Where to find the best flat croissants in Los Angeles

I'm a serious newspaper food columnist. I'm not tempted by the next viral pastry trend. I don't spend money on something just because it's bigger or smaller than it should be, or because it's a mix of two things I like.

Me too: I sat in traffic for an hour to drive to a bakery in Koreatown because someone I follow on Instagram posted a video of a “flat” croissant.

The flat croissant looks like an optical illusion. A cartoon croissant being crushed by a boulder. A magic trick or something out of a Harry Potter newspaper. Imagine reaching your hand into a painting by Osias Beert or Pieter Claesz and picking out one of the lifelike foods on the canvas.

It is about 1 millimeter thick and is made by a machine that both presses and cooks the croissant. The flattened result creates a surface reminiscent of the beautiful Wave sandstone strips of northern Arizona. It's a pastry abomination that destroys the very idea of ​​a croissant, the cherished contrast of delicate dough shell and ultra-fluffy center.

A TikTok search will turn up videos with millions of views showing flat croissants at various bakeries in Korea, where the trend first took off. According to Eater SF, a Bay Area bakery also has flat croissants. I was first introduced to the pastry by Jae Hwa Yu, who goes by the name MissPiggieEats on social media. Yu recently posted a video of the croissant called keu-loong-gi at Coin de Rue, a cheerful bakery in the heart of Koreatown.

I expected the croissants to have their own presentation, or at least a presentation that matched the online craze. On a recent visit, I found them stacked in the pastry box along with white bread and sugar donuts.

The woman behind the counter used tongs to carefully remove one of the croissants ($3) and place it in its own plastic wrapper. She also gave me a small container of whipped cream for dipping.

“Oh no!” she exclaimed. As she placed the croissant on the counter, a small corner broke off. “I broke it. I'll get you another one.”

Like a 3D croissant, the 2D version smells buttery. The crust is brittle, but not so delicate that it breaks. The whole thing tastes like the one crispy shard you peel off a good croissant.

Pastry chef Rachel Lee said she makes the croissants using a special press that her father, owner Hyo Sang Lee, bought from Korea. The croissant dough, which has not yet risen, is sprinkled with rock candy and then cooked through and crushed in the press. The croissants never see the inside of an oven.

Although Lee uses a heat press, I found several other methods online for cooking flat croissants. Some bakeries flatten the raw croissant dough and then bake the croissants under a heavy baking sheet to retain their shape. I've also watched countless videos of people making their own versions at home by smashing baked croissants with a rolling pin and then toasting both sides in a hot pan.

But none seemed as flat as Lee's. At most two layers can be seen. All of the layering in the dough is compacted beyond what is visible to the naked eye. And when you bite into it, it's as crunchy as a cracker.

“Our customers already love popular croissants, so my dad thought why not try a different texture instead of filling them with cream or something,” she said. “And he wanted to do something that was unheard of in LA.”

Although the bakery has been open for three years, Lee said they only introduced the croissants about six months ago.

“I see people thinking about 3D and 2D, but a lot of people see both,” Lee said.

I broke the croissant into large pieces and then dipped them in the whipped cream. One end was perhaps half a millimeter thicker than the other, leaving even the tiniest bit of chew left.

The more I ate, the more the word “abomination” seemed like too harsh a judgment. What if I thought of the flat croissant as the best part of a croissant, maximized? Like a muffin top. The bottom of an ice cream cone filled with chocolate. The crispy edge of a brownie pan. The first three seconds of a bite of Kouign-Amann.

Unless you like the middle part best. Then you should just buy a croissant.