Finale Nationale 2025 : Qui remportera le titre du Meilleur Croissant au Beurre d'Isigny ?

To start the day well the finalists receive beautiful outfits then discover the bakery and the different equipment Then a quick trip to the locker room and everyone is ready to take on the 2025 grand finale Come on come see here we're having the briefing You have in your drummers the snare and then the sheet which can potentially allow you to flavor pasta if you need to So today you have one hour to make your dough prepare it Prepare your butter if you want finish your fillings normally everything is ready If you have other things to do you can do them during that hour okay Come on everyone to your station let's go Are you ready 5 4 3 2 1 Gentlemen candidates let's go Good luck to you For an hour Today we will follow the final of the 20th edition of the competition for the best French croissants from Isigny Butter They are there behind there are 22 candidates 5 women 17 boys who are all apprentices baking students And they will make beautiful croissants and reimagined pastries it's going to be exceptional A special addition for this edition the godfathers are simply the world champions of baking We will be able to interview the best artisans of France World champions it's going to be an exceptional video dedication to the association of baking teachers who generously invited me to come and discover this finale Before starting the competition of course I found the best the biggest Yann Tabourel president of the association of bakers Yann thank you very much for the invitation Thank you Fabrice for being here for this competition Here you are at home we are in your place Where exactly are we We are at the Rabelais high school in Yves a suburb very close to Caen in the Calvados Yes a beautiful region Yes you saw we have the sun today Is that what I need to film that's it So Yann if I'm young how do I participate in the best croissants competition from Isigny Butter The only criterion to meet is to be under 20 years old and being in a bakery-pastry training program at a professional high school or in a CFA as an apprentice Okay do I need to be part of the teachers' association Yes you need to have your trainer who is part of the association Therefore the AINB the National Association of Bakery Teachers The teacher makes his selection in his center Then there is a regional selection that will allow us to announce the top two who will be finalists today What will the candidates have to do in the final Today they are asked to make 12 croissants and then 12 creative pastries as well You already understood a high school that can accommodate 22 applicants at once Each candidate will have one therefore effective material Exactly there are two of them per station they have been provided with all the equipment each has their own drummer Then tomorrow they will each have their own oven set to 200 degrees to bake both their creative pastries and their croissants at the same time If I have technical questions don't hesitate just answer me That's fine no problem Thank you very much See you later There we are in the second polling station There are 11 candidates on the right 11 candidates on the left who come from all over Among the candidates from Réunion from Marseille from everywhere And there they are who will represent their region That's good So the candidates will start by kneading Here a good kneading the network etc Then they will spread their butter usually in squares They have been training for the competition for several months So they know exactly the size of their butter and the weight of the sticks We'll look at it together often with parchment paper or baking paper Very precise about 4-5 millimeters After the candidates have kneaded the dough I take care of checking the final weight of the dough so as not to control the weight of the filled pastries They will have 600 grams of dough She is buttered with a weight of butter they have chosen And for us that would give us a pasty weighing between 50 and 60 grams approximately I'm taking the opportunity I found one of the godfathers Fabien Nollet who is simply the world champion of baking Honestly already congratulations Thank you very much It's magnificent they brought the cup home And Fabien you were an expert in pastries Yes it was me who took care of all the pastries during the competition Enormous You're going to tell us what is the secret to a good croissant First of all it has to be made with love Made with love that's right And not too packed Well in the competition it's still a bit of a particular context Because all the turning is done by hand You need somewhat specific pastas for hand turning Often a little more hydrated which have a little less strength Good management of fermentations No fermentation no flavor it's quite simple Good management of leftovers good management of cooking In addition here it is favored with a floor oven So you'll have a bit more caramelization This will develop a bit more of that nutty butter flavor you can have in a croissant We already have a nice selection of great croissants After that it's up to each person there are preferences Do you have a small technique for twisting Double twist single twist two single twists three double twists Very classic double twist single twist I always say it's simple and effective I think the double turn single turn is the perfect balance between the crispiness and the creaminess of a product Two simple layers it's very nice But it tends to be quite soft even after baking And two double turns you get more volume it starts to become complicated to work with You have very crisp very flaky croissants After that it's up to