I Ran A Custom Croissant Shop For A Day
Summary
TLDRIn this entertaining and informative video, the host embarks on a culinary adventure to learn the art of croissant making at Black Box Bakery in Denver. From the classic butter croissant to the innovative croissant cube, the video showcases the meticulous process of crafting these flaky pastries. With the help of the bakery's skilled pastry chefs, the host experiences the challenges and rewards of creating viral and visually stunning pastries, culminating in a taste test of their homemade creations.
Takeaways
- đ„ The video is about running a viral croissant bakery and exploring the popularity of croissants on the internet.
- đ Croissants have become an internet darling, appearing in various media platforms and memes.
- đ„š The bakery featured, Black Box Bakery in Denver, is known for its unique and flavorful croissants, especially their filled croissant cubes.
- đ§ The process of making croissants is detailed, highlighting the difficulty and satisfaction of creating the flaky layers through lamination.
- đ„ The video includes a sponsorship by Headspace, an app for meditation and sleep aids.
- đ„ The croissant dough requires cold temperatures for most of its construction to maintain the butter layers.
- đ§ The croissant bakery creates both traditional butter croissants and custom 'crubes' with unique fillings and decorations.
- đ© The video emphasizes the craft and artistry behind pastry making, including the use of professional equipment like a laminator and sheeter.
- đ„Ș The host attempts to make croissants and 'crubes', learning the fundamentals from the pastry chefs at Black Box Bakery.
- đ„Š The video showcases the final products, including a custom 'goth-lite' croissant cube filled with Earl Grey and elderflower flavors.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video?
-The main theme of the video is the process of running a viral croissant bakery and learning to make various types of croissants, including traditional and unique filled croissant cubes, at Black Box Bakery in Denver.
Why are croissants considered an internet darling?
-Croissants are considered an internet darling because they have become a highly memed food and have inspired many popular viral foods like the giant croissant, croissant donut, cronut, croissant waffle, and others. Their flaky, buttery texture and the satisfaction of seeing the baking process have also contributed to their online popularity.
What is Black Box Bakery known for?
-Black Box Bakery is known for its unique, colorful, and flavorful croissants, particularly their filled croissant cubes. The bakery specializes in pushing the boundaries of baked goods and experimenting with new takes on classic pastries.
What is the significance of the term 'mise en place' in the context of the video?
-In the context of the video, 'mise en place' refers to the initial step in cooking where all the ingredients are measured and prepared before starting the cooking process. This is an essential step in making croissants, as it organizes the ingredients needed for the dough and the laminating process.
How is the croissant dough prepared differently from regular bread dough?
-Croissant dough is prepared differently from regular bread dough by the process of laminating the dough, which involves folding butter into the dough multiple times to create thin layers of butter and dough. When baked, the butter melts and creates steam, leading to the croissant's signature flaky, airy layers.
What are the key components of the traditional butter croissant-making process?
-The key components of the traditional butter croissant-making process include measuring and mixing ingredients such as milk, bread flour, all-purpose flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and butter. The dough is then shaped, flattened, laminated, rested, and rolled into the iconic crescent shape before baking.
What is the significance of the croissant cube?
-The croissant cube is significant because it offers a new and innovative form of the traditional croissant. It provides a visually appealing shape, allows for various delicious fillings, and offers more surface area for creative decorations, making it a viral sensation and a popular item in bakeries.
What are some of the unique croissant creations mentioned in the video?
-Some of the unique croissant creations mentioned in the video include the giant croissant, croissant donut, cronut (croissant-doughnut hybrid), croissant waffle (cromboloni), croissant bomboloni, and the croissant cookie or crookie.
How does the video address the difficulty of making croissants?
-The video acknowledges that making croissants is notoriously difficult, particularly due to the laminating process which creates the croissant's distinctive layers. However, it also highlights the satisfaction of watching every step of the process and the rewarding outcome after the challenging work.
What is the role of the sponsor Headspace in the video?
-Headspace is the sponsor of the video, and it is mentioned as an app that provides a library of content from guided meditations to self-care practices. The video suggests that Headspace can help decrease stress, increase mindfulness, and improve mental health, especially for those with overactive brains.
Outlines
đ„ Introduction to Croissant Venture
The video begins with energetic music and a lively introduction to the host's exciting new venture - running a viral croissant bakery. The host expresses their love for croissants, highlighting their popularity and cultural significance, from being a meme to inspiring various viral food trends. The segment also touches on the host's intention to explore the craft behind niche small businesses and their excitement to learn the art of making croissants at Black Box Bakery in Denver, famous for its unique and flavorful croissants.
đ„ Croissant Making 101
This paragraph delves into the process of making croissants from scratch. It starts with the preparation of ingredients, including milk, bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and butter. The importance of keeping the dough cold during most of its construction is emphasized. The host is introduced to Black Box Bakery's space-themed concept and their innovative approach to pastries. The process of mixing ingredients in a large industrial mixer is described, along with the creation of laminated dough by folding butter into the dough multiple times to achieve the croissant's signature flaky layers.
đ€Ł Learning the Craft with Hilarity
The host's journey of learning to make croissants continues with the use of professional pastry-making equipment. The video captures the host's humorous attempts to shape the dough and the playful banter with the bakery team. The process of flattening the dough using a laminator, resting the dough in the fridge, and laminating it with butter is detailed. The host's amusing efforts to roll the dough and create the classic croissant shape are highlighted, along with the challenges faced due to their warm hands.
đȘ Exploring the Croissant Cube
The focus shifts to the innovative croissant cube, explaining why it has become viral. The process of making the cube is described, starting with the same laminating process as traditional croissants. The host and the bakery team then move on to create a custom croissant cube with black and white stripes, representing a goth-lite aesthetic. The paragraph showcases the steps of creating the dough, laminating it, and preparing it for baking, all while maintaining a light-hearted and entertaining tone.
đŻ Crafting Delicious Fillings
This section is dedicated to the creation of fillings for the croissants. The host learns to make mulled wine ganache and orange diplomat cream for the mulled wine cube, and Earl Gray whipped ganache paired with elderflower flavored honey for the custom cube. The video describes the process of making these fillings, including the use of unique ingredients like glucose and trimoline, and the effort put into achieving the perfect texture and flavor balance.
