What are 'crookies' and where can you find them on the Costa del Sol?

Crookies, a mixture of croissants and cookie dough which are already a thing in France, have now arrived in Malaga thanks to Sueño Pastelería Francesa. After seeing how successful they were among the French, Leila González and Theo Sfez decided to give them a try in their bakery in C/ Calle José Iturbi, Nueva Málaga and they're now making around 150 crookies a week.

"A French pastry chef came up with the idea of putting cookie dough into croissants almost without thinking and immediately they were a hit. Maison Kayser first introduced them in Madrid and they are already spreading to many places. We saw that they weren't being made here and we wanted to give them a try, so why not?" says Sfez, who is French.

He has been a pastry chef for most of his almost 30 years and can make croissants practically with his eyes closed. He starts preparing these new 'crookies' on Tuesdays to have them ready on Thursdays.

So, between Thursdays and Saturdays, you can find this new type of croissant, which is filled with cookie dough and topped with cookies and chocolate, at Sueño. Everything is handmade.

This enterprising couple have enjoyed huge success since they opened the patisserie in Calle José Iturbi almost two years ago. So much so that one of their immediate plans is to expand the business. Leila says that they already have new premises in the same area to be able to grow.

"This one is too small to meet the demand. Many restaurants and hotels have been interested in our products, but the space we have now would not be enough for so much production and besides, Theo is working alone, so this way we will be able to increase our staff and organise ourselves better", says Leila, who was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, but says she's Spanish at heart.

With a grandfather from Huelva and a grandmother from Extremadura, sooner or later she knew she would end up in the south of Spain. "We wanted to come to Andalucía and, because of the climate, the people, the place... we liked the idea of Malaga, we love life here, it's so cosmopolitan."

The couple met in Paris. Then life took them to Canada, where the pandemic took them by surprise. "It was much more difficult to set up our own business there, so we decided to come here and we are delighted."

Leila says she used to come to the Costal del Sol with her grandparents when she was a child. Little could she have imagined then that she would end up settling here with her husband and daughter thanks to a project that has not stopped growing. In fact, it took them just four months to open after moving to Malaga. Today their pistachio éclair, pecan nut tart and apple tart are already famous in Nueva Málaga.