Matcha Red Bean Croissant Sandwich

A brief post today on a truly dessert-type matcha croissant - a matcha red bean croissant sandwich in fact. So that's a real fusion between Japanese and French, mainly because of the red bean paste, unlike the other plain matcha croissant that I featured. Although, the red bean paste had a more local feel to it, compared to the really sweet Japanese azuki paste, so perhaps it's Japanese-Chinese-French. Hm. Anyway, this was from 3 Petits Croissants which is within the School of the Arts (SOTA) building in Singapore.

Firstly, I thought the red bean paste went very well with the pastry. I've noticed that red bean paste goes well with all kinds of pastries and carbohydrate-rich "wrappings", like Chinese steamed buns (pao or pau), the Chinese red bean pancake dessert (which I think is Shanghainese), and of course the Japanese red bean pancake snacks, although their red bean pastes tend to be sweeter, with less of the earthy red bean flavour. And I think it's the earthy red bean flavour that really goes well with the pastries made from wheat.

The croissant was also good - relatively crispy and buttery.

However, like with the other matcha croissant that I mentioned, I pretty much couldn't make out the matcha flavour. (The cafe manager/owner was very nice though and asked for feedback, so I did let him know.) I wonder if it's a general problem that pastry chefs have with incorporating matcha into croissant dough. I know matcha is easily incorporated into cakes though.

Still, worth a try! And reasonable too - just S$3.50 for a relatively huge croissant, which is a meal for a small eater like me.

Found this puff interesting? Check out more unusual pastries here!