. More recently, people have been lining up for a mini-croissant cereal that sells for a whopping $50 and the Suprême, a round croissant filled with crème and topped with ganache, at Noho’s Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery.
After breathing new life into an old croissant, the treat can be savored as is or served as an open-faced canvas and piled with toppings such as burrata, prosciutto and a sprinkle of pistachio nuts, as culinary creator Meg Quinn, who goes by the TikTok handle @AintTooProudToMeg, advises.
Her demonstration of the hack has garnered nearly 50,000 views on TikTok.
“It seems like sacrilege [to roll out the croissant] but in this case, we’re going to throw out the rules because it’s delicious,” she says in the 38-second clip.
Some food fans equated the concoction in the comments as a quicker version of making the layered filo pastry baklava. Another inventive eater suggested she douse the flattened French pastry with an egg wash for a crème brûlée French toast.
But some commentators found the reimagined pastry to be polarizing.
“Many people were not too pleased about rolling out croissant,” Quinn told The Post in an email.
One user, @notverybigmac, commented: “If you do that to a Costco croissant? Fine. But a fresh one? Absolutely demonic behavior.”
Another, @louisebaumann, scoffed in the comments: “As a Frenchman, I am appalled.”
Quinn told The Post she indeed used a store-bought croissant and not a bespoke bakery confection.
“I followed up with a post explaining that … rest assured I used a cheap, day-old grocery store croissant,” Quinn explained to The Post.
“The crunchy croissant was a crispy, candied treat and a fun little vehicle for toppings. I did a savory burrata one, but I also love it with a scoop of ice cream on top or other sweet toppings,” she added.
No matter how you slice it, chefs say the croissant exhibits endless opportunities as a means to avoid letting days-old croissants go to waste, particularly for folks who buy it in bulk.
“A croissant is a food item that you eat in a moment in time and has a short lifespan — after the first day, a croissant is already considered old — [and] it’s nice to see people using day-old croissants and giving them a second life in a fun, creative way,” Nate Ashton, executive chef at Gab’s in the West Village, told The Post.
Ashton put a croissant and a seasonal rhubarb compote on the restaurant’s newly launched brunch menu and said he’s inspired by the viral hack to reduce food waste.
Indeed, since the flakey pastry can take days of prep, maximizing the shelf life on the labor of love is essential, Ashton notes.
“Croissants are well revered because of the process which takes days of preparation – from layering butter and flour to baking to give you that flakiness, crunch and tenderness you seek in the perfect croissant.”
