An intensely excellent coming together of confectionary and croissanterie
Like almonds? Have a hankering for something sweet? Big on butter? Love a good pastry with your morning coffee? Fascinated by France? These and other great questions can all be answered with one good word for the pastry-wise: Juliette. It’s the ZCoB’s not-secret code name for the almond croissant that—if you’re an almond lover—might well work its way into your daily routine as it has so many other folks around here.
Although they don’t get a lot of headlines, the Juliette Almond Croissants are exceptionally excellent. As with all our croissants, they’re very much traditionally made—real butter and lots of laminated layers of dough. The Bakehouse’s pastry crew carefully fills each one by hand with a double dose of almond frangipane—a classic baker’s blend of ground almonds and sugar—used to fill a multi-layered classic butter croissant. It was created in honor of Matt and Mark Jonna of Plum Market’s mother, whose name is Juliette. Given her lifelong love affair with almond croissants, it seemed fitting to name these Bakehouse beauties after her.
If you don’t know from frangipane, let me share what Amy Emberling, long-time co-managing partner at the Bakehouse, and co-author of the beautiful Zingerman’s Bakehouse cookbook, says:
I enjoy my frangipane by the spoonful, straight up as you might say, but since that’s not socially acceptable, or appropriate for a bakery to sell, we came up with this riff on the classic French almond croissant. The buttery, flaky pastry is a perfect vehicle for the smooth, rich, almond frangipane. It’s replaced my daily spoonful.
My girlfriend, Tammie Gilfoyle, who’s been working with food professionally for most of her adult life, totally LOVES them. She says, “They’re a frangipane lover’s dream! When you put together all that butter in the pastry and the frangipane, you get a pretty special croissant!” Tammie’s not alone—folks I talk to that are into almonds are equally enthused about these special French pastries from the Bakehouse.
I love the almond croissants accompanied by a spoonful of good jam—my favorites are either the Agrimontana Fig from northern Italy or the American Spoon Early Glow Strawberry. Break open the croissant, stick in a spoonful of jam, and eat up! The intense flavor of the concentrated fruit is a fantastic pairing with the consummate nuttiness of the frangipane! Grab a cup of our Organic Brazilian Peaberry coffee, take a deep breath, appreciate the hard work of the Bakehouse pastry crew, and enjoy the beauty of both the coffee and the almond croissant while you eat.