đ„§ Baking and Decorating Delights
The croissants and cubes are now ready for baking. The host learns about proofing the dough in a warm and moist environment to allow the yeast to ferment and make the dough rise. The baking process is described, with a focus on the transformation of the dough into beautifully browned, crispy croissants. The video then moves on to the decoration and filling of the cubes, with detailed steps on how to fill them with the prepared creams and decorate the tops with artistic flair.
đ Taste Testing and Reflections
The video concludes with a taste test of the various croissants and cubes. The host, along with the bakery team, savors the fruits of their labor, providing their reactions and comments on the taste, texture, and overall experience of the different pastries. The custom striped gilded egg croissant is praised for its gooeyness and balanced flavors, while the mulled wine cube is celebrated for its festive and comforting qualities. The host reflects on the learning experience and expresses gratitude to Black Box Bakery for the opportunity.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄCroissant
đĄLaminating
đĄProofing
đĄBaking
đĄFilling
đĄDecorating
đĄBlack Box Bakery
đĄHeadspace
đĄDenver
đĄCronut
đĄASMR
Highlights
The video introduces the concept of running a viral croissant bakery and the popularity of croissants in internet culture.
Croissants have become a highly memed food and inspired various viral food trends like the cronut and croffle.
The Black Box Bakery in Denver, known for its unique and colorful croissants, was chosen as the location for the bakery takeover.
The process of making croissants is highlighted, emphasizing the difficulty and satisfaction of each step.
A key step in croissant making is laminating the dough, which involves folding butter into the dough to create thin layers.
Black Box Bakery's space-themed approach to pastries was discussed, including their interest in aliens and conspiracy theories.
The video features a variety of unique croissant creations like the sweet potato maple starship and the eggnog cruffin.
The process of shaping and laminating the croissant dough is detailed, including the use of a sheeter for flattening.
The video includes a tutorial on making a traditional butter croissant from scratch.
The creation of custom croissant cubes by the narrator and the Black Box team is showcased.
The importance of proofing the dough before baking to allow for yeast fermentation and rising is explained.
The baking process of the croissants and cubes is depicted, highlighting the transformation from dough to finished product.
The video demonstrates the art of decorating the baked croissants and cubes with creative toppings and fillings.
A tasting session of the various croissants and cubes is conducted, providing feedback on taste and texture.
The video concludes with the narrator reflecting on the learning experience and the challenges of making croissants.
Transcripts
(upbeat funky music)
- Hello friends, and welcome to another video.
Today I'm gonna be running a viral croissant bakery.
That's right. I said croissant.
Now I like croissant, and at this point, who doesn't?
The quintessentially French crescent shaped pastry
is not only super delicious and iconically flaky
and buttery, but also in recent years
has become something of an internet darling.
- Stop, I could have dropped my croissant.
- Are you going to finish that croissant?
- [Woman] Croissant.
- Croissant.
- From anime to Jimmy Neutron, to Vine, to TikTok,
the people love croissant.
And even though I have always loved the taste of croissants,
that huge pack of croissants from Costco
just hits different.
I am surprised by how much stick the product has
in the public imagination as not only is it
a highly memed food, it's also the basis of tons
of super popular viral foods like the giant croissant,
the croissant donut, or cronut, the croissant waffle
or croffle, the croissant bomboloni, cromboloni,
and the croissant cookie or crookie.
And not only do people wait in line for hours
to try these delectable creations,
but there's also a ton of content out there
of people kneading, rolling, garnishing, baking, decorating,
slicing, munching, and crunching these beautiful pastries.
Maybe that's partially why these things are so popular.
The croissant is notoriously difficult to make,
but every step of the process
is pretty satisfying to look at.
And then after just one crunch, it's gone.
And after falling down a cronut hole of croissant content,
I thought, "I gotta try and make some (bleep) croissants."
And in our quest to learn the craft
behind oddly satisfying niche small businesses,
running a croissant bakery seemed right up our alley.
And in my search for a willing bakery,
we stumbled upon Black Box Bakery, a pastry shop in Denver
that specializes in unique, colorful, flavorful croissant
that gained notoriety
for their crazy filled croissant cubes.
And against all odds, they agreed to let me take over
their bakery for a day.
and both learn to make some croissant
as well as make some custom croissant cubes of my own
that if you guys go there in person,
you'll be able to try out for yourself.
No word yet on whether or not we're calling them crubes,
but I'll do my best.
All right, so let's go and make some croissant.
But before we head off, I do wanna give a quick shout out
to the sponsor of this video Headspace.
If you're like me and have an overactive brain
with basically a scrolling for you page inside of it,
filled with your Google calendar, to-do list, email inbox,
and the occasional flash of croissant,
you might benefit from some Headspace.
Now, if you haven't heard of it before,
Headspace provides a huge library of different content
from guided meditations to other self-care practices
to help you decrease stress, increase mindfulness,
and take care of your mental health.
Now, I have historically not been that good at meditating,
so I was a little unsure at first
if Headspace would work for me,
but Headspace has such a variety of different programs
to choose from that even with just a few minutes a day,
I can do breathing exercises to feel more grounded
or a quick five meditation to refocus
and feel more productive.
And my favorite, and honestly, the thing that I use the most
on Headspace is their huge catalog of sleepcasts.
As you guys can tell, I watch a lot of content
and while I can spend hours doom scrolling in bed,
it's not the best way to fall asleep.
And Headspace's sleepcasts are a great way
to occupy my wandering brain
instead of having my phone in my hand.
Tyler and I love the Beachcomber and Evening Tide casts,
and you can even hear YouTube ASMR legend, Gibi
narrating Whispering Pines.
So if you think some Headspace could be helpful
in your life, we've partnered with 'em
to offer viewers of this channel
a 60-day free trial of the app
so you can try it out completely for free.
All you have to do is sign up
with my link in the description
or scan the QR code on screen, somewhere on screen,
and who knows, a calm and crunchy croissant
sleepcast could be next.
So with that, thanks again to Headspace
and now onto the croissant.
Now the first step in our croissant quest
was to get to Denver.
