Trader Joe’s Mini Croissants

November 19, 2009 | Reviewer: Abi

[/caption] Trader Joe's Mini Croissants Price: $3.99
Serving: 1 croissant, 1.5oz
Calories: 150 per serving
Calories from Fat: 80
Fat: 14%, 9g
Saturated Fat: 27%, 5g
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 6%, 150mg
Protein: 3g
Carbohydrates: 5%, 16g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 2g
Weight Watchers: 4 POINTS EACH

Trader Joe’s says: Croissants are meant to be served and savored fresh from the oven. Chef Jean-Yves Charon shapes these croissants to a smaller size that’s ideal for feeding a crowd. He makes the puff pastry in the traditional style, using butter and ultrathin layers of yeast dough, laboriously folded and refolded, cut and shaped by hand. You’ll appreciate how easy it is to bake them: Let the frozen croissants rise for about nine hours or overnight, then bake and voilà: warm flaky croissants. Set of 24. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.

Abi says: Yes, that text above is from Williams-Sonoma. Why? Because Trader Joe’s didn’t put a pun-filled story on the box of Mini Croissants. Instead, they are suspiciously quiet about the origin of these flaky crescents of buttery love. But I have a feeling these pastries have the same maker as the Trader Joe’s Chocolate Croissants: world famous pastry chef Jean-Yves Charon. He also makes the Trader Joe’s Lemon Tartes. I did not like those.

But I liked these croissants a lot. Also, I’m easy. After 10 minutes spent trying to think of croissants I don’t like, my only conclusion is that letting croissants go stale makes them inedible in non-bread-pudding situations. Now, considering Williams-Sonoma wants me to share other consumer’s reviews over my own Facebook or Twitter profile I figured I’d cobble together a few statements to show why these croissants are so awesome (and why you shouldn’t pay $40 for the ones from William-Sonoma – unless you live 500 miles from a Trader Joe’s, then you should consider it – these croissants are quite nice with a bit of homemade blueberry jam).

Culled from 44 pages of positive reviews, here are some comments from William-Sonoma purchasers and my own additional remarks.

These are by far the best Croissants I have ever tasted and at 235 lbs I have tasted a lot.

I can’t decide if this is my favorite quote or if it makes me think twice about making croissants for the weekend.

These frozen mini croissants are exceptionally good – far better than those I make from scratch – (which I thought were pretty good!).

She’s right, they are better than the ones from scratch. It goes to show you that professional pastry chefs know their stuff.

I originally heard about these croissants on the Oprah show. I decided to try them, although they were more than I wanted to pay for them. After I served them for the brunch on Christmas Day, one of my two sons said, “Mom, you have to have these every Christmas now – they are fabulous!”

Oprah: making you buy stuff that is wonderful, but way, way too expensive.

They are like having a french baker living in your freezer.

But easier to explain to your husband. And the police.

Calling them ‘mini’ is a bit of a misnomer. They look tiny out of the box, but once you’ve baked them each croissant is about the size of a champagne mango, albeit nearly hollow inside. They make for a great sandwich, but I prefer pulling apart a croissant and spreading each bit with some jam. No butter is necessary.

The major drawback of these croissants? You have to think ‘I’m going to want croissants in the morning’ and then put out the croissants and have an apartment that is warm enough for bread to rise. Unrisen croissants are one of the saddest sights on a sleeting Saturday morning.

P.S. Trader Joe’s charges you 50¢ per croissant. William-Sonoma charges $1.67 per mini croissant. Are you willing to pay 3 times what you should (plus overnight shipping!) for mini croissants? I sure hope not.

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comments

11 Responses to “Trader Joe’s Mini Croissants”

Vy on November 19th, 2009

these look amazing. wish i had a trader joes it might be a good thing that i don’t though – i could see me getting fat off of these
John M. on November 19th, 2009

Abi like, me buy. Put in tummy. MMMMM.
Sparky on November 19th, 2009

Mm I’ve never tried these but I have tried the chocolate crossiants and those are freaking amazing. I’ll have to pick these up the next time I’m at TJs (along with ten more boxes of the chocolate ones)
Chang on November 23rd, 2009

I made this to celebrate you coming back: http://cecikierk.weebly.com/6/post/2009/11/moustache-necklace.html
Molly on November 25th, 2009

Sigh. Another product out of my reach because I don’t live anywhere near a Trader Joe’s. Oh well, welcome back Abi!!(I know I’m several reviews late, but I thought you were still on “vacation.”)
Kelsey on December 2nd, 2009

So much for 30 new reviews in November…
Katie on December 2nd, 2009

It would be really nice (and probably keep some readers from leaving) if you could at least pop in and say you’ll be MIA for a bit).
Jess on December 2nd, 2009

I agree with the previous posters. Telling your readers you’ll post 30 new reviews and then going MIA stinks. Please continue posting! We like reading your reviews.
Wyatt on December 2nd, 2009

I hope the silence is not because of more jerky comments again. Don’t listen to internet trolls Abi, people love your site and look forward to hearing from you!
Vy on December 3rd, 2009

at least this time she left something tasty as the last review!
Josie on December 8th, 2009

I think I need this. With melted buttery goodness.