Croissants

In all honesty this is easily among the best croissants I’ve tasted. Just by touch you can feel just how puffy and light it is, boasting a good height too, which is the first win in my books. Lamination on the exterior is on point, its beautiful golden and crackly layers literally shattering upon touch. You can see very clearly just how light and airy the crumb is, really easy to eat, not heavy or overly filling, and all the more addictive to me — sorry chewy croissant fans this prolly ain’t for you. It’s also got the lovely, mandatory buttery fragrance; though personally I’d prefer it to be even more buttery, with a touch more whiff of yeast. But yknow I guess that also helps keep it light. Big fan of that sticky/wet/soft sort of centre that’s very similar to the dough stuck on the hotdogs of your local bakeries’ hotdog buns, even though I know that means the croissant’s a tad under-baked ahahahhaha. I also see specks in the dough, not sure if that’s wholemeal flour or something but I can definitely taste a mild nuttiness which I do enjoy. Major thumbs up to them for baking their croissants in small batches too cause that means you’re always getting a fresh, hot, crisp one. I snagged a freshly baked one myself and it was dope af 👌🏻🤤

Every time I walk into a bakery I tell myself, “try all the most exciting, different, interesting bakes they’ve got on offer.” But I always cave in to the calling of a croissant. And might I say, Konditori makes an amazing one. Super duper buttery, boasting a crisp exterior with an airy, light and fluffy crumb. Let me tell you: I wanted to just have a couple of bites and keep the remainder for breakfast the next day, but this was so addictive I couldn’t stop and the next thing I knew...it was all gone 🥲 I understand some people are fans of denser chewier croissants, and while I love those too Konditori’s light one is really easy to eat and doesn’t make me feel like my tummy’s all bloated and heavy. Which also means I down them in almost no time at all.

Fried croissant coated in cinnamon sugar, sitting on a bed of raspberry coulis, served with Brotherbird’s signature cookie butter softserve, some diced strawberries and granola. Boy was this an utter joy to devour. Let’s start off with the fried croissant: what an absolute stroke of genius! Their take on churros I’d think sees their widely sought after croissants fried to a beautiful crisp, its inner layers becoming a hot, greasy mess that’s as sinful as it is delicious. Put that with their tasty af cookie butter softserve (best biscoff-flavoured frozen treat I’ve tasted btw), tangy coulis, and sweet vibrant strawberries, and you’ve got yourself a fabulously well-composed dessert. Granted, there’s still room for improvement here. I’d much have preferred the cinnamon sugar topping to be coarser, much like the good ol’ classic churros, and for the croissant to be a touch less greasy. But hey, it’s their third day of ops since they reopened their cafe after a year’s break; so I’m not complaining. It’s innovative without being over-the-top cray cray, exciting while still comforting.

We had the Kaya, PB&J, Lemon Curd, and Salted Caramel (not pictured). I can’t pick a fave cause they were all so so good. Lovely flaky and golden exterior, fluffy buttery and soft insides, filled generously with their homemade jams/sauces. If you’re having these taken away or delivered (head to their profile for more deets), give them a quick blast in the air fryer or oven to get them nice and crisp!

Just imagine this: you’ve got Brotherbird’s already amazing croissant dough, crispy, buttery, and super flaky, split in half then filled with a fabulous roasted strawberry sauce, and a slab of soft, chewy, sticky mochi. Oh my lord, so so soooo good. The textural contrast for one is already a big win, and the little square of mochi’s so good I swear I could eat it on its own 🤤 I especially liked how the roasted strawberry sauce tasted like 100% real berries (say no to commercial syrups 🙅🏻‍♀️), with a super intense, caramelised, even addictive kinda candy-like sweetness, without actually hitting the range of being diabetic. It goes wonderfully with the super delicate sticky rice cake that carries a really light and natural sweetness. I understand Brotherbird’s gonna keep this in their lineup for March as well, so haul ass guys don’t let this beauty slip by you!