Interestingly, Denver seems to be some kind
of croissant hotspot, which I did not know
before doing research for this video.
I haven't spent a lot of time there historically,
as some of you guys may remember,
we got to spend about 30 minutes at Denver's Union Station
on our train trip across the country,
but where the croissants are, I go, so there we went.
All right, so we're here at the Edgewater Public Market
in Denver, Colorado, outside of Black Box Bakery,
and we're about to go in there
and make some fricking croissants, people.
And when we arrived, Black Box's founder
and master baker, Arielle was waiting for us
ready to slap me in an apron and whip me into shape.
- [Arielle] All right. So uniform first.
And right off the bat I was feeling super professional
in my assigned chef jacket and corresponding apron.
- Look, I was born to be a chef.
(group laughing)
- [Arielle] I'm gonna get you a towel too.
- Ooh, a towel.
One thing you can't do is give me a prop or costume
because I will fall into character right away.
- [Tyler] You look food competition show ready right now.
- All right. Let's go. Really you do.
- Where is the lamb sauce?
But even if my appearance said otherwise,
I was still a complete pastry noob
so we had to start at the very beginning
with our plan being to first make
a traditional butter croissant from scratch
so I could learn some of the fundamentals,
then make one of Black Box's
signature viral croissant cubes,
and after that, once I had a little more knowledge,
make a custom crube of my own.
And step one of our croissant making journey
was mise en place, or measuring out all of our ingredients.
- [Arielle] It's kind of perfect height for you
'cause I can't reach that.
- Oh, okay, this is what I'm here for.
- [Arielle] Yes.
- [Safiya] Which to make croissant
meant we had to measure out a fair amount of milk,
then some bread flour on wheels.
- [Safiya] Too bread, too furious.
- Bread drift.
Which gives your baked goods a little more structure
and chewiness compared to all-purpose flour.
A lot of all-purpose flour does go in there too though.
Yeast, sugar, salt.
- It's the way of life down here.
- [Tyler] You mean up here?
- Up, up, up here.
- A mile high in the air.
And a fair amount of butter.
And unlike with some other dough recipes,
croissant dough overall needs to be cold
for most of its construction
so these things are gonna be going in and out
of the walk-in / freezer.
- I do like these flaps.
- It feels like a 70s bedroom.
Now Black box Bakery is actually a space-themed bakery
because not only are the pastries out of this world good,
their goal is to push the boundaries of baked goods
and experiment with new and unique takes
on the classic pastries we all know and love.
- [Arielle] We took it in a way that space is infinite.
I mean, there's a lot of things to be discovered
and we kind of feel like we can do that with pastry,
where we just want to go on an adventure
and see what we can get.
They are also apparently very into aliens
and conspiracy theories.
- All right, conspiracy bakery.
- [Arielle] Yeah, so that's just like fun for us.
- [Safiya] Ha!
People in Denver are very serious
about their conspiracies I've heard.
Conspiracies and croissants.
- [Tyler] Where's the Denver airport box?
- Yeah, exactly.
And airport conspiracies, don't forget those.
- I mean, the horse is haunted?
- [Arielle] He killed his his creator. Yes.
- Okay. Okay. There you go.
- [Arielle] Yeah, so that's not a conspiracy it actually happened.
- That's true.
That's true. Okay. - Yeah.
And even though Black Box Bakery is by all accounts
a funky bakery, Arielle and her team are all highly trained
pastry chefs, which makes sense.
In order to push the boundaries of croissants,
you have to be good at making croissants.
And all this combined has led them to such creations
as the sweet potato maple starship,
croissant ice cream cones, the eggnog cruffin,
the cheezit croissant, and the mishmish.
No word yet on what that is exactly.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Basic croissants first, trip to pastry 51 later.
So with all of our ingredients measured out
and our butter cubed to satisfaction,
or rather henged to satisfaction.
Butter Henge. - Butter Henge.
It kind of fits into the conspiracy bakery.
- [Tyler] Yeah, they're like a conspiracy (indistinct).
- What is the meaning of Stonehenge?
It was finally time to mix all of our ingredients together
in this giant industrial mixer.
Hello. Just open and dump? Okay.
- [Tyler] Controlled dumping.
- [Arielle] It's controlled dumping. Yes.
- [Safiya] A controlled dump. Let's see how we do.
And she is a pretty impressive beast,
devouring all of our ingredients.
Somewhere down there is milk.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] And then whacking them into dough.
Ooh oh, all right. Yeah.
Look at that corkscrew go.
And as this mound of dough is forming in front of me...
She do be mixing.
Look at it. It looks fluffy and bouncy.
I think we were starting to face the looming question of
how do we turn this blob into a delicate pastry?
May I? - Yeah.
- [Safiya] Oh, that's pretty stretchy.
Now croissant dough is a yeasted dough like bread
so the dough itself isn't actually super special.
Oh my God.
- [Arielle] It's gonna, yeah, it's gonna take some force.
- [Safiya] Oh my God.
- [Arielle] You can even saw at it a little bit.
- [Safiya] Okay. Yeah. Sawing is working.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] For example,
if you just baked one of these lumps,
it would not be a croissant, it would just become bread.
It turns out the key element of the croissant
is that you laminate the dough, which simplified
means folding butter into the dough multiple times
to create very thin layers of butter and dough.
And when you put laminated dough in the oven,
the butter will melt and create steam
lifting the layers apart and leaving you
with dozens of flaky, airy, buttery layers of croissant.
And if you're a seasoned pastry chef like Arielle,
you're hoping for a nice even honeycomb structure like this.
So to start our lengthy process of croissanting,
I had to make sure that each hunk of our dough
was shaped into a nice orb
by kind of folding it under itself.
- So you don't have like random pieces going everywhere.
- Fair enough.
- So what you're gonna do
is basically just pull it towards yourself.
- [Safiya] Mm.
And apparently my interpretation of Arielle's instructions
here included a hip thrust for some reason.
(all laughing)
- [Tyler] That was just a hump, Saf.
(all laughing)
- Sorry, I just trying to get into it.
(all laughing)
And though after watching other people do this step,
I do think some of what I was doing was correct,
I was just using a little too much pelvis.
