RTL Readers’ Choice: Au Pain de Mary, Oberweis, and Hoffmann named best croissants in Luxembourg

Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. For many people, a good croissant is the perfect start to the day. But where in the country is this classic of the viennoiserie made to perfection? For the latest edition of the RTL Readers’ Choice, we asked you to name your favourite spot in Luxembourg for a truly great croissant.

Even though the pastry is today undoubtedly a symbol of the French way of life, its origins actually lie in Austria. The forerunner of the croissant is the Viennese “Kipferl”, most likely invented in the 17th century. It was not until the 19th century that an Austrian officer opened a Viennese bakery in Paris and brought the Kipferl with him. French bakers then reworked the recipe, introduced the typical puff pastry so beloved in France, and turned it into the croissant we know and love today.

Anyone who has ever tried to make a croissant at home knows just how demanding a craft it is. The secret lies in the so-called “turning” of the dough. The dough is rolled out again and again, spread with quality butter and folded over. That creates dozens of wafer-thin layers of dough and butter. As it bakes, the water evaporates from the butter, pushing the layers apart and creating the trademark airy crumb. The result is a croissant that is crisp on the outside but tender, buttery, and fluffy within.

The votes are in and here are your Top 10

Every establishment that made it into the top ten receives a sticker to show that it is among the best in Luxembourg. Around 1,000 people took part in the survey.

Readers’ Choice Top 10: Best Croissant in Luxembourg1st place: Au Pain de Mary

Adress: 40 Rue de Gasperich, 1617 Gasperich Luxembourg
Contact: 28777057
Online: Official site

Around 2,000 votes were cast in the vote for the country’s best croissant. This time round, the winner was the small bakery “Au Pain de Mary” in Gasperich, which deliberately relies on little to no advertising and instead on uncompromising quality and true craftsmanship. In an interview, Antoine Schanne, head of bakery and viennoiserie, revealed the secret behind the shop’s success.

The baker has been in the trade for ten years and clearly does the job with real passion, which quickly becomes obvious as soon as you get into a conversation with him.

Asked what the secret to a perfect croissant is, Schanne did not hesitate. Good ingredients, plenty of time, and a long fermentation, he said. The bakery works exclusively with “Farine Label Rouge” and “Beurre AOP”, he explained, and relies on its own sourdough, with no chemical additives whatsoever.

Nothing goes to waste in the bakery either, and mass production is off the table. A job that takes two days, Schanne said, cannot be squeezed into three hours, otherwise the quality the team is aiming for is simply out of reach.

At a time when many bakeries are focused on expanding their number of outlets, the team in Gasperich stays true to its principles. Every croissant is still weighed individually, at around 150 grams, cut and rolled by hand, something Schanne happily demonstrated during our visit.

Even the egg wash is still applied manually with a brush, and the pastries are still baked the traditional way, on baking trays.

The bakery’s success has come as something of a surprise to Antoine Schanne and his team. They do no advertising, he said. There is an Instagram account for a few photos, but the team does not chase corporate clients or bulk orders, he said, adding that he often runs into people in the city who have never heard of the bakery. The sheer number of individual votes cast, he noted, is down entirely to their loyal customers.

More customers, more branches, more profit? Not on the table for Schanne. Demand is enormous, and many orders have to be turned away simply for lack of capacity, according to him. Opening two, three, or even four shops, he said, inevitably drags the quality down, which is not something the team is interested in.

The team itself has grown over the years, from nine people eleven years ago to around 21 today, all supplying the bakery with quality products every day with plenty of passion and dedication.

Customers clearly appreciate the effort. The bakery in Gasperich topped the ranking by a relatively comfortable margin. To sample the best croissant in the country, however, you need to get up early. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

On weekends, the entire batch can be sold out by 10am, which speaks volumes for “Au Pain de Mary”. Congratulations to the team on taking the top spot!

2nd place: Oberweis

Adress: 1 Rue Guillaume J. Kroll, 1882 Cessange Luxembourg
Contact: 4031401
Online: Official site

In an interview for Readers’ Choice, pastry chef and Oberweis co-director Jeff Oberweis offered a look at the art and science that go into making a truly great croissant.

For Oberweis, a croissant has to be, above all, a true indulgence. His own recipe, he said, is a touch sweeter than what is usually taught in bakery schools, accompanied by a pronounced buttery flavour. Texture plays a central role, since the croissant should be intensely crisp on the outside while staying beautifully tender, or “fluffy”, on the inside.

