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Centre-Val de Loire
A pilgrim's biscuit, so they say, that became a schoolchild's teatime snack: dry, hard, crunchy, with whole almonds.
Pastry or bakery speciality from Centre-Val de Loire.
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Legend has it that a wayfarer on his way to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, given shelter by the baker Aubert in Charost, left him by way of thanks the recipe for a fat-free, sustaining biscuit that keeps for a long time: something to nibble on all along the road and stave off fatigue. This dry biscuit with whole almonds is thus said to have become the croquet de Charost.
The biscuiterie that makes it dates its origins to 1848; Berry tourism presents it as the oldest in Berry. Its recipe, the bakery says, has remained virtually unchanged.
The croquet de Charost is widely known in the Centre region: schoolchildren eat it, and it is said that the poilus of 1914 had it in the trenches.
It features in the culinary heritage inventory of the Centre region, undertaken in 2009 and completed in 2012 under the leadership of the Institut européen d'histoire et des cultures de l'alimentation in Tours. This inventory selected 110 products, and the croquet de Charost is listed among the “Pâtisseries”. In Indre, the Tables & Auberges directory also cites it among the department's traditional pastries, alongside the échaudé de la Brenne, the beugnon, the sanciau and the massepain d'Issoudun.
Chârost is a small rural commune in Cher, in the Pays d'Issoudun; its Wikipedia page lists “le croquet de Chârost” among its local specialities.
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The business remained in the same family for a long time before being taken over in 1989 by Jean-Claude Denis, a baker from Charost. It was he who, in 2000, relocated production and the shop from Charost to Neuvy-Pailloux in Indre; Adrian and Iulia Oprea bought the business in 2020.
The croquets are still shaped by hand there, in an 800 m² workshop, and the team numbers eight people. The biscuiterie counts nearly 150 million croquets made since its beginnings. Today it offers around twenty different items, from savoury or sweet biscuits to tuiles, and welcomes visitors by appointment to explain how they are made and let them sample its biscuits.
Appearance
A dry biscuit with whole almonds, rolled by hand.
Taste
Sweet, with whole almonds, which make up 15% of the declared ingredients, and fruit and plant flavourings.
Texture
Hard and crunchy; past this initial resistance, it becomes crumbly and melts in the mouth.
the original recipe, with whole almonds.
flavoured with orange blossom.
made with hazelnuts.
tuiles made using the same recipe as the croquets.
each croquet is shaped by hand, from preparing the dough right through to final packaging.
once rolled, the croquets are glazed.
in the oven at 220 °C for 10 minutes.
an essential step to achieve the characteristic crunchy texture.
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At teatime or for an afternoon snack, the croquet de Charost is especially popular; the biscuiterie also recommends it with fruit compotes, ice creams and sorbets. A Berry blog suggests enjoying it instead after a good meal, with tea, an infusion or coffee, or at teatime alongside something creamy, uniting the hard and the soft, and pairs it with rosehip jam.
The croquet de Charost bears no official quality sign (PDO (AOP), PGI (IGP), Label Rouge…). “Croquets de Charost” is a registered trademark: the Neuvy-Pailloux biscuit bakery asserts that only its savoir-faire guarantees the authenticity of the biscuit, presented in a red packet, and warns against imitations with similar names. It does, however, feature in the culinary heritage inventory of the Centre region, under the “Pâtisseries” category.
No producer is listed for this product yet.