The croissant is under threat

The price of butter has doubled recently. Worldwide. And the end of that price increase is not yet in sight. One of the victims is the French croissant. And not only that.

A crispy croissant is an unparalleled joy. And one of the first things many Dutch people eat when they arrive in France. Why is a croissant so delicious? Butter. The thick slabs of butter that the baker folds into the puff pastry and then rolls out.

Financiers

Nowhere in the world is as much butter used in patisserie as in France. Approximately a quarter of all ingredients in bakery products, I read on Bakkerswereld.nl, consists of this creamy by-product of milk. Croissants, brioches, financiers, éclairs and cannelé’s are all inconceivable without the cream-yellow gold.

A croissant made with margarine is never an option.

And butter now threatens to become as expensive as gold. The price of butter has in fact doubled worldwide recently, and the increase has not yet subsided. The reason for this is quite complicated and depends on whom you ask.

Scarce

The fact is: butter is becoming unaffordable. And that can mean two things. Either croissants, brioches & co. become outrageously expensive. Or extremely scarce (and outrageously expensive).

Fortunately, you can be certain of one thing: French bakers will never resort to butter substitutes. But where the butter price, which has also doubled in the Netherlands, could lead us, I hardly dare think about it.

Margarine

After all, for years margarine croissants were casually sold over the bakery counter in our country. It is not for nothing that we are the only country in the world to use the term ‘butter croissant’ to indicate the difference. But although the best croissants are still baked in France, here too we can increasingly buy buttery and flaky examples.

The only question is: how long will it be before Dutch bakers are tempted by the price difference to reach for the margarine fleet again?