each person it's always the same But the double twist I think it's a must-have that works very well Thank you very much for these tips We'll go see if they're listening to your little advice I hope so I think it's you It's a bit late to be listening now Thank you You're welcome Did you like the legs you made Did you check the networks all that Yes Does it work It works Do you have any questions for tomorrow The idea is that the jury will be a bit frustrated tomorrow because there's some great work That would be great In a world champion's life there is always a camera What does it feel like to be the godfather of such a competition It's magnificent it's magnificent Welcome you four times from France Come on I said "bon appétit" to everyone What happens at the end of the first day The aperitif is already over Now it's the meal A beautiful buffet prepared by the students of Rabelais High School I think we're going to enjoy ourselves And that's it for the shoot Tomorrow Everyone to your stations I'm starting the challenge in 6 minutes now 3 2 1 Go it's off Good luck to you Make us dream How are you this morning Very well very well The candidates have just started the competition So we are on the second day of the growing competition So they have 2 hours to make their pastries That is to say their 12 croissants and their 12 creative pastries Okay so there it's a tourage Yeah trimming detailing Then they can put it into growth So we give them two hours after that Then two hours later they will have one hour to bake all their products and then finish their creative pastries Come on let's go check it out So the pasta has been in the fridge or freezer all night They chose it They managed to get them out this morning And there we're going to do some turns that are a bit simpler Usually they do a double pass a single pass We'll check if it's clean how it's done That's what we like As time is limited candidates usually perform the double pass followed by the single pass The small technique for passing It is to use rulers to have a hull that is perfectly straight Generally there is a ruler that is about 7 mm Then one that is 2 or 3 mm And like that we really roll like a rolling mill Very quickly to prevent the butter from warming up simply and to have a nice emulsification The dough and the butter are about the same thickness and above all the same consistency Everything is carefully calculated Then we will gain length For dough portions of 600 grams Generally it will drop down to about 5 mm Here it is The fact that the butter was perfectly shaped into a rectangle On a a perfectly straight dough perfectly rectangular A little water is added to ensure the dough stays firmly in place Here it does not slip We'll take a double run No fall Perfect Then we do the simple turn If the pasta is well cold here they spent the night in the fridge There's no problem It's under control So the goal is that in two hours everything is redone So we still have to send it We add a little water So when it comes to the dough balls we really have 600-gram dough balls These are small dough balls So it's best to avoid falling as much as possible So what Florian is doing right now he's going to do one croissant at a time He will reapply the fall inside and then place it again After that he will finish everything A very nice thing in competitions It's always about seeing the small techniques OK here there are 22 young people The 22 rotations will be different The 22 details And see the little tricks at the level of the plates that are placed in the freezer the strips There is one that uses knives Other competitors That's what's really interesting about the competitions That they are accompanied by Often experienced teachers the best workers in France The transmission at the heart of the competition This is the teachers' association So this is the small techniques The plates that are placed in the cold You have small plates like this In food-grade plastic And like that you can restack your croissants And you put them back on a fresh tray Like that the butter doesn't melt Usually they all get rolled Then they all get broken It gives them a little time to relax Not negligible At the end of the two hours of detailing rolling how did it go Honestly perfect Everything is perfect The layering was good There they switched to thumbs At 25 degrees because I have three hours of thumb At 28 it would have been a bit complicated We'll see after three hours of thumb Just like during training Just like in training yes Perfect That's good that Here are the young ones who are talented But you'really way too tall I can just stay there if you want There perfect And as every year During the thumb moment we have a small demonstration by the godfathers World baking champions who will do a little demonstration artistic pieces bread and pastries You see we will be able to ask questions Here it is the end of the demo with the world champions Tasting Involvement by the young And then we move on to the filled house Mr Fortier the recipe for gilding What gilding do you do when you are going to take a competition There is so much It depends whether it's already baked in the convection oven or in the floor oven It depends on the color you want There are plenty of golds now I put a little syrup in it so it shines more I'm not really in favor of that But after that often I make milk egg a little yolk You don't want to say your recipe I don't have one No often I do a third a third There they are appreciated anyway After that it depends on the color you want It was tough wasn't it I'm lucky to have a better French worker with me Valentin Were you an apprentice here Then in the old high school Oh in