Dominique Ansel Workshop

One of my first visits to New York, I visited Domnique Ansel Kitchen on my last day, not to try the oh-so-famous cronut, but rather, the DKA.  I was going through a kouign amann discovery phase at the time, and *needed* to try that famous version.  I enjoyed it, and the rest of the lineup looked great, but it never made it back to the top of my list during subsequent trips to NY.

Then, I spent 5 weeks in New York in the summer of 2023, and even with that longer stay, somehow visiting any of the locations (the bakery, the workshop) just never reached the top of my list.  So when I returned in October, I was determined to give it another shot.  This time, I visited the "Workshop".  It was so great I returned again in August 2024 when I spent another month in NY.

"Our newest shop is a celebration of croissants,  located right inside of our pastry production kitchens here in Flatiron, NYC, just a block up from Madison Square Park. Stop in for a taste of all different types of croissants and breakfast viennoiserie, stroll to the park, and enjoy!"

The Workshop really is that - it is their massive baking facility, with just a tiny little side area for those who want to stop by in person.  The menu is entirely different from the other locations (besides croissants and cookies), and they do NOT carry the cronut.  They offer a few savory items as well, but I focused on sweet.  

I really enjoyed my goodies, and several were particularly mind blowing.  Next time I'm in New York, I *will* return!

Pain au Chocolate. $7.70.

"Double chocolate croissant with three batons of chocolate."

I like chocolate.  I like croissants.  And yet chocolate croissants / pain au chocolate are rarely what I gravitate towards.  But I was drawn in by this as it wasn't a standard offering with chocolate only inside, but rather, chocolate in the dough as well (but it did have three big batons of chocolate within as well).

The pastry was exceptional, as expected.  Ridiculously flaky exterior that shattered in a beautifully messy way.  It did have a bit of chocolate flavor to it, but it wasn't dramatic.  The chocolate batons within were deep and dark, clearly high quality chocolate, definitely where the majority of the chocolate aspect came from.  The bakery likes to point out that they throw in an additional baton instead of the usual 2.

This still wouldn't be my top choice of croissant flavor, but, it was a high quality, textbook execution, of a pain au chocolate with a touch of extra chocolate.  ***+. 

Almond Croissant. $7.25.

"with extra homemade almond frangipane, crunchy toasted almonds, and confectioners sugar."

Oh, wow.  Um.  Wow.  This was truly fabulous.  I don't think I've had a better almond croissant, anywhere.  

Where to start ... it was stuffed full of very flavorful frangipane, that almost tasted like it had a boozy aspect to it, in a good way.  Plenty of it.  A+ filling.

And the pastry itself, top notch, well laminated, crispy, buttery, flaky, yadda yadda.  

And then, what pushed it far above and beyond other very good almond croissants: the topping.  It was absolutely coated in the slivered almonds, that had a deep toasty flavor, phenomenal crunch, and lots of caramelization.  Exceptional.

There is nothing that I'd change about this.  Flawless.  Perfect *****.

Croissants. $5.50 Classic / $6 Olive Oil.

"Classic Croissant made with Beurre d’Isigny French butter and Les Grands Moulins des Paris flour."

"Olive Oil Croissant made with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil and a hint of rosemary, confit garlic, and coarse sea salt."

I think the larger ones here are the regular classic croissants, and the thinner the olive oil?

I tried a hunk of the olive oil croissant, mostly out of complete curiosity.  It really was interesting!  It was an excellent croissant, but, far more savory.  My brain somewhat tasted focaccia, with the oil/rosemary/salt (I didn't detect the garlic), but ... it was a croissant.  I think this would make a totally incredible breakfast sandwich (which, I realized after I wrote this, they do offer).  ***+.

Brown Sugar DKA. $6.50.

“Dominique’s Kouign Amann”: similar to a caramelized croissant, with tender flaky layers

inside and a caramelized crunchy crust outside. Our best-seller!!"

"Best described as a “caramelized croissant,” our classic DKA (short for “Dominique’s Kouign Amann”) is a Breton pastry that features a crispy, caramelized crust on the outside with a flaky and tender crumb within, and a bit of gooeyness in the center. It's no wonder these flaky golden pastries are our #1 best-seller here at the Bakery! "

And of course, I had to get a DKA.  I had this once before, my first ever visit to any Dominique Ansel location (Dominique Ansel Kitchen), and did find it to be one of the best kouign amann's I'd ever had.

