Sweet Catalonia // Best croissant in town

Sweet Catalonia is a series of columns on cooking in the area of Spain I'm living in, with an emphasis on desserts and sweets. Today, episode 2: croissants.

Last week I went to Hospital del Mar for a checkup. Hospital del Mar is by far my favourite hospital in Barcelona (or anywhere). It’s right next to the beach, the sea is a minute away and in summertime the corridors are flooded with sunlight so bright I’ve seen the reception staff wear sunglasses. 

Outside the hospital, facing the sea, some people were smoking. A common sight that never fails to amaze me. Should we read it as a gesture of cynicism, to fill your lungs with poison right outside a hospital? “I’m dying anyway, might as well have some fun on my way out”? Is it hope stretched to the max? “One more cigarette before they make me all beter in there”? 

However, later that same day I ate the best croissant in Spain. That’s not an appreciation of mine: the croissants sold at Oriol Ballaguer’s stores have actually been named ‘Spanish Butter Croissant of the Year’ (Mejor Croissant de Mantequilla de España). A jury decided that, among 40 croissants, Ballaguer’s was the best. I assume the jurors took small bites. It’s been the 7th edition of this competition, so by now they probably have a Red Cross team standing by right outside the jury’s chambers. 

At Ballaguer’s store “La Xocolateria” (photos here) next to the Mercat del Born, I treated myself to the winning croissant. And because the place emphasised the joy of chocolate, I chose for the Nutella-filled version. 

I’m not an expert, just a fan, but… even without the two spoonfuls of Nutella cream leaking out of the sides, I would have found this croissant the tiniest bit… much. A butter croissant can be overpowering. The beauty of this product lies in the combination of crisp and soft, the conflicting sensations of a splintering outside and a moist interior. Keeping the butter in check would be my focus, in the unlikely event I’d be part of the Croissant Jury. (I take it this jury has a high turnover.)

Croissants, as common as they now seem, are quite a recent invention. Although puff pastry was created by Arabs in the 16th century, the croissant concept got glimpsed first at the 1889 Paris World Fair — and even then the French bakers who came up with the half-moon shape hadn’t thought of using puff pastry. Number geeks, now is your moment: puff pastry has 729 layers of moist dough and 728 layers of fat. The layers of dough measure 1/100th of a millimeter, which is much, much thinner than a sheet of paper. (Courtesy of this information: Harold McGee, in his incomparable McGee on Food & Cooking.) 

One could argue that making croissants at home is quite a lot of work, but one would be getting eaten by one’s own euphemism: making croissants at home is a bitch. Not only does it take long (because you should leave the dough in the fridge for at least one night, preferably more), you also have to make sure the butter folded in the dough has the exact right temperature. It shouldn’t be room temperature (or it will spurt out first chance it gets) and neither should it be ice cold (because then it will damage the dough). 

Yes, the best croissant in Spain is amazing, but it is not something you have with a cup of coffee: this croissant is a full meal. When I left the Xocolateria I felt a bit stuffed. As if the croissant had looked at me menacingly and said: this town is not big enough for the both of us. Croissants are really just waiting to be banned, for health reasons. I hold it entirely possible that at some point in the future, we will look at croissants and the people who ate them the same way we now look at cigarettes and smokers. Then again, a minority will keep eating croissants, probably leaning against some hospital façade.