What’s more gratifying than a croissant that just came out of the oven? Being able to enjoy one without stepping out of your home, obviously. Pillsbury, widely recognized for its doughy products sold in tubes and its ready-to-bake cookies, lets anyone with minimal baking skills savor hot, fresh treats at home. But what’s the least appealing part of those tube-contained croissants, cinnamon rolls, and cookie dough? When you inevitably flatten the dough or misjudge how much they rise, ending up with a bizarre Cronenberg-like blob on your sheet. Those days are behind us now.
In August, Pillsbury introduced Grands! Croissants in both a butter and a chocolate variation, and I had a chance to try them. These little pastries arrive as fully formed croissants that go from the freezer directly into the oven—no dealing with sticky dough. Essentially, they’re designed to be foolproof. But how do they fare when set beside a true bakery-made croissant?
Butter
On the packaging, Pillsbury calls the Grands! Croissants “large pastries,” though I’d say the brand’s idea of “large” is a touch generous. If you’ve ever seen a croissant from a French bakery, you know they’re about the size of a person’s head. The Grands! Croissants are significantly smaller, though I won’t belabor this point.
The butter version presents an exterior that’s extraordinarily flaky. Inside, the pastry leans a touch chewy, which may delight some and turn off others. A pronounced butter flavor gives these croissants a tasty solo profile, though there’s room for improvement. The butter note is bold and carries some umami, pushing it toward a savory edge. It would be nice to see them paired with pesto and fresh vegetables, or even filled with meat and cheese. Jam isn’t completely off the table either.
Chocolate
The chocolate-filled croissant is a delightful surprise—often underrated, and Pillsbury’s Grands! version showcases this bakery staple, though it’s a bit modest in size. Like the butter version, the exterior remains flaky (not excessively so). Mine browned a touch more than expected, which imparted a pleasantly toasted, slightly smoky edge to the chocolate that I found quite appealing. And similar to the butter croissant, the dough was pleasantly chewy; for a dessert variant, that chewiness works surprisingly well.
The chocolate was swirled so that every bite carried cocoa, and the flavor was excellent: not overly dark or heavy, but rich enough to provide a robust cocoa presence that harmonizes with the croissant’s natural butteriness. It wasn’t overly sweet either—a quality I value in a good chocolate croissant. Too often they skew more toward “croissant” than “chocolate,” but this Pillsbury version leaned nicely toward chocolate without sacrificing the pastry’s character.
