Dessert trends come and go, and sometimes they take longer to come stateside if the originate across the pond. The latest one, which I only discovered while researching Amsterdam and Belgium earlier this spring, is the crookie. You might think this croissant amalgamation sprung from America, but lo and behold this genius mashup came from Boulangerie Louvard, a bakery in Paris.
The crookie is an excellent marriage of two well-loved baked goods, the simple chocolate chip cookie and the complex croissant coming to together to make a soft, rich, flaky, and joyful expression of experimentation gone right.
I had forgotten about the crookie after initially reading about it, but stumbled across it in Brussels. Excitement overwhelmed me and I ran into the little bakery, whose name or location I cannot recall for the life of me and Google is not helping with in the least. I remember we went to a McDonald's first so Patrick could try some foreign foods from there, so it was within walking distance of there.
This particular crookie was sliced in half longwise and its interior was coated with a rich slathering of Nutella. It took me two days to finish that crookie.
Upon returning home I was thinking that perhaps crookies would start to show up in nearby bakeries, maybe I could have one occasionally here! But sadly, I haven't found a bakery crookie yet. Maybe my local croissant bakeries are too highbrow? So I decided to fashion my own, but do it simply. I love baking and experimenting but I am not in the mood to attempt homemade croissants in the late June heat, so to Aldi I went in search of two things — prebaked croissants and premade chocolate chip cookie dough. And I found something even better than plain old chocolate chip cookie dough, this chocolate chip with almond brittle version!
They also had a salted caramel and chocolate chunk cookie dough option as well.
The best part about these two items is that is makes exactly six crookies because you need two dough balls for each one. It's meant to be!
The real question is: are these a breakfast food, a dessert, or both?
Two Ingredient Aldi Crookie
Ingredients
- 1 pack Aldi All Butter croissants from the bakery section
- 1 pack refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- Cut the croissants longwise with a serrated bread knife. Open each one up.
- Use a large spoon or your fingers to flatten two dough balls per crookie. Flatten one and put on the bottom half of each croissant. Put the top back on.
- Use the spoon or your fingers to flatten the other dough ball and drape it over the top of the croissant.
- Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 14 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
These are much easier to eat all in one sitting, and I recommend enjoying them fresh from the oven. They do reheat pretty well, just pop them in a 350 F oven for a few minutes until the cookie dough softens and the chocolate chips glisten.