Hybrid pastries are popping up all over the country, and in Texas one bakery is making headlines with a new take on a beloved Mexican pastry.
La Panadería in San Antonio recently introduced the Croncha, a mashup of the croissant and the concha. The pastry combines a flaky croissant bottom and the crumbly sweet top of the Mexican concha. It was created by owner and bakery David Cáceres, after he was inspired by the invention of another hybrid pastry, the manteconcha.
“After learning about the manteconcha, we were inspired to put our own La Panaderia-style spin on a ‘fusion concha’,” Cáceres tells Forbes. “We experimented with a few different doughs at the bakery and, in the end, the croissant was hands down the best combination with the concha. As soon as we tried our first Croncha it was obvious we had a winner.”
“We are very curious about other cultures and have spent a lot of time traveling all over the world searching for the best bakeries and bakers to learn and draw inspiration,” says Cáceres. “We are always experimenting with hybrid baking at La Panadería. In fact, our bestselling pan dulce is our one-of-a-kind tequila almond croissant, which features layers of scratch-made croissant dough filled and topped with sweet almond cream spiked with just a touch of tequila.”