KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Since the introduction of the cronut (a cross between a croissant and doughnut) in 2013 by Dominque Ansel in New York, the world has been enamoured with hybrid pastries.
Every patisserie chef has jumped on the bandwagon to come up with their own inventions, like the chounut (choux pastry/doughnut), wonuts (waffle/doughnut) and so on.
Over in Australia, the cruffin took Melbourne by storm when it was unveiled at Lune Croissanterie in 2013. The cross between a croissant and muffin was also popularised in America and England.
Well, the cruffin has landed on our shores; it was introduced at The Bread Shop by its owner, Peng Merican, in August.
Peng first tasted cruffins in Melbourne where people didn’t mind waiting in long queues for the hybrid pastry. In love with its taste, she straight away introduced the pastry the moment she returned.
“I don’t copy something if I don’t like it. I saw cronuts years ago but I didn’t like it as it’s fried. I don’t want to fry things. I didn’t think frying pastries was good for you as it’s already made of butter and you add oil.”
Just by eating the cruffins, Peng managed to work out the recipe. She uses a croissant dough which is baked in a tin. As the dough is compacted in the tin, it tends to be dense at the bottom while the top puffs up to create a circular shape.
“That is the beauty of the cruffin, as you can taste the different textures of the croissant, when it’s dense and puffed up.”
Imagine tearing away the crispy top ends of the golden pastry to reveal the feather-like layers with the unmistakable aroma of butter and a slightly toasted taste. As you eat your way down to the bottom, there’s a denser more golden caramelised crust that gives way to crackling crumbs when you bite into it. That slightly solid bottom of the cruffin means you can get innovative with fillings inside the pastry without the pastry collapsing.
The Bread Shop offers five flavours — lemon, chocolate, salted caramel, cherry and peanut caramel. Those with a sweeter tooth will appreciate the salted caramel, chocolate and the peanut caramel.
For the less decadent, go for the lemon and cherry that balances out the sinfulness. Believe us, it’s impossible to eat just one, so bring your friends to share the cruffin and its decadent sinfulness.
Each day, expect to have a choice of at least three flavours. Every cruffin has two types of fillings — custard cream in the center and the topping. In addition, Peng also includes bits of brittle inside the cruffin for some of the flavours.
“I also have a little brittle, just to give it a crunch. I have different things to make it interesting and give it more texture.” The cruffins are baked in small batches throughout the day, so customers get to savour the crunchy delights at their freshest.
As the cruffins use croissant dough, it’s laborious work. “Croissants are a real pain as you take two days to make it — you need to roll it up the the first day, you got to refrigerate it overnight and only the next day, we can actually bake it. And it needs proofing. It’s actually very mah fan (complicated).”
With its elongated shape, the cruffin tends to be quite hard to eat it from the top since it’ll get messy because of the fillings. Peng recommends the best way is to cut the cruffin into four equal pieces and using a fork and knife, you can enjoy the different textures from the top to bottom with the filling.
Started since 2009, The Bread Shop was an idea of Peng’s husband, architect Kamil Merican. When a vacant lot a few doors away from his firm was available, he took the opportunity to design the bakery.
“He thought it would be nice to have a bakery, as in his travels, bakeries always smell so nice. Moreover bakeries are happy places,” said Peng. The initial set-up was by Peng’s sisters-in-law and she took over a few months later. “It was very much an idea he had. He set it all up and we just filled in the blanks.”
Aside from cruffins, Peng also introduced the kouign-amann to Kuala Lumpur about three to four years ago. In her travels, she had sampled it in San Francisco where there was a revival of the Brittany pastry. She prefers the lighter version with a slight chewier texture versus the original French recipe that she found to be too sweet and doughy.
“Frankly I think as far as baking is concerned, it’s the interpretation of different bakeries. There is no one set rule that says a kouign-amann or a lemon tart has to be like that. Every bakery will have their own interpretation and whether people like it or go for it.”
All the pastries use 100 per cent butter, as Peng is a big fan for butter, which makes the difference in the taste of their pastries. Most importantly, every day the items are baked fresh. No overnight breads, tarts or pastries are kept, as they are donated daily to the feed the homeless and orphanages. “We have been doing that from day one, as that’s our philosophy... whatever we cannot sell, we give away to charity.”
In keeping with more challenging economic times, Peng is looking to introduce more wallet-friendly choices for takeaway lunch, like sandwiches or savoury items. She’s the person behind the R&D, as she comes up with the flavours and new items. “It’s a lot of fun as it lets me create things and I feel so happy when people like it.”
Most often, as long as she likes it, she’ll introduce an item. “At the end of the day, I have to like it. If I cannot appreciate it myself, it’s very hard for me to know if it’s nice or not.” One thing she veers from are fussy items to make. “Ultimately it’s the taste that matters, there are so many bakeries that are just pretty. To me looks are not important, it’s how it tastes. Anything that is too mah fan (complicated), forget it!”
The Bread Shop,
11, Jalan Setiakasih 5, Damansara Heights, KL.
Tel: 03-2093 8734.
Open: 8am to 7.30pm. (Mondays to Fridays), 8am to 5pm. (Saturday). Closed on Sundays.