What? Why are you looking at me? What?
There was just a little more doughnut daddy
in my technique than I had hoped,
but once we had some nice even little dough dudes...
- [Arielle] It looks beautiful.
- Hey, well that's pretty good.
(hands tapping)
- [Arielle] Bongos.
- [Safiya] It was time to start
flattening them into sheets.
- [Safiya] This one looks like a face, little alien.
- Oh. - Oh my God.
- [Safiya] They're everywhere.
- [Tyler] This video's gonna get taken down.
(all laughing)
- [Safiya] Now if you watch
an at-home croissant-making tutorial,
this is usually where the rolling pin will come out,
but one of the advantages of hanging out
with a professional pastry chef
is that she has some serious pastry making equipment.
- This is the laminator AKA sheeter.
- [Safiya] Love it.
- And your job is the laminator.
- I'm the laminator.
- [Tyler] It's like a Denzel Washington movie.
(all laughing)
- "The Laminator." - "The Laminator."
- This my friends, is an electric dough sheeter,
and it's gonna flatten out our dough in no time.
I feel like this is a very powerful position.
You know what I mean?
I'll hit you with a little of this, a little bit of that,
some of that checkout aisle action. (laughs)
So after throwing a little bit of flour
on our humped lumps...
How's that?
- Even better. A little better?
- Yeah. Does the speed help?
We put our dough on the sheeter and started flattening.
- [Safiya] On your mark, get set. Go.
- And I kind of think of the sheeter
as like a reverse rolling pin
as it has its own pin that lowers down
and a conveyor belt that moves underneath it...
A little to the left...
Which speeds the dough from one side
of the sheeter to the other...
A little to the right...
Flattening it in the process.
And once we had some relatively flat sheets of dough...
Ooh, it fits. If it fits, he sits.
Let's go.
- [Arielle] Onwards.
- Onwards.
They needed to rest and cool for a stint in the fridge
after which...
Oh yeah, he's squishy...
We were ready to whip out some slabs of butter
and start laminating.
It's slabs.
iPad kids be like.
(all laughing)
Now to laminate this dough,
we started by flattening it out even more.
Skinny legend, this dough...
And then also flattening out our iPads of butter
to match the thickness of the dough.
And once that was done,
we slapped our butter in the middle of the dough
and wrapped the dough around it like a Pop-Tart.
- [Arielle] So we basically just want the dough to meet
and not overlap, right?
- [Safiya] Right.
And once we had this dough, butter dough sandwich,
we put it back onto the sheeter
and started flattening again.
- [Tyler] Woah.
- [Safiya] It's getting pretty long.
- [Arielle] It's gonna get longer.
- [Safiya] Until it turned into basically
a long, flat scarf.
Then in order to build those trademark croissant layers,
we folded our scarf back onto itself
once and then twice,
which quadrupled our layers of dough, butter, and dough.
Oh.
You're folding it over like a sheet.
- [Arielle] Exactly.
- [Safiya] Then flipping and flattening our sheet
in the other direction.
âȘ There she goes âȘ
âȘ There she goes again âȘ
- [Safiya] And then folding it back onto itself again.
This time to triple our already multiplied layers.
- [Tyler] Layers on layers on layers.
- [Arielle] They exist.
- [Safiya] Layers on layers on layers.
- [Tyler] Yeah.
- [Safiya] And this relatively manageable stack of layers
is called a book, which once it was created,
had to rest in the fridge for a while
before it was ready to be used.
- Try to get under it.
- I'm good. I'm in.
- [Arielle] Perfect.
- [Safiya] But its future was not unwritten, for
it was about to become a whole bunch of croissant.
- Goodnight Sweet prince.
(both laughing)
- [Safiya] Now, after our book was fully rested
and ready to emerge from the fridge,
we then flattened it once more on the sheeter
to make sure all of our layers were as thin as possible.
And when it was scarf like once again,
we rolled our book turned scroll onto this rod.
Whoa! That's awesome.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] And then unfurled it onto our table
like a beautiful tasty roll of toilet paper.
Oh, oh, oh. Ooh. Photo finish.
Now this is where things get a little slicey,
as Arielle pulled out an array of pastry torture devices,
including what looked like a tandem pizza cutter.
- [Tyler] Wanna play a game?
(all laughing)
- [Safiya] POV, you are a pastry and this is "Saw."
- [Safiya] To slice our dough into strips
and then whipped out an X-acto knife and a ruler
to cut those strips into triangles.
And you do wanna be pretty quick about this
so all that butter in your layers doesn't start to melt.
Boom, goes the dynamite. Let's go.
Let's go boys.
I'm just screaming at pastry. Things are going well.
- [Arielle] They like it. I can see.
(Safiya laughs)
- [Safiya] And once we had all of our triangles,
we had to stretch those out into long dough tails.
- This thumb is the stretcher.
- Okay.
- And I'm just gonna let it go.
- Like that?
- Nice.
- Okay.
Because it was finally time to roll our dough
into that iconic crescent croissant shape.
Look at that kelp forest vibes.
Now our idea here was to fold our croissant dough
once and then twice to create the little feet
on either side of the crescent
and then do a little flick to get the roll really started.
Then Arielle picks up the pastry
and rolls the rest with her fingers.
- [Arielle] And close.
- [Safiya] Nice. Oh God, look at him.
- [Tyler] That's beautiful.
- [Safiya] Hey.
And as pastry apprentice,
I had to try my hand at rolling at least a few myself.
Stretch, fold.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] Second fold.
- [Arielle] Yeah. And then...
- [Safiya] And then little. (blowing)
Now in my defense, this is not supposed to be super easy.
Oh my god. She ain't pretty, but she is in a roll.
- [Tyler] Not so bad.
- [Arielle] Yeah, not, not bad at all.
- [Safiya] You've seen worse?
- I've seen way worse. Yeah.
- All right, I'm in middle.
- Yeah.
- That's what I like to hear.
- [Safiya] And though I was officially
not the worst at this,
there were a couple of things that tripped me up.
- I'll go that way.
- Okay, fair enough.
- Yeah.
- We'll meet like here. (laughs)
Besides it just being hard to keep your stretching
and your spiraling totally even as you go...
