Cube Croissants Are the Pastry Trend You’re About to See Everywhere

If you had asked how I felt about geometry when I was a high school sophomore preparing for final exams, I would have had an immediate and firm answer: “No, thank you.” But as soon as that geometry had anything to do with food, I’d correct my answer to “Count me in for all the research!”

Take cookies. You can make the same dough into round, flat spheres or lofty, square blondies. Or pizza. A grandma slice wouldn’t feel like itself if the pieces were cut into wedges rather than squares. 

One of the latest baking trends takes an old pastry concept—croissants—and gives it a brand new look. Cube croissants are the latest dessert trend in London, New York City, and perhaps a shop near you.

BHG / Zoe Hansen

According to the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), relatives of croissants have been part of the culinary lexicon since at least the 13th century. Austrian kipferl, a baked bread roll, was likely the first ancestor of the classic croissants. Around 1839, the doughy delight made its way to France, and for the first time, the term “croissant” was used to refer to the crescent-shaped bread. By 1915, a baker named Sylvain Claudius Goy made the now-iconic French pastry recipe his own by making the spiral with laminated dough. This technique, also utilized to create puff pastry, calls for folding butter into the dough to create delicate, thin, and flaky layers of pastry goodness.

While the original croissant is still a work of edible art, we’re seeing a tidal wave of new twists. Remember Dominique Ansel's cronuts, which drew lines outside bakeries worldwide about 10 years ago? Today, bakers are taking things up a notch and creating swirly, snake-like croissants, wildly-detailed spiral croissants, and perhaps the most