Nothing fancy, nothing over the top, just a good old croissant with dose of semi-sweet chocolate. Contrary to what its name suggests, it’s not actually diabetic. Topped with a healthy dusting of cocoa powder, what you can expect instead is the dark, nutty profile from chocolate weaved into the dough, with little pops of 40% chocolate buttons folded through. It’s like the epitome of a good bar of chocolate yknow: from the bittersweet elements, a touchy of astringency, nuttiness, to just a little bit of sweetness to bring out all these beautiful flavours.

I would like to yell this out loud (but I shouldn’t right but I really wanna): Brotherbird’s finally open again! With a newly fitted industrial minimalist interior, their wide range of seasonal croissants, a new espresso blend, and a whole new cafe concept to come. Let’s not even get started on the upcoming savoury items yeah, the croissants and coffee themselves are worth a big hurrah. They were sold out by the time I got there, so I only got to try 2 creations. This Lemon Meringue one was gorgeous: fabulous lamination, crisp exterior and buttery fluffy insides, and a generous amount of super zingy lemon curd filling. Now when I say it’s super zingy, I really do mean that. The sourness hit me like a train and I have to admit reeling back a lil; but after the second bite I found myself rather welcoming that shockingly addictive citrusy tartness. It’s balanced off wonderfully well by the light sugar glaze on top of the croissant, and made me crave bite after bite. I loved it.

This had sooooo much potential to be a fantabulous pastry, I was rather sad when it came to our table completely limp and stale ☹️ It was lightly toasted before it came to us, which warmed up this Caramel Roll a little, but didn’t help crisp it up. What that means is completely soft layers that flattens down with the slightly prod, and none of that crisp, flaky lamination a good croissant should have. Which is a real shame cause I could taste the rich, buttery dough and see the layers, and I loved the caramel sauce that had just the right amount of sweet and a touch of nutty, browned butter.

Who else likes burnt edges like me? 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️ There’s just something about these charred, crisp, slightly bitter bits that’s so gratifying, carcinogenic or not 😅 Keong Saik Bakery recently launched a burnt cruffin series in 3 flavours: Burnt Cheese, Burnt Matcha Cheese, and Brown Sugar Burnt Cheese. I tried the first 2 and I have to say the original Burnt Cheese is my fave. The cheese filling melts better and oozes out perfectly which, aside from the aesthetic plus point, makes the cruffin a lot more enjoyable — it’s a lot nicer eating a liquid warm filling than a thick, heavy custard. Texture aside I found the cheese filling too sweet for me, with the cheese flavour taking a backseat to the sugar. Would definitely give this a 💯 if the cheese were more savoury

Let’s talk about cruffins. These fist-sized buttery balls of sin, effectively a regular filled croissant rolled up and presented differently, are passed off as a whole new novel pastry and sold at a criminal price — it’s practically a marketing fib. Despite knowing all of that, everyone (yours truly as well) loves it (it really is delish and wth it looks so cutesy?!). I tried the Nutella one by Keong Saik Bakery cause they were outta Matcha, and ok my heart broke to fork out $4.50 for this tiny treat but my tummy was more than delighted. They were generous with the nutella filling and I definitely was able to get a bit with every bite, but surprisingly that wasn’t as pleasing as I thought it’d be. Thing is, it’s a really small pastry so with that much nutella the ratio of dough to filling was a tad off. It all became a little too nutella-y for me, if that were possible. I actually really like croissants and their dough’s really really tasty so I would’ve loved to have had more of that.

Extremely late to the game of trying AND posting about these babies (these were last week’s flavours), but I’m glad I got to these mochi croissants anyway 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻💕 Don’t go expecting the usual buttery, laminated and yeasty number; instead what you’ll get is a couple of flaky layers on the exterior, then a chewier and doughier middle. It’s different, takes a little getting used to, but the flavours are fantastic. I’d say get started on the original and understand the concept behind it, then work your way up with their other innovative pastries like the S’mores and cruffins!

Apparently majority of their bakes are made exclusively by close friends and acquaintances; their croissants in particular come from a French baker! That definitely shows, cause this croissant is absolutely stunning, and definitely one of the better ones I've had. So flaky, so buttery, with that lovely yeasted flavour 😍 not a big fan of the salted egg filling that's much more sweet liu sha, with solid chunks of yolk in it, than a smooth salted egg custard. Plus cutting the croissant in half and spreading the custard just cheats me of the flowing lava experience 😅