Okay, that's not good, but I'm gonna keep trying...
After a long day of dough making, I was also kind of warm
and my warm fingers were actually causing
some of that butter in the top layers
of our croissants to melt.
I think I got hot hands.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] Everything's a little melty.
Leaving my croissants kind of shiny and fingerprinted,
which is not ideal.
- [Tyler] You know what they say about hot hands, right?
- [Safiya] What? What do they say? Bad croissants?
- [Tyler] Yeah.
(all laughing)
- Hey, your first one was great,
(all laughing)
- [Safiya] But Arielle did give at least
a few of my croissants a passing grade.
- [Arielle] Shape looks good.
- [Safiya] Thanks, chef.
- [Arielle] You're welcome.
- Thank you, chef. - Thank you, chef.
- [Safiya] So that's something.
I guess we'll see how these turn out.
They don't stick out so much.
- [Arielle] Nah.
- [Safiya] That from afar you could tell.
It's more of a Monet situation.
So into the freezer they go to rest overnight.
Okay, so now that we've all been schooled, including me,
on what classic croissants are and how to make them,
it's time to expand our horizons a little bit
and take on the cube.
Now, I think part of the reason why cube croissants
became so viral is because not only are they eye-catching,
they also provide a lot of room to fill the croissant up
with different delicious innards,
which look incredibly satisfying when you split them open.
It's like a present.
And the cubes also provide a lot more surface area
to do cool decorations
on whichever side you decide is the top.
And so for our first foray into cubing,
Arielle decided that she would show me
how to make one of Black Box's signature
mulled wine and chocolate crubes,
which sounded pretty damn good.
- [Safiya] The next one.
- [Arielle] The next one. Here it comes.
- [Tyler] Another one.
- [Safiya] Another.
Now to start off, the process of making the croissant dough
is the same with the wrapping of the butter inside the dough
and then flattening it and folding it time and time again.
You don't need me to explain laminating again,
I'm sure you've had enough of that by now,
but I think since these croissants aren't crescents,
making sure they have the flaky, buttery layers
of the laminated dough is the key to them
still being croissants.
Some haters might say they still aren't,
but hey, there are always people afraid of true innovation.
Am I right?
More.
âȘ Gimme, gimme more âȘ
- [Safiya] More, more, more.
- [Safiya] But once we had flattened out our book
to Arielle's satisfaction...
- [Arielle] And stop. There he is.
- [Safiya] Rather than now cutting it into strips
to roll into crescents,
we rather had to roll the dough altogether.
Just like that? - Yep.
To create like a long rolled dough stick.
- Okay. Yay.
- How do we feel about that?
- I feel good.
- Great, log vibes intensify.
- [Arielle] Log vibes.
- And then we measured out and cut our log
into even little Tootsie Rolls,
which will fit inside the square molds
that Black Box uses and expand to become crubes.
Oh, that was awesome. I love that.
And that is all you have to do
to prep the crubes before baking.
There's just a good feeling to it,
like I'm just getting through something.
Because the mulled wine part will come with the fillings
and the decorations.
All in all, it is still a complex process
with the laminating of the dough,
but this part is a lot easier
than the traditional butter croissant.
And a lot better for someone with hot hands like me...
I'm mildly obsessed with the side.
(both laugh)
So now for cube number two, the custom crube.
Now Arielle and the Black Box team
have made a lot of different cubes before,
from birthday cubes, to fruity pebble cubes,
to a full collection of Halloween cubes.
So when thinking of making a custom cube together,
we wanted to go for something
that they hadn't necessarily done before,
that wasn't full on Halloween,
but was still a little Saf x Black Box branded.
So like goth-lite.
And I saw on their Instagram that they have experimented
with a black striped croissant before,
which seemed to me like a perfect
sprinkling of dark aesthetic.
Kind of like a little bit menacing, a little bit elegant.
So we decided to go for a black and white
striped cube croissant.
And once again, the dough lamination process
was mostly the same with one major exception,
because in order to make our black stripe,
we had to bake it into our dough...
Hey, how you doing? This is my dough hook.
- [Tyler] It's very unhinged. Yeah.
- [Arielle] It's beautiful.
- [Safiya] Kinky Captain Hook vibes.
(all laughing)
So we combined some dough scraps
with some black food coloring
in order to make a little bit of goth dough we could use.
This is the vibe.
- [Tyler] Yeah.
- [Safiya] This is the vibe I was looking for.
Though in order to get the dough fully saturated...
Oh my god. Oh wow.
- [Tyler] Oh wow.
- [Safiya] It's crazy in there.
We had to let Kinky Captain Hook
have his way with it for a while...
It looks like an apostrophe, it looks like a comma.
But the results were worth the wait,
and after a stint in the fridge...
Boom! Take a look at this...
It was back to the sheeter
to stretch our goth dough out enough
so it would cover our book of laminated dough...
A boom!
And after basting our book with flour...
- [Tyler] It's like one of those Turkish massages.
- Yeah, it's a hammam.
Ty, I am the burly Turkish man.
This is my victim.
- [Tyler] Me.
- (laughs) You in the future.
It was time to send our good book through the sheeter
to once again flatten, spool, unfurl,
and then logify our custom dough.
So this is what I'm talking about.
This is what I'm talking about.
The vision is "Beetlejuice" croissant,
supernatural, underworld vibe.
- [Arielle] Love it.
- [Safiya] Zoot suit.
Now after slicing the stripes on the sides
did look very nice.
Boom! - Ooh, damn.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
That looks like a Swiss roll...
The black dough did try and give us a little trouble
by smudging near the top of our rolls
no matter what cutting method we tried.
- [Safiya] A little sprinkle sprinkle,
a little sprinkle, sprinkle and chop.
- [Safiya] But a baker after my own heart,
Arielle wasn't gonna let the smudges slide without a fight.
Shall I try and peel? - Yeah.
And ever so gently pushed the black dough layer back up
to make sure all of our pinstripe spirals
were nice and visible.
Like, does that look okay?
- [Arielle] Yeah. Solid.
- Cool.
Just a little surgery.
And once we had finessed every roll to our satisfaction...