the old one Are you a student You're a student of the big boss Here it is this is it Well here it is Magnificent Valentin well done it's rising Are you more of a fan of a vented range or a floor-standing range Well I like both But it depends on why I really like the convection oven for product development and for developing different sheets and layers of puff pastry So especially for filled pastries I really like to use the convection oven at a very low temperature in order to keep the colors If I come to color the pasta red blue green yellow as we like But on the other hand for the croissant it's true that the cold baking process gives a caramelization that isn't necessarily achieved in a convection oven In terms of taste it really makes a big difference Okay and what time and temperature do you bake the croissants on a floor oven generally Bake on the bottom rack for about 18 minutes at 200 degrees OK 18 minutes 200 degrees Honestly that's a little technique Do you give us your gilding recipe or not There 's no secret I'm on and off So egg we'll say 100 grams 50 grams of cream 50 grams of yolk If I need a slightly brighter side I 'll add 10% pepper syrup OK thank you Okay let's go it's starting the students are arriving the cooking etc Good luck Have a good continuation After the final cooking and all the finishing touches we will go to the tasting room The candidates presented all their products Their croissants and reinterpreted pastries Magnificent And we will welcome the tasting jury There's no shortage of a very large tasting jury Maxime Frédéric etc A lot of girls as usual Another beautiful edition Let's go see the products Can you tell me what you're doing Yannouk I'm anonymizing data for the finished products committee To ensure it is truly fair in terms of evaluation and that there is no exchange between the production jury and the product jury I just gave you a brochure for annotation Yannouk they are allocated for the annotation of croissants I'm the one taking the penalties I've cut off the products for you All that's left for you to do is to note and taste them At the level of annotation you have four notes to record Shape regularity color flakiness texture of the mixture and flavor You calculate the total on 80 I enter the total on 80 into the Excel spreadsheet Do you have any questions Go on good luck to you I'm really happy because I'm reuniting with my buddy Maximilien French champion European champion A real standout in our profession Max you were a tasting juror What do you expect from a good croissant In the tasting part first of all on made the visual on regularity Already having a nice regularity in its detailing All the croissants look the same so the most regular ones Then we cut them So in a good croissant you'll have nice air pockets At first glance Afterwards of course we felt it So to smell it to really smell a nice cooking the buttery side stands out And then of course the finish which will be the tasting So here what will affect the texture The crumbly side a good kneading And then feel just right the specified butter that was highlighted which was emphasized Depending on the proportion that was put in the sugar content that was put in And a nice cooking process that brings out a bit of the flavor You've made a choice do you have a little favorite or not There are a few that stand out Well let's go check it out Thank you very much Max I'll let you go back to work The next step is the award ceremony We're finally going to the beautiful room We're going to change into evening attire Then we'll see who won the contest The happiest Mr Loma Come on to the awards Let's see who will have the title this year And for the prize-giving we meet in an unlikely place in a greenhouse The weather is wonderful We are going to have the small prize-giving In bohemian chic mode Let's go For the Creative Viennese Pastries category Remy Rodrigue from the CFA of Dignes les Bains ranks third Second place in the Creative Pastries category I call Théo Collignon from the CFA Louis Pignot in Bar-le-Duc The winner of the 2025 Creative Pastry Competition We can now lift the lid and discover that Maxime Mutzig from the CFA ADC of Besançon wins the first prize in creative pastries Come on let's give them a big round of applause all three of them For the category of croissant third place He comes from not very far away He is called Florian Dupont and he just left a small rifle We will now move on to the second place in this increasing competition I will call Florian Hacquart from the Chamber of Crafts and Artisanry of Côte d'Or So I'm calling for the first prize of the increasing competition Alexandre Druard from the chamber of crafts and artisan of Côte d'Inore Bravo to him He did an excellent job You can also see the croissant that Gerald is holding It is magnificent Great job guys Creative pastries great job It's in the bag To finish the day the little sun sets I am with Alexandre who won Alexandre where is your CFA from Côte d'Inore Honestly congratulations What was the secret to a good croissant Your recipe complicated or not The recipe Secret How long did you train for the competition A long time a very long time All during the rest days you know I was training Are you an apprentice Yes I am an apprentice I am in the mention In the mention Congratulations The croissant was magnificent Good luck What are you going to do next year A vocational certificate A coding school Well done to you well done to your teachers Good luck See you soon Thank you An exceptional day An exceptional competition Thank you to the teachers' association for inviting me I hope you loved the video See you next year I'll definitely be there for sure