These Girls Want To “Rescue” Day-Old Croissants By Giving Them Fancy Makeovers
The idea is to minimise food waste.
Fact: that almond croissant calling out to you with its crusty coating of almond cream and powdery coat of icing sugar, is most likely made from day-old croissants. Filling and re-baking croissants is an age-old trick for bakeries and cafes to repurpose bakes that are not sold within a day or two. However, those without their own baking facilities (many cafés in Singapore buy their pastries from external suppliers), or those who might not have a substantial volume of leftovers might find it easier to simply throw them out rather than re-bake them. So three friends have formed a business to do the re-baking. The execution of their current business model isn't perfect at the moment, but their intentions are good.
Home-baked start-up
Three 26-year-old ladies – Jennifer Nathania, Phua Ying Ying and Janice Wong – started bake-to-order business Twice Croissanterie to spread the word on re-purposing croissants that could have been thrown out. The concept is simple – from Jennifer’s home kitchen in the Beauty World vicinity, they fill and re-bake croissants purchased from elsewhere. It takes the trio about three to four hours to bake about 30 croissants – and all baking is done on the day of the sale. These are then sold at pop-up events and online bake sales. Their first online bake sale – publicised through their Instagram @twicecroissants – happened on November 2019, and they’ve had seven bake sales since, including two pop-ups at The Social Space in Kreta Ayer and Sunday Social Market at Camp Kilo Charcoal Club.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Twice (@twicecroissants) on Nov 26, 2019 at 8:05pm PST
But since we are in #canceleverything times in the era of Covid-19, you’ve just got to get their wares via their online bake sales for now. The trio has had quite a lot of success, selling out 50 to 60 croissants at the pop-ups, and about 30 for each of their online bake sales. If you order online, you’ll have to pick the bakes up yourself. Alternatively, they can arrange for delivery for a fee.
Stale not spoilt
The ladies wish to highlight that day-old croissants are discarded not because they are spoilt, and certainly not because they are unsafe for eating. Freshly baked croissants can actually keep for a week in the fridge, and up to a month or two frozen. They get discarded simply because they turn limp at room temperature, making them not very sellable. The trio also got themselves food hygiene certification to ensure that they all know how to handle food safely. According to the ladies, customers whom they have spoken to are receptive to their idea of twice-baked croissants as a means of reducing food waste.
Buy and Sell
While lots of could-be entrepreneurs overthink their concept and never actually take the plunge, the women dived in head-first with Twice Croissanterie – and then figured things out along the way. For one, they haven’t got any existing partnerships with cafés or bakeries to collect their day-old croissants at the moment. Ying Ying tell us: "While we currently do not have partnerships with bakeries that provide us with a steady supply of discarded croissants at discounted rates, we have existing arrangements with the cafes and bakeries to sell leftover croissants at the end of the day to us at retail price. These croissants, if not bought, would be discarded. We then accumulate these croissants over the week to be used for our bake sale during the weekend."
“It is not easy getting partners on board without proof that (the concept) is feasible and a demand exists. Hence, as a start, we are using pastries bought at retail price from stores at the end of the day, which would otherwise be discarded. We went ahead with it to spread awareness about the bigger picture of food waste and to introduce the concept that ‘leftover’ food can actually be repurposed and elevated into a whole new dish without compromising on flavour or food safety,” says Jennifer.
This explains their rather steep price tag of $6 for each filled croissant.
Food Bank ingredients
That said, they are in talks with a few potential partners – not just for procuring croissants, but also for supplying their twice-baked goods. They are also currently getting some of their filling ingredients from Food Bank, a charity that collects surplus food and distributes them to those in need. This could sometime be a bit of a Black Box Challenge: such as when they received a load of pineapple tart jam and cream cheese during the Lunar New Year period. (They turned it into the “Pina Colada” croissant with a rum-infused coconut frangipane and pineapple cheesecake filling, and topped with pineapple jam and toasted coconut flakes.)
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Twice (@twicecroissants) on Nov 12, 2019 at 6:54pm PST
It is also worthy to note that proceeds from the sale of croissants made with Food Bank ingredients are donated back to them. On top of this, they also donate 10% of all sales to Food Bank. Keeping in line with their mission of reducing food waste, the trio also try as far as possible to use “ugly ingredients” – blemished produced deemed unfit for shiny supermarket shelves.