Getting to that quality comes down to the choice of raw ingredients and the technique used. Since a croissant is built from a classic puff pastry, in which butter is folded into a yeast dough and rolled out, the elasticity of the butter and the high gluten content of the flour both matter greatly. After long testing phases, Oberweis found that French flour and one very specific butter delivered the best results.

To perfect the recipe, a little 0-percent-fat powdered milk is added to the mix of milk, water, yeast, sugar, and salt, which allows for the exchange of lactose.

Alongside the ingredients, the climate in the workshop and the ambient temperature are the biggest challenges, since a warm and humid environment causes the yeast to rise too quickly. The dough and the butter have to be perfectly aligned, otherwise the butter crumbles or mixes with the dough, and the croissant loses its distinctive layered structure, ending up “like a brioche”.

The moment of baking and the computer-controlled equipment also have to be perfectly timed, so that the croissant regains its volume in the oven. In the end, the recipe accounts for only part of the success.

Around 50% of the final product, Oberweis said, depends on craftsmanship and the “human touch”. Since nature and the climate are constantly changing, the process cannot be automated, and requires a perfect repetition of the same gesture at high speed on the part of the staff, in order to deliver the same quality day in, day out.

RTL readers appear to have noticed the effort. Oberweis lands a very respectable second place in the ranking.

3rd place: Pâtisserie Hoffmann

Adress: 30 Bd de Kockelscheuer, 1821 Gasperich Luxembourg
Contact: 264777
Online: Official site

For baker and Hoffmann founder Jean-Marie Hoffmann, the secret to a great croissant lies above all in the quality of the ingredients used. He consistently uses Luxembourgish butter because its flavour is familiar to local customers. Alongside the butter, the flour also plays a decisive role. Depending on the product, different types of flour are used, some of them sourced from various countries.

The croissant remains one of Hoffmann’s best-selling items. He puts this down, among other things, to the fact that a croissant contains relatively little sugar compared to many other sweet pastries, and to the fact that people are paying closer attention to what they eat these days. Alongside the croissant, the pretzel is another of the shop’s runaway favourites.

Hoffmann was runner-up in the viennoiserie category at the 1996 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris, but more than 30 years later, his croissant recipe has barely changed. What matters far more to him, he said, is experience and a feel for the craft.

Temperatures in the bakery, the climate, or high humidity can all have a massive bearing on the end result. For a croissant to stay crisp and light, a baker needs not only the right ingredients but also plenty of know-how.

Pâtisserie Hoffmann clearly seems to have that know-how in spades, since RTL’s readers voted it a comfortable third place.

4th place: Etteldorf bakery

Adress: 8 Rte Principale, 7450 Lintgen
Contact: 320356
Online: Official site

5th place: Boulangerie Pâtisserie Pascal

Adress: 80 Av. Victor Hugo, 1750 Limpertsberg Luxembourg
Contact: 27763246

6th: Atelier Croissant

Adress: 1c Rte d’Arlon, 8310 Capellen Mamer
Contact: 621584040
Online: Official site

7th place: Pretemer Haff

Adress: 51 Rue Centrale, 4499 Limpach Reckange-sur-Mess
Contact: 621699585
Online: Official site

8th place: Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Jeitz

Adress: 7 Rte de Luxembourg, 6210 Consdorf
Contact: 790040
Online: Official site

9th place: Pâtisserie Engel

Adress: 32 Av. de la Libération, 3850 Schifflange
Contact: 548043
Online: Official site

10th place: Bof-Pires bakery

Adress: 8 Rue de Belvaux, 4025 Esch-sur-Alzette
Contact: 556016

Find all previous Readers’ Choice articles below:

RTL-Readers’ Choice: Best Sushi
RTL-Readers’ Choice: Best Pizza
RTL-Readers’ Choice: Best Kebab
RTL-Readers’ Choice: Beschte Portuguese restaurant
RTL-Readers’ Choice: Best Kniddelen
RTL-Readers’ Choice: Best vegetarian/vegan food
RTL Readers’ Choice: Best Ice Cream
RTL Readers’ Choice: Best Bouchée à la Reine
RTL Readers’ Choice: Best Burger
RTL Readers’ Choice: Best Fueskichelcher
RTL Readers’ Choice: Best Nems
RTL Reader’s Choice: Best Fries