Oui, oui, we want French pastries! Jerusalem is home to many wonderful things, including incredible pâtisseries.
In Jerusalem set out on a delicious tour of three of the city’s establishments, tasting pastries and trying to learn the secret behind the perfect croissant along the way.
We tested three French classics everywhere we went – a classic croissant (of course); a mille-feuille (also known as a Napoleon); and a Paris-Brest.
We started our journey at Patachou Boutique.
- Where to find it: 88 Agrippas Street
- The best thing they sell: Pâtissière (pastry chef) Lea Ichay said that everything is delicious and everything sells well.
- What ‘In Jerusalem’ thought of the pastries: Wow! The croissant was light and crispy, not too sweet as is the French way, apparently. The Paris-Brest was overwhelmingly hazelnutty (so if you don’t like hazelnuts, we don’t recommend this) and also not overly sweet.
The mille-feuille was our favorite.
Light and flaky, but solid and crispy pastry with layers of delicious creamy custard (we apologize to the French for not knowing the proper terms, we just know that it was delicious and we would eat one every day). The top layer – drizzles of black and white sugary goodness – was especially yummy, soft, and chewy.
Ichay said that she studied with a prominent French chef in Israel and loves passing on to her customers the joy and passion she bakes into the beautiful desserts she makes. Asked about the secret to her success and the success of the beautiful desserts she makes, the pâtissière said that the most important thing is what you are baking with.
“The raw ingredients being high quality is most important. I personally will not work if I don’t know the products – the ingredients. This is very important for the taste and quality of the finished product, she said.
Asked what a newcomer to French pastries should try first, she recommended a butter croissant, but added that most Israelis have already tried this staple, as well as other French desserts like éclairs.
Ichay is grateful to be able to follow her passion and do what she loves. “It’s always fun. I thank God every day that I do what I love – because it’s not a given.”
When people tell her they can taste the love and passion she pours into her desserts, she feels that she has done her part.
Asked what the secret to making a good French croissant is, Ichay reiterated that it’s all about the basics. “Like I said, high-quality ingredients; good, very tasty butter; and someone who knows how to make the folds of the dough.”
Next, we tried Moulin Doré.
- Where to find it: 44 Emek Refaim Street, with branches in Ra’anana, Netanya, and Hadera.
- The best thing they sell: Part-owner and manager Michael Cassar said that when it comes to baked goods, the brioche is king. When it comes to confectionary, it’s hard to recommend any one thing – but if he had to choose, he would pick the éclair.
- What ‘In Jerusalem’ thought of their classic French confections: The croissant was delicious, not at all sweet, but flaky, fluffy, and soft. The Paris-Brest was very yummy – also hazelnutty with a delicious pastry to support the very generous helping of hazelnut filling. The mille-feuille was super appealing with light, flaky crust and a delicious custard filling.
It’s “really tasty – full, beautiful, and just right,” Cassar said.
“Our uniqueness is that [we sell] an authentic French product – our confectioners are French and studied in France. The product is very French. Our thing is to sell French products to the general Israeli consumers. And bless God, it is going well.”
Israelis have really connected to French baked goods, he said.
Cassar shared a funny story about how this connection was not always perfectly smooth. Moulin Doré sells a brioche in a loaf tin with crystal sugar on top. Israelis came into the bakery and asked him about the “challah with rock salt on top.”
“Just wait,” he told them, adding that “today, bless God, there are tons of customers at Moulin Doré’s branches who can’t make it through Shabbat without one of the brioches.”
The chain’s goal is to stay in tune with French culture for regular people, which means staying accessible when it comes to pricing so that Israelis can enjoy the French culture of regularly bringing home a baguette or pastry.
His bakery stays loyal to the original methods of making French pastry, he emphasized.
Asked about the secret to a good croissant, Cassar echoed Ichay in saying that the ingredients are key, but he added an emphasis on the technique.
“There is the whole issue of the folding, and these things which are more professional; but first of all, there are the ingredients that we use. We import the flour from France – special flour that we work with. And we also import the butter from France – special butter for the croissant dough. And especially ensuring that it is 100% butter.”
Finally, we went to Franck Delights.
- Where to find it: 7 Shatner Street
- The yummiest thing they sell: According to founder and CEO Franck Assuli, it’s “very hard to say” what the boutique’s best product is. What sells the best is a strawberry cake with cream that he said “melts in your mouth,” and a cake that tastes like Ferrero Rocher.
- What ‘In Jerusalem’ thought of the pastries: The croissant was amazing: light, fluffy, and flaky. The Paris-Brest was, again, hazlenutty and not overly sweet, with a delicious crusty cookie base. The mille-feuille was a wonderful solid pastry that was somehow light and crunchy at the same time, with delicious custard.
Assuli studied in France under decorated French chefs, always dreaming of coming to Israel. Because he observed kashrut, he could not taste the things he was learning to make in pâtisserie school.
Asked how he managed this feat, of succeeding in school without tasting his work, he laughed and said it was because he understood the French students around him. “Someone studying confectionery in France is 100% focused on their work. So I would say ‘Wow, my cream doesn’t look good,’” the pâtissier recounted.
This would immediately lead the French student he was talking to to taste Assuli’s cream and assure him that it was good.
He also recalled that he would sometimes put one finger in to “taste” something he was making before putting another finger in his mouth. “I think God was with me. I was at school for four years, and I laughed for four years.”
“Today, we make parve cakes that taste better than dairy,” he said, explaining that he worked to make parve cakes in order to make them kosher.
Regarding the secret to a perfect croissant, Assuli also stressed the importance of the right kind of butter, adding that the temperature of the dough was also vital. The temperature of the water added to the flour is calculated based on outside temperatures, he explained, as well as the flour temperature.
Because Israel is so hot, in August this can mean that he adds ice to the flour to make the perfect croissant dough. “Making a French croissant is about patience,” he said.
Assuli said he is happy to see Israelis warming up more and more to French bakeries. While he used to have many French customers, he now also has many Israeli regulars. “It’s fun to see Am Yisrael [the nation of Israel] moving forward fast and learning fast – they are not a closed people.”