Weekend bakers
The baking and selling happens only on weekends because the three ladies – long-time friends from school (Jennifer and Ying Ying have known each other since secondary school, while Ying Ying and Janice met at NTU) – all hold day jobs. Jennifer studied medicine in Jakarta and is a clinical research coordinator, while Ying Ying, a Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information graduate, works in marketing. Janice, who studied Chinese medicine at NTU, does TCM for pets and also teaches art and music at a primary school. “We didn’t start Twice Croissanterie as a means to escape from our day jobs!” says Jennifer. “It is just that we’ve always wanted to start something together. And of the ideas we’ve come up so far – we were even considering creating footwear – this was the most feasible.” That they have always had an interest in baking – Janice makes nonya kueh with her Peranakan grandmother – also meant they could combine business and pleasure.
Size matters
As the croissants are procured from different places, they tend to differ slightly in size. Jennifer shares that they try to use croissants that are between 50g to 60g each, “and if they are much smaller we will give two pieces for the same price.” Larger croissants do allow more surface area for slathering the fillings though, so bigger really is better in this case.
The Bakes
Croissant nerds who seek texture perfection, look away. Twice-baked croissants, though restored to its flaky deliciousness through re-baking, are all about the filling flavours. That said, the ladies still encourage their customers to enjoy the croissants on the day of purchase for optimal deliciousness – even though they can still keep for a couple of days more. And while suitably flaky even after our photoshoot at Camp Kilo, the croissants actually tasted even better the next day, when we enjoyed it warm and crisp after re-heating them in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for five minutes, as instructed by Jennifer.
Jennifer plays the role of head baker, experimenting with flavours, but all three contribute ideas. With almond cream – made from scratch with butter, eggs, sugar, and almond flour – as the base ingredient, they try to create new flavours – including seasonal offerings like the Pina Colada. “However, we try to keep a balance so that there is always a chocolate-flavoured croissant, a fruity one, and a seasonal creation,” shares Janice. Three flavours are usually available at each bake sale, including a couple of non-croissant items.
Raspberry Rose, $6 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Think of this as a lovechild between a croissant and an Ispahan macaron. Filled with a mix of frangipane (almond cream) and raspberry cream, given a brush of rose glaze on top and garnished with blushing rose petals, this twice-baked croissant is as pretty as a picture. It is a lovely combination executed with elegance. The combination isn’t too sweet and has just the right intensity of floral fragrance – a challenge when working with rose, which can easily go overboard and become overwhelming like a cloying bandung. A twice-baked croissant is obviously dryer than a fresh one, but the moist filling compensates for it, so you do get a good mix of textures in each bite.
Almond 2.0, $6
Filled with a chocolate frangipane (almond cream infused with 65% chocolate) and topped with a stack of toasty almond slivers, this is an easy-to-like flavour, though not exactly adventurous or unique. At $6, one is better off just buying a fresh bake – though this does have the chocolate filling much better spread out than the usual pain au chocolat with just a stick of choc in the middle.
Peanut Butter Jelly, $6
Topped with a squiggle of frangipane garnished with crushed roasted peanuts and filled with a peanut butter frangipane paired with a mixed berries jam, this is for the PBJ fans. While we could see ourselves devouring the Raspberry Rose in one sitting, this was a lot richer and sweeter, and half was the most we could handle in one sitting.
75% Cacao Brownies, $5 (8 DAYS Pick!)
One of the two non-croissant items available at the last bake sale which happened on 15 March was this item made with BenBanter sugar-free cocoa from Food Bank and 75% dark chocolate. The recipe also uses half the amount of sugar usually used in conventional brownie recipes, making this a treat where one can appreciate the deep chocolate-y flavours. Unlike the croissants, which are best enjoyed on the day of re-baking, this was sold as an item that is good any day, any time. And they were right. Surprisingly light for a brownie, yet still with a bit of fudginess and a nicely crusty edge, it was a treat even four days later. A sprinkle of sea salt also adds little pops of surprise in every mouthful.
The bottom line
Think of these tarted up croissants with somewhat inventive fillings as fancier, larger, albeit less divine cruffins. This would be an even better concept once the girls strike partnerships with more bakeries to supply discarded pastries for repurposing.
Twice Croissanterie conducts fortnightly bake-sales. Tel: 8894-3866. For details, check out their Instagram account @twicecroissants or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Local-Business/Twice-Croissanterie-119741746086250/
This article has been updated to include additional comments and clarifications from the Twice Croissanterie team.
Photos: Kelvin Chia
Related Stories
