When it comes to wood-fired ovens, many think of a charred pizza or slow-roasted piece of meat. But at Sub Rosa Bakery, sibling owners Evin and Evrim Dogu use their double-decker masonry oven to bake croissants.
At the Virginia bakery, which also mills its own flour, precision matters — from the dough that goes into croissants and bread to the in-house produced ricotta that goes into its pear and caramel croissant, creatively referred to as a “pear-a-mel” croissant.
The Dogus begin by taking their croissant dough, shaping it into diamonds, and placing a scoop of ricotta cheese — featuring honey, salt, and orange zest — into the center. The pear is then prepared by skinning, halving, and scooping out the core before it’s placed in a pan over a dry caramel. While it’s on the pan, the pear juice starts seeping down into the caramel, reducing it. The pears then get baked in the wood-fired oven for nearly half and hour. “You see how the bottom half is fully caramelized, and the top half isn’t,” says Evin. “We just want it to be cooked like that all the way through. We’re going to call this pear-a-mel.”
The caramel with the pear juice will continue cooking to become the glaze. Half of a pear is placed atop each croissant before it goes into the oven to get baked, and for the final touch, each pastry is glazed with caramel and pear sauce.
Watch the full video to see how Sub Rosa Bakery makes its dough, bread, and croissants.