Croissant Crawl II
holes in my heart & one for the vegans | Kajumi, La Maison, and Gorilla Bäckerei
When hunger strikes but you’re not yet ready to commit to a meal, a croissant is the perfect snack. Not to savoury, not too sweet, a croissant doesn’t need to pick sides — it creates it’s own.
Kajumi
The second season of the crawl began by accident, as a morning matcha run was pleasantly interrupted with this:
Tucked into an unassuming corner of Hemholdkietz, Kajumi is home to fragrant roasted coffee beans, a rosemary chocolate chip cookie that keeps me up at night, and an interior so colourful it makes everyday feel like spring.
This croissant looked like one any day of the week: small in stature, with just enough of a sheen to spark joy in the most mundane moments.
Upon entry, the delicate shards rippled onto the plate, almost convincing me to collect the shards into a bowl and pour oatly on top to make a cereal.
The Kajumi croissant struck a perfect balance of crunchy and creamy with the inside dough reminiscent of goose down feathers. It was surprisingly airy, but upon further review, the culprit was revealed:
I felt a hold (around the above size) burn into my heart: I was cat-fished once again. This croissant had overpromised and under delivered. It’s a shame because the taste and texture passed with high marks.
It’s worth revisiting. Maybe I got a bad batch, but at least the pain suisse was delicious.
La Maison
La Maison is an adorable little establishment, and it’s got the PR to bolster it. This all-day eatery is at the top of every Berlin gastro guide for cute cafes to eat like a local in Berlin. It’s main location has prime real estate, which in Berlin means two things: 1. close proximity to the river and 2. orientation in the sun. If you find yourself along Maybaufer in need of some sustenance, La Maison will give you the medicine you need. After a couple glasses of wine, a friend and I were looking for something to open our stomachs with, and La Maison just so happened to be a hop away. It was 4pm on one of the first sunny days of the year, and after wading through a sea of Aperol spritz’ we left with the last croissant of the day in our hands.
I must admit my first bite was not done with the same precision as previous ones. this croissant’s purpose was not food, but food. Premium fuel.
I neglected to remember that Germans tend to prefer a heartier, more whole grain flower, which is perhaps why Albatross and Sofi fell a bit flat for my taste. La Maison, being french (I assume ?) so their flour is past the point of dinkle flour (another assumption). Rather than being overtaken by a more robust grain, a white flour croissant sets the scene for a buttery caramel flavour to waltz across my palate. My only critique has to do with the texture: I found the inside to be quite elastic, the dough stretching apart a bit like taffy. Perhaps this is the result of well-developed gluten, but at times it boarded the texture of a laffy-taffy.
Nonetheless I am pleased.
La Maison Vegan Croissant
Considering this was the only establishment I’ve come across thus far offering a vegan croissant, I figured giving one a try wouldn’t hurt (literally or figuratively). Generally speaking, the vegan rendition was like the regular’s younger sibling.
The taste reminded me of Japanese shokupan (milk break), as if the pillowy loaf dressed up as a croissant for the day. Texturally it held quite sound, not yet hardened by the realities of life, the interior was a bit heavier and broke more like bread than it’s non-dairy counterpart.
Is this my new favourite croissant in Berlin? No, but it does have it’s time and place.
Gorilla Bäckerei
Like an outfit that one saves for a special occasion, Gorilla Bakery is a place that I’ve had on my radar, but have never taken out of the closet. Until I was visited by an unmissable craving for something buttery and flakey. Typically in these instances, I pop around the corner to La Maison (boutique). The croissants are okay (as you know), but the relaxed laptop policy and fabulous green smoothie make up for it.
I’ll be moving later this month, meaning that habits like this are subject to change. My new neighbourhood comes with a great selection of grocery stores, and a location quite close to Gorilla Bakery.
Keen to meet out my new neighbours, I headed up and said my salutations.
At first glance, the croissant looked quite unassuming. Nothing jazzed me visually, but from experience I’ve come to find this quite endearing. One thing that stuck out immediately, was the lack of mohawk rocked by it’s counterparts at other establishments. The mohawk is my (technical) term the final wrap of the triangular dough, draped over the centre of the croissant. For me, the mohawk is always a clear guide to where one should make the first tear when tucking in. At Gorilla, the final wrap was tucked into bed on it’s underside, making the croissant an infinite loop. Not knowing where to go, I ripped the pastry to find it’s cross section. Like opening a present, a faint aroma of butter perfumed from the ridges as they opened up to say hello. Things were looking good.
It was love at first bite. The modest outside cracked like quintessential shards of glass, and then the inside was so airy I felt my feet lift off the ground. What really hit it home was the taste. This was a Japanese croissant — There may be an umlaut in the name, but nothing about this croissant was German. Maybe the extra tuck in, but one could argue Swiss precision instead. Rather than tasting salty or purely like butter, this croissant had butter as a base to then trampoline into realms of honey and caramel. Every bite transported me back to Donky Boulange by Yoyogi Hachiman station where I would treat myself to a croissant on my way home from ballet class. The La Maison vegan croissant was sweet, but it felt directionless. This croissant knew where it was going. Maybe this is just the nostalgia speaking, but I enjoyed this croissant maybe even more than I did in the past.
The textural contrast from the inside out was there, but there was also a noticeable contrast from one end of the crust to the other. My favourite bite of a croissant is always the tail end (same with burritos), and here the edges were extra crispy and looked like they had gotten a little bit more sun than the rest. The minimal crumbs were also a nice addition to note.
Alas, we’ve made it to the end of another chapter. Gorilla is in the lead with 29/28 points, La Maison with 25/28, and Albatross with 23/28.
Let’s see where the next crawl take us.
loving the croissant content 🥐
let’s do a croissant tour next time you’re in nyc!