It remains exceptionally well done.  Everything you want in a kouign amann: very crispy caramelized exterior, flaky layers, SOOO much butter and sugar flavor.  And their kinda signature touch of a slightly gooey caramel center.  

Sugar. Butter.  Crispness.  Decadence.  Yup.  ****+.

Chocolate Caramelia Triangle. $7.50.
(2023).

"Filled with silky Valrhona Caramelia (caramelized milk chocolate) pastry cream."

My first selection of more interesting items was inspired by the memory of a couple different cream filled flaky pastries I had during my stay in New York in August: the insanely delicious lobster tail from  Mia's Bakery in Brooklyn, and the chocolate cream version from Veniero's.  I was craving quality flaky pastry and delicious cream filling.

When I picked this up, I was shocked.  First, it was considerably bigger than I was expecting.  Much like most lobster tail pastries, it was a monster compared to the size of a standard danish or croissant.  But even though it was physically large, the weight still surprised me.  This thing was hefty.  Seriously, it weighed a ton.

The pastry was fairly standard laminated dough, like you'd get with any filled croissant.  Reasonably buttery, reasonably flaky, definitely not stale.  Not particularly great, but certainly better than an average bakery.  It had a few lines of a darker color through it, that might have been chocolate, but I didn't taste a difference in that area.  The pastry was a couple layers thick.  ***+.  (Don't mind the slight caramel glaze on top here, that actually came from my second item, that was packaged in the same bag as it).

Chocolate Caramelia Triangle: Inside.

Inside is where it got interesting.  It was absolutely loaded with the pastry cream.  This is where all the weight came from.  Light fluffy chocolate whipped cream this was not.  It was very thick custard style cream, with intense caramelia flavor.  If you are unfamiliar, caramelia is one of Valrhona's signature milk chocolates (36%), that has remarkably strong buttery caramel tones (it does have butter in it, after all).  This tasted like if you melted down a caramello bar (or any other sweet buttery caramel filled bar of your choice) and then made it into rich pastry cream.  Intense, intense, intense.  The pastry helped cut it a bit, but, wow, this was quite rich, and a little went a long way.  ***+.

If you are a caramel and chocolate lover, this is definitely worth a try.  I enjoyed it, but found it too heavy and rich to eat more than 1/3, maybe 1/2 of in one sitting, so I recommend sharing with someone.  I had the second half later with vanilla ice cream, which was a nice pairing, and helped cut the richness a bit.  

Sea Salt Hazelnut Praliné Flan. $7.75.
(2023).

"A French-style flan with hazelnut pastry cream baked in a laminated brioche nest, hazelnut praliné, and Maldon sea salt."

Next up, the incredibly fascinating flan pastry.  Yes, this was a laminated brioche "nest" (basically, a croissant shell), filled with thick rich flan, topped with hazelnut pastry cream, topped with hazelnut praliné (which, was basically like hazelnut butter), and some hazelnut pieces.  If I thought the previous item was rich, this was another notch.  It was also incredible.

The pastry itself was remarkable.  Much like the triangle pastry, it was well laminated, had beautiful layers, was reasonably crisp, but not particularly decadent, no noteworthy flavor.  Better than average, but not amazing.  ***+.

The pastry nest was very well formed, and thicker than the triangle pastry, as was needed to hold the marvelous contents.

Sea Salt Hazelnut Praliné Flan: Cross Section.

And here you can see those contents.

Filling the cup was the flan.  Well set, thick, rich, good flan.  Not too sweet,  This alone would be a good flan.  ****.  Together, the laminated nest and the flan filling sorta gave off the vibes of a Chinese egg custard tart or Portuguese pastel de nata, but, with a French spin.

But then ... the hazelnut praliné.  OMG.  It was one of the tastiest things I've had in a while, and, I say that eating lots of tasty things regularly.  It was sweet.  It was nutty.  It was gritty.  It was salty.  It was like the best cookie butter, but, amplified.  Truly, I think it is ground candied hazelnuts.  They should sell this by the jar.  I'd spread it on anything, including, my finger, direct in the jar.  This was bonkers good.  Perfectly ooey gooey too.  *****.  Flawless.

