I think I found my new favorite spot for a good croissant! Here I got the butter croissant, almond croissant and their famous croissant cube.
Butter Croissant (The Classic):
I am pleased to inform you all that their classic croissant has passed my butter croissant test:
✔ (1) the appearance - it should be puffy and volumized, with a flaky and golden exterior
✔ (2) it has a flaky exterior that crumbles under a knife or when you bite into it
✔ (3) it has a honeycomb appearance inside, but not filled with gigantic air pockets
✔ (4) it should smell and taste buttery
✔ (5) inside has a brioche texture. Remember croissant is a type of bread.. otherwise, it's just be puff pastry.
I learn from their staff that they get their pastries at 5 am and start baking at 6. They open at 9 so it means the croissants might have been sitting around for a few hours. Yet, they still hold their shape and crispiness!!!! Now that's some mind-blowing baking technique they have. 👏🏼
Overall, I'd give their classic croissant a full rating - 5/5 !
The Double Baked Almond Croissant:
I am also very pleased with their almond croissant and giving it a 4.9 out of 5.
It has passed nearly all of my almond croissant checklist:
✔ (1) it has a flaky exterior that crumbles under a knife or when you bite into it
✔ (2) Generous amount of toasted almonds
✔ (3) it should smell and taste buttery
☐ (4) It still has a bread texture
✔ (5) Reasonable amount of almond filling and a good almond aroma
✔ (6) It has the right amount of sweetness
I am glad that they didn't use the cheating method, as some bakeries do with the toasted almonds as a disguise to cover up the failed, soft, exterior of the croissant, but of course it does the trick by adding the crunch.
From the first bite, their almond croissant gives you a combination of crunchiness from the outer layer of the croissant and the crispiness from the toasted almonds. As you savour it a little longer, the butter flavour unfolds. When you take a deeper dive into the almond croissant, you get a mouthful of almond paste along with all that crunch. The centre of the croissant is combined with all that crispiness from the outer layer and accompanied with a soft almond filling that has the perfect amount of sweetness. The only drawback of this pastry is that it has a thin layer of bread texture and could be improved on. I know it's a lot going on, but I think by increasing the bread volume in this would make it just absolutely perfect. Overall, this is an amazing almond croissant that really demonstrated excellent baking skills.
The Croissant Cube:
I don't have a checklist for the cube because this is my first time trying a croissant cube, and boy, I was not expecting all that filling from it. (Turn on the volume for the video).
Out of the three products, I think this may be my favourite because I'm a s sucker for bread, and this cube has the most bread feel of all and the exterior was still so flaky. I think I read somewhere from their website that the filling changes daily based on the chef's choice. Today, they filled it with strawberry jam and custard. I was worried at first when I saw all that filling inside the cube, making it overly sweet or causing the cube to turn soggy, but I was so wrong. It had just the right amount of sweetness (even my Asian friends without the sweet tooth would approve of this) and the bread was perfectly moist without it being too damped.
So I'm giving a sold FIVE for this cube as well! And you guys know I'm super picky... a 5 is rare from Joyee and this place earned two 5's from me! That says a lot. So if y'all haven't been to Chez, please start driving over there now!
By the way, they have two locations. I was at their second location which is very close to me... but...oh, it's so dangerous!
Location: White Rock || Burnaby
Website: Here
Price:
$3.25 - butter croissant
$4.25 - croissant cube
$5.45 - almond croissant
Taste:
5 / 5- butter croissant
4.9 / 5 - croissant cube
5 /5 - almond croissant
atmosphere: ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️⭐️
seating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️
Price Performance ratio: 5/5
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