Superstar chef and serial entrepreneur Alain Ducasse has expanded his culinary empire once again with a new line of cookies. The new shop and bakery (cookies are made on the premises) is located near the Bastille, a few doors down from La Manufacture, Ducasse’s bean to bar chocolate shop and ice cream shop, now a triple sweet threat on the rue de la Roquette.
I paid a visit the other day and the storefront was designed in typical Ducasse style, elegant but modern, with a touch of the old. The sophisticated packaging, using the look of old-fashioned cardboard, is a continuation of the slightly industrial look Ducasse started to use with his chocolate brand, and some of the displays had glass domes, showing off the cookies.
As you read in my former posts, I have been dieting as of late, losing approximately 17 pounds since February, and it was excruciating to have to restrain myself to buy just one kind of cookie. As I perused the shelves of beyond appetizing cookies, I took it all in, not succumbing to sweet tooth. There were such interesting flavor combinations, such as rice, Madagascar chocolate and cocoa nibs, corn, smoked vanilla, and chocolate, chickpea, honey and chocolate, rye, coffee, and chocolate, and their signature flavor, butter and buckwheat. There were also a variety of shapes and different configurations including hexagon shaped cookies, cookie bars (basically chocolate tablets with a layer of cookie over them), palets (a round cookie dipped in chocolate, looking like a super sophisticated version of Mallomars), and biscuits with toppings.
After much hand wringing and mental torture on trying to decide on one item to buy, I chose something simple, the Croc Fin, a paper-thin cookie in a hexagon shape made with wheat and cocoa, laced with fine, slivered almonds. As much as I like rich and extravagant pastries, I love a simple butter cookie. Mind you, they don’t sell individual cookies, only boxes, and the Croc Fin has nine cookies inside. Another excruciating part was I had to split the box with Vincent.
The taste and texture were exquisite, and they weren’t too sweet. You can taste the butter, but it wasn’t overpowering, and they were as light as air but still substantial enough to be satisfied just eating one or two at a time.
The dangerous part is that Le Biscuit Alain Ducasse is only about a 12-minute walk from my house, and hardly enough steps to make a dent.
42 rue de la Roquette, 75011
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-7:30pm
https://www.lechocolat-alainducasse.com/en/lebiscuit-alainducasse
My final choice-Croc Fin
What is a cookie if not a peche mignon—a stolen pleasure from childhood. If you cannot buy a single cookie in a cookie shop something is very wrong. No prices were mentioned but I’m guessing they don’t come cheap. Where is the fun in that? The presentation and dreary cardboard packaging does not say luxury product. Rather someone coming late hopping onto the popular cookie shop trend. I can’t even imagine elegant Alain Ducasse eating a cookie :((
Posted by: Parisbreakfast | September 23, 2022 at 12:59 PM