Whip up two-tone croissants and chocolate croissants at a Viennoiserie workshop in Paris

And what if the secret to perfect pastry were hiding at Lili & Clo? Near Sentier, shaping croissants and two-tone pain au chocolat becomes accessible to everyone, in a 3-hour workshop where you discover the precise moves that bring these crispy delights to life. A warm and indulgent immersion!

Bake your own bread no longer satisfies you—you want to learn how to make your croissants and chocolate croissants too? You’re absolutely right! Head to the Lili & Clo workshop in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement for three hours devoted entirely to your favourite viennoiseries, presented in a bicolour version for an extra zing. We’ll benefit from Sarah’s expertise to master the usual bakery moves, which make it all look so easy in everyday life!

A mission of passing on know-how and sharing led by creators Chloé, trained at Ferrandi, and Lili, who want to prove that, in the end, everybody can bake at home with the right know‑how! After meeting at business school, they share their passion for gastronomy and aim to reconnect with people, opening this indulgent space with courses accessible to all.

A warm, hands-on experience in the craft that we got to try one morning, our stomachs growling at the inviting aroma of croissants baking in the oven. Note that there are two workshops, one at 60 Rue de Cléry and the other at 80—don’t mix up the addresses! After donning our aprons and washing our hands, we watch our instructor demonstrate the steps, explaining the process as she goes.

If the recipe comes together fairly quickly, it’s all the work of the risen puff pastry that takes time! That’s why you’ll be using one already made by a previous group to save time, otherwise the workshop would last even longer. No panic—you’ll make your own as well, for the next group! During this workshop, everything is designed to avoid dead moments, the waiting while our creations bake, but it may feel a bit long, so don’t rush yourself!

We kick things off by making our pastries. We dust the work surface with flour, before roll out our dough to form a rectangle about one centimeter thick. We do the same for the colored dough, a pinkish-red shade, much thinner since it contains no butter in the middle! After brushing the dough with water, we press the color onto it before trimming the excess.

We divide the dough into two equal portions, then cut one portion diagonally to form two triangles for our croissants. Make a small slit at the bottom of the dough, then gently stretch it with your fingers to give it a distinctly Parisian shape, the one of the Eiffel Tower! Then simply roll the whole thing up carefully to shape our croissant, which may look small at first, but will double in size later.

For pain au chocolat, it’s even simpler: we slip a bar of chocolate onto the bottom of the dough, before folding once and adding another one offset, for even more indulgence. It’s then cut in two to make two pastries, so by the end of the workshop you’ll be left with four viennoiseries to savor! Next comes the rising; we’ll need warmth to get the yeast going.

In one of the workshop’s ovens, Sarah creates a proofing chamber, with a bowl of boiling water placed beneath our pastry rack, something anyone can replicate at home. If we stopped there, the class would last an hour and a half, but while waiting for everything to rise and then bake, instead of idling, we make the dough for the next group! We follow the recipe and quantities closely before mixing it all together.

Next, we work the dough plus the laminating butter straight from the fridge, which you have to thump vigorously before you can roll it out and fold it into the dough—an oddly satisfying, tension-relieving step! While the whole mass rests in the fridge for a final round of shaping, we prepare the glaze syrup that will give our pastries their golden shine when they emerge from the oven, using only sugar and water, not egg.

During the bake, a delicious aroma kept wafting through the air, and as soon as it came out of the oven we brushed the croissants and pain au chocolat, which gave them a shiny appearance and banished a dull finish. The pinkish hue then shines through perfectly, lending the pastry a caramelized touch that's as visually striking as it is delicious on the palate.

We recommend slicing one in half to taste it as soon as it comes out of the oven, because nothing beats that moment when the croissant is still warm and fluffy, though its future crispness is delightful as well, even the next day, we can attest to that!

Expect to pay €99 for this hands-on group class that can host up to 12 people, typically on Sundays. No need to panic if you’ve never cooked before — it’s beginner-friendly. One note: you won’t sit down during the workshop; you’ll be on your feet for the full three hours, so it may not be suitable if you can’t stand for that long.

The course is open to anyone from age 15 and up, since it requires careful listening and precise moves, but Lili & Clo also offers a wide range of special workshops for parents and kids, more suited to them. There’s something for everyone among adults as well, from the fraisier to babka, and even options for vegans! Some classes are also available in English if you’d like to privatize the workshop, not to mention the team-building sessions.

Ready to bake croissants at home again?

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please let us know.