This is the lightest croissant in the world
How does top chef Albert Adriá make his special air croissant so light and airy? With a kind of air-mattress pump, he inflates the dough like a little balloon. Let it rise, bake it and voilà: a Michelin-star croissant.
Albert Adriá, indeed the brother of the famous Ferran, runs his own restaurant Enigma in Barcelona. Adrian is a pastry chef by training, and you can see that on the menu. One of the highlights on the menu: a slice of an incredibly light and airy croissant.
Inflating a balloon
The restaurant is temporarily closed, but Albert does reveal how he gets that croissant so light and airy. He folds the dough into a kind of pouch and then inflates it like a balloon. Brushed with beaten egg yolk, the croissant then has to rise for a while before being baked in a hot oven. The video on YouTube shows the croissant dough being rolled out thinly in a pasta machine, then folded into a pouch and inflated with a little pump.
Culinary amusement park
Enigma is, incidentally, just as much an amusement park of culinary innovations as El Bulli was. It offers guests a forty-course menu inspired by Korea, Japan, Brazil and Spain, which takes about three hours and costs €220 excluding wine. Guests can’t stop talking about the caviar with nori, goat belly with pomegranate and the crystal bread, a completely transparent bun. No one gets a menu in advance; only afterwards is it revealed what guests have eaten. Vegetarians, however, are not catered for at Enigma: there is no vegetarian menu.
Who’s going to get a roll of Danerole to try this at home? It’ll save us a round trip to Barcelona! And hopefully Enigma will reopen soon.
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