Audi and Rizka Krisnandika love croissants. Like, really love croissants.
Everywhere they travel, the couple make it a point to seek out the area’s best, spending time pulling apart the flakiest and butteriest options they can get their hands on. Oh, and did we mention they’re also qualified bakers and pastry chefs? Yep, they even make their own. So, it’s safe to say they know the difference between a good croissant and a bad croissant, which is one of the main criteria needed to run a good bakery.
Croix Croissant isn’t just any bakery though. Born in Melbourne just after the pandemic, the Croix ethos is one of experimentation. Sure, the dough is as classic as it gets (Audi perfected his recipe in lockdown, using high-quality French butter and a three-day slow-fermentation process) but it’s the fillings that saw Croix attract plenty of buzz when it opened its first location in Travancore in October 2022.
There were the staples – croissants (plain and almond) and pain au chocolat – but Croix also served a range of out-there creations such as mie goreng croissants, blueberry crumble danishes, pandan creme brulee-filled numbers and even croissant burgers. Audi and Rizka’s mixture of unconventional ingredients and flavour profiles was a hit with locals – both pastry purists and croissant non-conformists.
“That’s why the name has X in it – there’s a cross between cultures and a cross between products,” says Rizka “I just like being adventurous, because sometimes people get bored.”
Croix Croissant opened a Brisbane location out in Hillcrest last December, bringing its stable of recipes with it (the Melbourne location continues to operate under the custodianship of friends Safitri and Dandie). A light-filled space is simply adorned, with focus funnelled towards the pastry cabinet, which is chock full of roughly 15 items daily – both sweet and savoury. The range is ever-changing, with flavours rotating in and out every couple of months. When we visit, we spy the famous mie goreng croissant (filled with bechamel and mozzarella), lemon cheesecake cruffins, pina colada-inspired croll (croissant rolls), croissant burgers, vegan-friendly Victoria sponge croissants (yes, vegan pals – Croix Croissant has you covered) and creme brulee danishes. All of this is available alongside Fonzie Abbott coffee and matcha.
According to Rizka, flavour inspiration can strike from anywhere – even outlandish customer requests are sometimes entertained. “We follow the trends from all over the world, but we also have ideas for things that we want to enjoy ourselves,” Rizka explains. “When we created the mie goreng croissant, we were simply craving mie goreng. When we first put it on socials, people were saying, ‘Oh my god, you’re crazy – don’t do it’. But when people come in, they go like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s weird… I’ll try it’.”
There’s still more to come. The crew is working on a doughnut recipe, and Croix’s famous cube croissants are still to be introduced. One thing is for certain, the flavours will continue to be wonderfully weird.
“We are not a sophisticated French patisserie – we just do what we think is fun,” says Rizka. “We want to have fun in this place and we like to share that with the community.”
Croix Croissant is now open to the public – head to the Stumble Guide for operating hours and other important details.