I mean, it's hand-massaged croissant, lemme tell you.
We packed up our goth cubes on a tray
and put them into the freezer to cool overnight.
Now obviously we can't add the decorations to our cubes
until after they're baked,
but another key feature of the croissant cube
is that they are pumped full of fillings.
And Arielle and her team
make all of their fillings in-house.
So I guess as pastry apprentice, I had to make some too.
And for our mulled wine cube,
they do kind of like a holiday milieu of flavors
with a mulled wine ganache and an orange diplomat cream.
Now diplomat cream is actually a combination
of pastry cream,
which is a thickened custard and whipped cream,
making it kind of the perfect midpoint texture
of light and yet still structured.
I promise I won't lick it.
- [Tyler] No, no, yeah.
- Although it is dangerously close to my mouth. (laughs)
Which did sound amazing,
but Arielle did also make me whisk
the whipped cream by hand.
- [Arielle] Sucks to do.
(both laughing)
We didn't have a machine for this one, I guess.
Does it look right?
- [Arielle] Eh, It'll be there soon.
- I think I'm getting hazed.
And we topped this all off with some cinnamon
and some orange oil to make ourselves a nice
wintery, citrusy diplomat.
And then as for our mulled wine ganache,
flavor from the land of my people, Denmark,
Arielle gets pretty molecular with it.
Whoa. - Yeah.
This is biological, baby...
And uses some straight up glucose in her recipe.
Oh my... Oh my...
Oh, I love it. - Yeah.
It looks like glass. What the heck?
Which literally looked exactly like clear slime
and kind of felt like it too.
Then all we needed was some heavy cream, dark chocolate,
and of course our spiced and mulled wine,
which we stirred together for some perfect festive goodness.
We did film this in January and it is now April,
but you know, Christmas can really be
any time of year if you just believe.
And then as for what was gonna go in our custom cubes,
I personally love all flavors fresh, tea like,
and herbaceous like mint, lavender, rose, and well, tea.
And Arielle makes a mean Earl Gray whipped ganache,
which she suggested we pair
with an elderflower flavored honey
to make sort of like a London fog latte
in semi-solid cream form to the face
inside of our sleek, black striped croissant cube.
Sounds like heaven to me.
Our honey, we were gonna deal with the next day,
but as for our Earl Grey ganache,
Arielle once again whipped out the glucose
as well as another crazy sugar, trimoline...
Oh, what the heck?
- [Arielle] Yeah, way different.
- [Safiya] What the? What is this?
Followed by some heavy cream,
some nice Earl Grey tea bags.
- [Tyler] Oh, we're making a tea king here.
- Yes, like a rat king, but it's tea.
- Oh.
(all laughing)
- [Arielle] I like that. All right.
- And a generous helping of white chocolate chips.
And to really make the flavors pop...
Do we need salt?
- [Arielle] Yes.
- In here?
- Yes.
You're doing so well.
(all laughing)
- [Tyler] That was your final test.
(all laughing)
- [Safiya] See, I was finally becoming
a useful pastry apprentice
- [Arielle] That happens.
- Love it. - Love it.
- [Safiya] Yeah.
Also, shout out to the stick blender
that made an appearance
to combine all of our ingredients together,
and really made me feel like I was back
in a soap art tutorial.
- [Tyler] This is gonna taste good.
I feel like there's been so many
steps with these croissants,
I forgot that they're gonna be delicious.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- [Safiya] We've been working.
Yeah, we've working for it baby.
And that is Earl Grey ganache baby,
which needed to set overnight
so it would be ready to mix
with some whipped cream tomorrow.
- [Arielle] That's it for today, folks.
- Boom goes the dynamite.
So with our dough laminated, croissants rolled,
and fillings prepared, it was time to call it a night...
Excuse me. Thank you...
Because tomorrow was baking day.
(Safiya laughs)
- [Tyler] What was that?
That was really LMFAO of you.
(all laughing)
- So the next morning we arrived at Black Box Bakery
ready to bake, deco, and then finally eat some croissants.
And Arielle had taken all of the croissants
we were gonna bake out of the freezer,
so they were ready to go.
Do you want to guess whose is whose?
- [Tyler] Whose is whose?
(Safiya laughs)
- [Arielle] They look identical.
- [Tyler] I know.
- [Safiya] And taking a look at our croissants
the next morning, some of mine did look kind of funky,
but a few were flying under the radar.
Arielle thinks this one has potential.
- [Tyler] Okay.
- [Safiya] And then also maybe this one,
dark horse, maybe this one.
So I had some hope.
- [Tyler] They all end up in the same place Saf.
- [Safiya] Inside the stomach.
- [Tyler] Yeah.
There is this whole intermittent phase.
They have to look good, but...
(all laughing)
- [Safiya] But before we could put our croissants
in the oven, we had to proof them
by putting them in this kind of like humidifying cabinet.
Oh yeah, it's warm.
- [Arielle] Warm and moist.
- [Safiya] It is warm and moist.
- And the idea with proofing is that you let the dough rest
so the yeast inside can do a little fermentation action
and release some gas to make the dough rise.
Woah! That one's huge...
And after a little proofing,
these guys did look bigger and jigglier.
- [Arielle] You do side to side, you'll see.
- [Safiya] Like this? Ooh.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] And then we gave them one final farewell squish.
They're kind of bubbly.
- That's good. Okay. Okay.
- That's yeast activity. Okay.
- [Arielle] Yeah, that's good.
- [Safiya] Before popping these bad boys in the oven...
Let's go boys. All right. Let's see.
Let's see what happens.
Now as for our cubes,
they're actually proofed inside of their square molds.
- We're gonna take these chunkies, put 'em in these molds.
- I love it.
Because we definitely want the dough to expand,
but we don't want them to get bigger than the molds.
- [Arielle] Otherwise if they get too big, they'll explode.
- Yeah. We don't want that.
- Yeah, we don't want that.
But once they were proofed to Arielle's satisfaction...
They look a little bit bigger, I'm not gonna lie.
- [Tyler] They're yeasty.
- [Safiya] Full of yeast, yeasty boys.
We put our lids on all our square molds.
It's a fort, a fortress. - Yes.
