The latest food trend that’s a load of waffle
FORGET the cronut, the days of crisp croffles are now here. The new food trend has been created by chef Louise Lennox, famous for her appearances on TV3’s The Restaurant, in conjunction with Cuisine De France for their new pop-up cafe.
Louise explains: ‘The cronut is one of my favourite things to eat — I love a food trend and I’d travel all over the world to taste the latest one.
‘I have stood in the queues for Serendipity’s frozen hot chocolate for two hours and to actually have a food trend coming out of Ireland is a dream come true.
‘I have been working on this with Cuisine De France for some time. As everyone loves a croissant, they wanted to put a hybrid twist on it and give it a new look.’
So the new croffle — a cross between a croissant and a waffle, packed full of delicious ingredients — is what Louise came up with. ‘I am a toasted cheese fanatic, but the thing I hate about going into cafes is ordering a croissant and when they stuff it, the normal route is for them to put it in the microwave. ‘When it comes out it’s generally soggy and not crispy the way croissants should be.’
That’s why Louise developed the ingenious croffle — crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside and a real treat for the tastebuds.
‘You get your croffle, you stuff it and put it into the croffle iron,’ Louise explains. ‘That gives you an intense heat that you won’t get in an oven and it reacts with the butter in the pastry, giving it a different taste that is unbelieveable.
‘It’s crisp and delicious, but melts in the mouth. It’s a fast heat and so you don’t get the moisture problem you get with an ordinary filled croissant.
‘The outside is crunchy whereas the filling inside is gooey and delicious. You get these little square pockets on top too, so say for the chicken and gravy ones, these act as pools for the sauce.’
Food fans have been flocking to La Petite Boulangerie located in Dublin’s Camden Street where the sweet and savoury creations are on offer in the Cuisine De France pop up cafe.
This unique twist on a typical ‘café Francais’ runs for two weeks from July 10 – 22, serving a highquality, select menu of delicious morning and afternoon treats daily from 8am to 3pm.
Whether you like sweet treats or savoury delights, there’s a croffle out there for you.
Louise explains: ‘Cuisine de France has a true understanding of the relationship between Irish people and French food, and you’ll see the menu embraces the best of both worlds, in particular the Croffle options which include some of our favourite fillings — black pudding, pulled pork, avocado and cheese, as well as sumptuous Nutella in the sweet variety.
‘I can see this being a massive food trend.’
LA Petite Boulangerie will celebrate all things French throughout its duration, with special celebrations this Friday July 14 for Bastille Day, the French national holiday.
Customers are invited to join the festivities, absorbing the atmosphere and embracing French culture with a special secret menu addition to be enjoyed for Bastille Day only, alongside in-store entertainment and activities.
Loiuse is also loving the buzz of being back in the kitchen and is looking forward to tackling a new series of The Restaurant.
She says: ‘Being in a restaurant kitchen isn’t something I do normally these days so I really enjoy it when we are filming.
‘I wouldn’t see the rest of the lads from one series to the next, but I love each and every one of them. And when we get together again it’s like we’ve never been apart at all — we always have fun.
‘ I am delighted to play a part in it and hopefully we’ll do it again.’