The Crookie: A Croissant Meets a Cookie

Imagine biting into a warm, buttery croissant and finding a soft chocolate chip cookie tucked inside. Flaky pastry gives way to melted chocolate and a chewy cookie centre. Meet the Crookie, a Paris-born bakery creation that brings two familiar favourites together. Those cookies spilling over the top look almost like Salvador Dalí got his hands on a bakery tray. Their soft, drooping shapes bring to mind the melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory. It’s an unusual sight in the bakery window, and one that certainly gets your attention.

The Crookie was created by Paris baker Stéphane Louvard at Maison Louvard in October 2022. His idea was simple: take a croissant, fill it with chocolate chip cookie dough and bake it again. The result combines flaky pastry with a soft, partly baked cookie centre. It started as a treat for regular customers, but the attention grew after an Instagram food account featured it in December 2022. The real explosion came in February 2024, when influencer Johan Papz posted a TikTok video tasting one. Louvard told Le Parisien that sales eventually climbed from a few dozen a day to around 1,800. Soon, bakeries far beyond Paris were making their own versions.

Of course, pastry traditionalists might wonder whether a croissant really needs a cookie makeover. I suppose that’s a fair question, but take another look at this thing. Somebody looked at two perfectly good bakery favourites and thought, why not put them together? Sometimes the best food ideas don’t need a complicated explanation. They just need a croissant, a cookie and a little imagination. I wouldn’t mind having that conversation over coffee. In fact, I might even order two.