And then it was into the oven with them as well.
Okay. All right, let's see how that goes. (laughs)
- I have faith.
- All right, we're feeling good.
Now obviously our cubes are inside molds,
so there wasn't much to see while they were in the oven,
but here's our attempt at a satisfying
butter croissant baking time-lapse.
Please ignore us running around in the background
trying to build a blockade
to block out the reflection on the oven.
But after a bit they were looking
nice and crispy and somewhat shapely.
- [Arielle] Like, these look good.
- [Safiya] That looks okay.
- [Arielle] That one, that one, that one.
- [Safiya] That one's okay.
This is interesting. That one went crazy.
There were a couple of our croissants
that we thought were really cute.
- [Arielle] This one's great.
- A fair amount of them were strange enough shaped
that they were gonna either become ice cream cones
or almond croissants where they get smooshed
and then covered in almonds.
Just slather in almonds.
And then you can't even tell, right?
The only one that might be a true flop
is this one in the corner.
- [Tyler] I mean, this one could be like a Demogorgon one.
You know, it could almost be...
- [Arielle] That one is a little rough.
- [Tyler] Yeah, a "Stranger Things" collab, right?
- [Safiya] But we're not gonna talk about him.
And once our cubes were ready,
we pop them out of the oven as well,
and then out of their molds...
Ta-da! They smell so good.
And although they didn't have the sharpest edges
that Arielle likes to see,
they were certainly cube-ish and buttery.
- [Tyler] It looks like an adorable sushi roll.
- [Safiya] Actually, yeah.
[ Arielle] Yeah, it does look like a sushi roll.
- I was gonna say like the black on top,
like almost looks like seaweed.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] So they were certainly good enough to go
for our prototyping purposes.
- [Arielle] Can you see the layers? They look really nice.
- [Safiya] Yeah, this curly cube, the spiral, is awesome.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- [Safiya] And with everything out of the oven,
our next step up was to decorate our croissants.
For the butter croissants,
that just meant a quick shower of simple syrup.
- We kind of squeeze it so it does like
a aggressive shower. - Quish!
- Which I thought was gonna be more gentle.
Whoa! (laughs)
Okay, so like a lot.
- Yes.
- [Safiya] But ended up being more of
a monsoon of simple syrup.
- [Arielle] Nice.
- Nice? Okay. That's it.
And then we had to decorate and fill our two cubes,
which was a little more of a complex process.
Enter Jordan, decorating master extraordinaire
who was gonna be teaching me her ways.
- [Jordan] I like to do five holes.
- Mm.
- So one in the center.
- [Safiya] And in order to fill our mulled wine cube,
we had to decide which side we thought was the bottom
and then poke a series of holes in the skin.
Make a little crevice basically.
- [Jordan] Yeah. (laughs)
- [Safiya] Yeah?
- [Jordan] And then you do the same thing
on all four corners.
- [Safiya] Oh, so kinda like the face of like a die.
- [Jordan] Yeah.
- [Safiya] Okay.
Then you basically take your fillings
and pipe your little heart out.
Oh.
- [Jordan] You can kind of see it like start to come out.
- [Safiya] Yeah, I can.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
And you wanna make sure you get in a fair amount
to really give people their money's worth.
- Yeah. It's hefty. Oh, I do feel some weight.
- [Safiya] Oh.
- [Jordan] Yeah, so that's how you know, it's like really...
- [Safiya] I have some?
- Packed in there. Yeah. Yeah. You have some.
- Yeah, good.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's nice.
- [Safiya] And after that we flipped the cube over
so we could take on the top.
Now the tops of the cubes here do provide a lot of room
for creative expression,
and the goal with the viral croissant is to be eye catching.
Ta-da!
Jordan helps ideate a lot of the designs
for the cubes at Black Box,
and she seems to lean into the abstract
and kind of lets the frosting speak to her, so to speak.
- [Jordan] No pressure.
- [Safiya] I had a squirt at the beginning.
- [Tyler] Just bonus caramel.
- [Jordan] Yeah, that's perfect.
- [Safiya] And for the mulled wine cube,
Jordan's idea was kind of geometric and warm-toned,
heroing a slice of candied orange...
- [Safiya] Just a little sprinkle sprinkle.
To represent elevated winter.
- [Jordan] And then that's it.
- Great. So these are looking very spicy.
- Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
- It's very like simple, spiced, winter, you know?
- [Safiya] And with one design down...
Ta-da! What do you think?
It was time to see what Jordan had in store for our cube.
But really quick we did have to finish off
our custom fillings, which entailed us mixing
our Earl Grey ganache with some heavy whipping cream
to make it lighter and fluffier.
That's what I'm talking about people.
Cheers.
(laughs) That's pretty (bleep) good.
- Yum.
(all laughing)
- And if you remember, we were also gonna be mixing
some elderflower syrup into some Colorado Mountain honey,
which was supposed to add a little green, floral,
and cool flavor to the honey itself.
It smells to me like lychee.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, it's very similar.
- Yeah.
And once we had all our fillings,
it was time to fill up our cube as much as possible.
All right. That should be good?
- [Jordan] Beautiful.
- [Safiya] Because we needed to get the cream to the mouth.
- [Jordan] Okay, perfect.
- [Safiya] I put a lot in there by accident.
And then it was time to flip her over and tackle the top.
Oh yeah.
And for this design, Jordan had ideated something abstract
and kind of three dimensional
with some mountainous dollops of vanilla whipped cream
scraped on the sides of the cube.
- [Jordan] And then same thing, just on the other side.
- [Safiya] Goth mountains, question mark?
(all laughing)
As well as some vanilla cream cups in the middle.
So you're like melting the whipped cream in a shape?
- Yeah. Cool.
That she used to showcase
some more of that sweet, sweet elderflower honey.
- [Safiya] Okay. Okay.
- [Jordan] Yeah.
So a little bit kind of fills it up a lot,
and then pinch.
- [Safiya] Kind of teasing, highlighting,
and then literally gilding the honey with some gold leaf.
- [Tyler] This is a nice croissant.
- [Safiya] Right.
Lemme tell you something, this is a luxury croissant, okay.