Add in some hazelnut halves for even more crunch, and more hazelnut flavor, and, well, this was just a truly wonderful treat to eat.  Every component could easily be enjoyed on its own - quality pastry, rich thick flan, insane-o hazelnut praliné.  But put it all together?  And it totally worked.

Glorious.  I'd get another with no hesitation.  ****.

Strawberries & Cream Pistachio Roll. $10.
(2024).

"Fresh strawberry compote, vanilla Chantilly, pistachio ganache, laminated brioche."

Oh, man.  Another one that may look the size of a normal filled croissant in this photo, but I assure you, it was not.  It was really quite large, easily splittable by 2-3 people.  The super-size of the pastries from the Workshop always surprises me, but it does make the now $10 price more reasonable.  

Anyway, what we had here was a laminated brioche, with bi-color layers of strawberry and regular pastry, with an attractive pattern on top, accented by strawberry white chocolate paint.  The ends were dunked in more of the white chocolate and covered in pistachio bits.

The pastry was good, clearly fresh, crispy.  It reminded me of croissant pastry, but a bit crispier, less big pockets of air, and a bit more rich.  You could really taste the butter, in a good way.  I guess, now I know what "laminated brioche" really is.  It was a good vehicle for what was to come.  **** pastry.

Strawberries & Cream Pistachio Roll: Chantilly.

I cut into it to reveal the fillings.  At first I was confused: why did I see only the white vanilla chantilly?  Where was the pistachio ganache? The fresh strawberry compote?  It turned out, the end with the pistachios decorating it was also filled about 1/4 of the way with pistachio ganache, and the strawberry compote was primarily concentrated in the top half as well.  So, don't just cut in half and hand one half off to a friend (unless you slice the other way or want one of you to not get all the great fillings).

The vanilla chantilly was pretty incredible.  I've never had such a light, fluffy cream in my life. It tasted so purely of cream, like, intense cream flavor, but, fluffy.  Remarkable.  ****+ cream.  Like something you'd get in Japan.

My slight complaint is that there really was not much of the strawberry compote, there was some in the folds of the pastry as you can see here, but that was about it.  It was sweet, fruity, light, and really went well with everything else, but I wanted more of it.  

Strawberry & Pistachio Roll: Pistachio Ganache.

And finally, the pistachio ganache, from the end with the pistachio bits on it.  It was thicker than the chantilly, a pretty light green color.  It was very rich, and mildly sweet, in a white chocolate sweet way.  I actually thought it didn't taste all that strongly of pistachio, but it was enjoyable anyway.  ***, because it didn't quite deliver in the pistachio department.  The pistachio bits on the end certainly did, and they also added nice crunch.

I did find the choice of concentrating the ganache on the end less than ideal.  It made those bites really almost too rich.  I liked the ganache, don't get me wrong, but I wanted more of the lighter cream to cut it, particularly given the richness of the laminated brioche.

If I sound critical, that is only because this is at the top echelon of baking perfection.  It was a very, very, very good pastry.  Most bakeries only dream of achieving this level of quality.  The pastry, the fillings, everything was truly textbook, which I mean in a perfection sense, not boring.  Overall, ****, and I'd certainly get it again, and can't wait to try more of their offerings.

Caramelia Feuilletine Clusters. $18.
(2023).

"These deliciously decadent clusters are made crunchy wafer crisps covered in rich Valrhona Caramelia (caramelized milk chocolate). Bet you can’t eat just one!"

And finally, since I was getting delivery one time, and couldn't resist just adding on one more item to take home with me, the caramelia feuilletine clusters, which feature one of my favorite things: feuilletine.  Take feuilletine and cover it in quality milk chocolate, and make it even more snackable by forming clusters?  Um, yes.

These were pretty much exactly the sum of their parts.  Feuilletine, super crispy, formed into clusters, smothered in very rich creamy Caramelia chocolate (the same used in the triangle pastry).  Crunchy, chocolatey, caramely, rich.  Very tasty, but I found that one cluster was enough at at ime.  I liked to pair with coffee, or top with whipped cream, to balance out a bit.

Very enjoyable, but I don't think I'd get another batch.  ***+.