Then, in early 2023, TikTok influencer Johan Papz filmed himself taking a satisfying bite into one of Louvard’s crookies, and things went crazy.
“We had hundreds of people coming, most of them young women between 18 and 25 years old, smartphones in hand to take photos with them,” Louvard says in his kitchen as workers rush to spread cookie dough into croissants.
Taste-testing the TikTok viral XXL croissant in London: what’s the verdict?
Taste-testing the TikTok viral XXL croissant in London: what’s the verdict?
In the weeks that followed, the queue never seemed to diminish in front of the bakery. Production is now between 1,000 and 1,600 crookies per day and Louvard has had to hire two extra workers.
He is pleased, but somewhat bemused, over the craze.
“I mean, it’s a bit insane,” he says.
“At some point you have to stop. It’s just some cookie in a croissant, it’s not some revolutionary invention.”
Thanks to TikTok, Maison Louvard now has imitators around the world, with crookies spotted in Brussels, New York, Tel Aviv, and even Asia.
In Hong Kong, Plumcot bakery in Tai Hang introduced its take on the crookie – which it calls simply the cookie croissant – back in February. Its version features dark chocolate cookie dough on top of its signature croissant.
Meanwhile Le Dessert, an online patisserie also based in Hong Kong launched by chef Julien de Preaumont, shared the secret behind its take on the crookie.
“We garnish and cover our freshly baked croissants with our home-made pecan and chocolate cookie dough,” reads the Instagram post that introduced the pastry at the end of March. “Then, we add Valrhona chocolate inside and on the top of the crookie to make it even more delicious.”
Despite crookie copycat products appearing around the world, Louvard has no interest in filing a patent.
“What for? To find myself in court with half the planet?” he says.
It is not the first pastry craze to tickle the world’s taste buds.
The brookie (a mix between a brownie and a cookie) and cruffins (croissants baked into the shape of muffins) are more examples of hybrid pastries that have taken the world by storm.
In 2022, the New York Roll, a mixture of croissant and bombolone (an Italian pastry) triggered a frenzy, with videos featuring the cake accumulating hundreds of millions of views on TikTok, driving a hunt for more baked goods crazes.