(Jordan laughs)
Which was very convenient for hiding any honey overflow.
Yeah, just cover that one up.
- [Jordan] Yeah, there you go. Perfect.
- [Safiya] (laughs) That one literally is a pool cover.
- [Tyler] Yeah.
- [Safiya] Literally just goodbye.
Now given that Jordan's design
is supposed to be open to interpretation,
you could say these three dollops look like buttons
on a pinstripe suit or mountain hot tubs,
but I think this design looks like eggs.
What do you see?
- [Jordan] I see... (indistinct)
Yeah, I see eggs. (laughs) I see eggs.
- I do like eggs. Yeah.
- Do you like eggs? I do.
- [Safiya] Okay, that's why.
- I used to have a weird thing about eggs,
but like it's grown on me.
- [Safiya] Okay. You have a thing with eggs.
You have a relationship with eggs?
- [Jordan] Yeah.
- [Safiya] And at the very least,
Jordan's subconscious seems to agree.
But now it's turned positive. - Yeah.
Now you are bedazzling the eggs.
- Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I love it.
So semi-goth luxe honey bath on the slopes or eggs?
You guys tell me what you see.
But with our cubes now filled and decorated,
we could say farewell to Jordan.
And I think now after two days of high altitude
pastry bootcamp, it was finally time to dig in
and eat some croissant.
And we started off our taste test at the very beginning
with the classic butter croissant.
Ooh, nice. Ooh.
- [Arielle] Let's see, let's see.
- Now after bifurcating it to reveal the insides,
there were some good layers up in there.
It didn't have quite the perfect honeycomb structure
that Arielle strives for, but especially around the edges,
it was pretty good.
There's some good near the exterior, the inside is a hole,
but... - Yes, a delicious hole
But a delicious hole.
- Yeah. There you go.
- What a delicious hole.
And Arielle was right.
Cheers. - Cheers.
The taste was great.
- Yummy.
- Hmm. (indistinct)
- Crispy crunchy on the outside
and very buttery on the inside.
In terms of flavor and mouthfeel.
The hole may be sunken, but it is moist.
Like that's a pretty buttery croissant.
So all that laminating was worth it.
The sugar on top is a nice touch.
It's kind of terrifying.
A speedy shower of simple syrup, but it does taste good.
- Just a kiss, you know?
- I don't know if that was a kiss.
(both laughing)
- [Tyler] Full blown make out.
- [Safiya] It was more like a blast.
- [Tyler] Seven minutes of heaven.
- Yes.
(all laughing)
- Now moving on to our mulled wine cube.
Oh, oh, oh.
Eating these cubes is certainly a daunting task.
Whoa. - Beautiful.
But apparently a good way to approach it
is kind of folding it like it's a slice of New York pizza.
Compress it.
Compress and compress. Yeah. - Compress and bite.
- Oh, (bleep). Okay.
- Okay. You ready?
- Yes. Cheers. Cheers.
- And let me tell you,
getting all that stuff in your mouth is worth it.
Hmm, I might be in Flavor Town right now.
(all laughing)
Mm-hm, I'm at customs, I'm approaching the border.
It was certainly a blast of festive cream to the face.
The diplomat was nice and citrusy
and also substantive, but still fluffy.
And the ganache was nice and flowy but not too boozy.
The mulled wine kind of brought out the
fruitiness of the chocolate instead.
- What do you think, Chef?
- I like.
- We like.
And it blasted Tyler back to Flavor Town as well.
Oh my God, it's in your mustache.
- It's a tidal wave of holiday cheer.
- [Safiya] And then of course we had to taste
our brain child, the custom striped gilded egg croissant.
- [Tyler] Move that croissant.
- Oh my God. Oh my God.
- [Tyler] There's the goo.
- Wait, that is so full.
now our original vision for this cube was that it would be
like a goth-lite, almost "Beetlejuice" croissant.
- Cheers. Cheers.
But I think we sort of strayed away from that a little bit.
Holy (bleep), that's pretty good.
- [Arielle] Yeah.
- And ended up less "Beetlejuice" and more beetle juicy.
What are the characteristics of this croissant?
Well, it's a little bit goth, but it's (bleep) gooey. Okay.
It is overflowing with cream.
(all laughing)
But that is not a negative
because despite being like a wall of cream,
the flavors in our croissant were not that cloying
or overwhelmingly sweet.
I think the tea and the elderflower
really balanced each other out
and gave the crube an almost refreshing,
light, mountainous flavor profile.
- [Arielle] It's like winter night in the mountains.
- I agree, it tastes fresh like I'm outside
and it's snowy outside.
- Okay. - It's very cool.
Cool, right?
- It's very cool, I think the cream is cool.
- So if the brief was vaguely goth in the Denver Mountains,
I feel like this pastry actually ended up
at a pretty good collab creation midpoint.
Safiya x Black Box in cube form.
And I think if we really stretched it,
we could sneak the space theme in there too.
We're pushing the boundaries here. Okay.
We're in space.
- [Arielle] You're on a winter vacation
but on a different planet.
- [Tyler] Oh!
- I like it.
- Yeah.
- Kinda like Wallace and Gromit skiing on the moon vibes.
But if you go in person and taste it,
let us know what you think.
So after all that, it turns out everyone was right.
Making croissants is pretty hard,
but some croissants were made
over the course of this video.
- She made them.
(all laughing)
There's so many ways you can mess up and she didn't.
- Mostly didn't mess up.
I think that's pretty high praise.
- Yes.
- [Safiya] Yeah.
I don't think I truly ran this bakery,
it's more like the bakery ran me,
but I certainly leveled up my knowledge from zero to some.
So a big thank you to Black Box Bakery
for teaching me some of the ropes.
But I think if I want out of this world croissants
anytime soon, I may have to return
to the croissant capital of the world, Denver.
- [Tyler] Are you happy to be in Denver?
(Safiya laughs)
- [Safiya] Oui.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
If you like that video,
make sure to shamash that like button.
And if you wanna see more videos like this,
make sure to shamash that subscribe button.
Here are our short form / social media handles.
And if you are in Denver or have any urge to come to Denver,
check out Black Box.
And with that, I will see you guys a next time.
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