Categories Pastry Chef Articles
Innovation in creative viennoiserie: Six laminated dough ideas by Adrián Ruiz
Adrián Ruiz is one of the most promising figures in creative pastry for over three years. The professor at the Barcelona Pastry Guild School (EPGB) not only develops surprising designs using laminated dough as a common thread, but also stands out for transmitting his knowledge to students in a highly pedagogical way.
He comes up with brilliant ideas like this original line of loaf cakes made with croissant dough, which he discusses in so good.. magazine 34. To further appreciate his work in this area, we also revisit some of the creations he has presented in our Spanish-language pastry magazine, DPAS.
Loaf Cakes with Croissant Dough
The idea came from a collection Adrián Ruiz created for Christmas using the same croissant dough but forming three crowns, one for each of the Three Wise Men.
“In this case, I wanted to reproduce a very traditional bakery shape, like a loaf cake, working with both classic and cocoa croissant dough, separately and together. For the flavors, I had the help of Saray Ruiz, the school’s director.”
The premise is to achieve flavors that objectively make the product taste good. Coconut for the basic loaf cake, popcorn and peanut for the bi-color one, and chocolatey bean-to-bar for the cocoa dough.
Discover the recipe in so good #34
Tri-Crowned
This is the collection of rolled doughs in the shape of a crown around the Christmas season, launched in 2024 and focused on the Three Wise Men who inspired the Loaf cakes.
“I wanted to give the Three Kings’ Cake a new format, while respecting the marzipan filling, varying the flavors, and evolving the design thanks to a vertically laminated croissant dough. The goal is for each king/crown to have its own personality, both in presentation and color scheme, as well as in the marzipan flavor combinations: almond and coconut for King Melchior, peanut for King Gaspar, and cocoa and hazelnut for King Balthazar.”
Discover the recipe in DPAS 509
Madeleine
Adrián Ruiz had unsuccessfully attempted this Madeleine design in the past with other types of molds. However, with these metal molds, easy to find online, which close with clips, everything has been much easier.
“Regarding the filling, Saray Ruiz, the director of EPGB, helped me think of a cream that would better evoke the experience of eating a real madeleine. I think that makes the concept much more complete.”
Discover the recipe in DPAS 516
Lemon
Best described as an evolution of the croissant shaped like a ball, which has been around for a few years now and which we were already familiar with using choux pastry.
“With the lemon, we’ve simply achieved a similar result using a slightly more oval mold. To present it, I propose a filling that I think fits perfectly and enhances the experience, with a flavor I developed in collaboration with Saray Ruiz.”
Discover the recipe in DPAS 516
Cannoli-style rolled croissant with vanilla ice cream
This recipe is the result of trial and error, starting with using dough scraps to create the rolled and caramelized pastry, with the express intention of giving it an extra crispy texture. “The vanilla ice cream filling came about almost spontaneously when we realized it was the perfect complement to this format.”
Discover the recipe in DPAS 516
Pandoro and Bicolor Fir Tree
In 2023, with the help of Judith Zárate, the pastry specialist at the Museu de la Xocolata (Chocolate Museum), Adrián developed a complete buffet, from which we highlight two very original creations.
On the one hand, a pandoro with croissant dough. For this, they take advantage of the iconic mold for this fermented Italian Christmas pastry specialty and use it to ferment and to laminate pastry a croissant dough. The result is visually striking due to the spectacular marbling typical of puff pastry, and also delicious on the palate, thanks to the enveloping lightness and aromatic character typical of the croissant, enhanced by a hazelnut and toffee filling.
On the other hand, there’s an original Christmas tree with an apple compote and mascarpone filling, which cleverly incorporates a two-tone croissant.
