Turn Grocery Store Croissants Into Gourmet Bakery Treats In One Step

Craving a gourmet dessert but don't want to spend a fortune at a fancy bakery? Take a batch of store-bought croissants and stuff them with a dreamy filling using a piping bag. This cost-effective move turns a basic pastry into an unforgettable treat that can rival the best confections at a French patisserie.

The easiest way to make your pipeable filling is to combine a sweet store-bought ingredient, such as vanilla frosting or flavored condensed milk, with a batch of whipped cream. The cream lightens up the texture of a thicker frosting so it can be piped more effectively and also mellows out its intensely sweet flavor. You can also flavor your whipped cream with pistachio cream, cookie butter, or Nutella, which will turn the filling a beautiful pastel color. For an even fancier option, use soft cheese like ricotta or mascarpone and flavor it with powdered sugar and lemon zest, or a spoonful of lemon curd. The aroma of the lemon will cut through the heaviness of the stuffing and complement the buttery character of the pastry. 

Then comes the fun bit with the piping bag. The technique itself is straightforward; dollop your filling into a piping bag and punch two to three holes along the base of the croissant using a utensil that's large enough for the tip of your nozzle to fit. Then gently pipe a small measure of filling inside each opening until the belly of your croissant is filled.

If you fill your croissants neatly, there'll be no indication of the gourmet stuffing variety unless you decorate the top to signal its flavor. A quick way to do this is to brush a sugar glaze over the surface to make the pastry sticky before scattering over shredded coconut, birthday sprinkles, curls of chocolate, or crushed nuts. If you've stuffed your croissant with a thick creme patisserie style custard, you could even dip the surface into some caramelized sugar syrup. Once set, the syrup will turn into a golden, crackable crust, mimicking the texture of a crème brûlée.

If you don't have a piping bag, simply slit the pastries through their bellies, making sure not to go all the way through to create a little pocket for your croissant filling. Splitting your pastries open also allows for chunkier additions (that wouldn't be able to fit through a piping nozzle) to make an appearance inside, such as fresh berries, chopped mango, shredded chocolate, or slivered almonds. A generous dusting of powdered sugar will lend your grocery-store croissants a bakery-style appearance and give them a touch of extra sweetness.

If you're entertaining a crowd, consider preparing massive sheet pan croissants using store-bought puff pastry that you can split open and fill in one move. Alternatively, amp up frozen Costco croissants by baking as normal and loading up with your homemade filling.