In Dish Decoded, we break down all the components, stories, and techniques behind a restaurant’s... well... dish that we’re obsessed with right now.
Everyone seems to be Instagramming the katsu sandos and caneles at Konbi, a tiny Japanese sandwich shop in Los Angeles. But have you seen the croissant? Ever since Konbi opened last fall, I have double-tapped and saved almost every photo of the shatteringly-flaky, so-damn-chocolatey confection. I just had to know how they got it that way. Here chefs Akira Akuto and Nick Montgomery break down the pastry I can’t stop thinking about.
The Butter
Chef-owners Akira Akuto and Nick Montgomery tried “a crazy amount” of butter before finding the One. The winner was Anchor’s butter sheets (made specifically for layered pastries like these) from New Zealand. Buying the butter already formed into long, thin sheets makes for a more consistent texture.
The Flour
The Konbi team ate the croissant at Tokyo’s Path restaurant every day on a research trip. So they tapped Rihito Maruhashi, Path’s pastry chef, to help develop their own recipe. His steepest learning curve? American flour. They chose King Arthur’s Sir Galahad, a low-protein bread flour similar to what Maruhashi used in Japan.
The Lamination
Those layers take work. In a process known as lamination, first the dough gets folded over butter, then it’s flattened into slabs by a machine called a sheeter. Konbi relies on a rare Yoshida model with a small footprint since the café is about 520 square feet. They make just 36 croissants a day, building up the hype.
The Chocolate
Yes, the croissant passes the critical “Is there chocolate in every bite?” test. To ensure this, the team uses flatter-and-wider-than-usual chocolate batons from France’s Cacao Barry and expands the dough’s gluten structure so it’s strong enough to keep the chocolate from sinking to the bottom of the pastry.
The Flare
With most chocolate croissants, the lip of dough is tucked underneath itself before baking to help keep the pastry contained. Not at Konbi. By pushing the laminated folds apart and leaving the lip exposed and untucked, they’re able to create these signature cascading stairway-like flaky layers.