Layers upon layers of flaky pastry can be seen inside a freshly cooked croffle, a croissant-waffle hybrid, at East Bay Bakery in Danville.

The latest trendy hybrid pastry is here: the croffle.

This flaky, buttery, chewy pastry — a cross between a croissant and a waffle — is suddenly available at more than a dozen spots all over the Bay Area. Croffles are finding a home at popular boba shops, Asian-inflected bakeries and even old-school brunch restaurants, like 33-year-old American breakfast favorite Home Plate in San Francisco.

Part of what’s fueling their popularity is their versatility: You might see them covered with Nutella or nestled next to fried chicken. But even served plain, their appeal is obvious.

“A croissant itself is already good,” said Serena Oh, who owns Taiwanese shaved ice spot Powder in San Francisco’s Lower Haight. “It has a lot of butter, and if you use a waffle maker to turn it into a croffle, it’s warm and even better.”

Gaby Lubaba, the founder and head baker of East Bay bakery, prepares an order of croffles for a customer. Croffles are suddenly sold all over the Bay Area.

It’s the latest in a line of croissant dough-based novelty foods, which debuted with the Cronut, the croissant-doughnut trademarked by New York pastry chef Dominique Ansel. The frenzy around the Cronut famously drew massive crowds to Ansel’s bakery in 2013 and launched copycats all over the world. San Francisco’s Vive La Tarte developed a hit with its tacro, a croissant taco, and many Bay Area bakeries continue to serve cruffins, muffin-shaped croissants, usually filled with pastry cream.

It’s unclear who invented the croffle. Some believe that Irish pastry chef Louise Lennox first crafted this pastry in 2017, according to Eater New York. Others say this trend emerged from South Korea.

That’s at least how some local bakers first heard about it, such as Oh, who seems to be the first in the Bay Area to have sold a croffle. In fall 2020, Powder’s shaved ice machine broke down. Looking for advice on what to serve next, Oh called a friend in South Korea, who raved about croffles.

They didn’t catch on at first.

“I sold maybe two or three a week,” she said. “Now I sell 20 to 30 a day.”

Gaby Lubaba, the founder and head baker of East Bay Bakery, trims the edges of a sheet of laminated dough used for croissants, and in this case, her croffles.

Marissa Ramirez, owner of Cafe Siete, a sweets shop in Burlingame that opened in June, similarly drew inspiration from South Korea. She traveled there in 2019 and stumbled into a pastry house with one item everyone seemed to be talking about: the croffle.

“While I was in Korea, I never heard of a croffle. And I tried it and was like, holy s—, this is good,” she said.

Making a croffle is easy if you start with frozen, premade and preportioned croissant dough. You coat it in sugar — many Bay Area shops choose brown sugar for a richer flavor — then cook it in a waffle iron. Most cafes make croffles to order, which means they’re still warm when customers get them.

But some bakeries make their own croissant dough, a difficult and labor-intensive process that involves folding thin layers of butter and dough over the course of several hours. For Ramirez, the extra chewiness and flakiness are worth the effort.

But it’s not just the pastry that draws fans.

Gaby Lubaba, the founder and head baker at East Bay Bakery, places flattened and sugar-coated croissant dough into a waffle iron as she makes a batch of croffles at her bakery in Danville.

“Croffles can come with a variety of toppings, whether it’s Nutella, cream cheese or blueberries. It’s so versatile,” said Gaby Lubaba, who opened artisanal Danville bakery East Bay Bakery earlier this year. Croffles can handle all of the extras because they’re flatter than regular croissants.

East Bay Bakery features Southeast Asian flavors such as pandan cream, which has a grassy coconut flavor that is inspired by Lubaba’s native Indonesia. At San Francisco’s NaYa Dessert Cafe, croffles might be topped with a salted egg custard or a combination of green tea ice cream, red bean paste and whipped cream. Powder, meanwhile, boasts 19 toppings, including toasted marshmallows, mochi and rainbow sprinkles.

They don’t necessarily have to be sweet. Cafe Etoile, which opened in May in Berkeley, serves multiple savory versions, topping croffles with Southern-style fried chicken or a classic breakfast combination of bacon, cheese and a runny egg. In the case of San Francisco cafe Joy’s Place, customers can try a croffle showered with shredded cheese or topped with guacamole.

Croffles, croissant-waffles, are gaining popularity at bakeries and restaurants across the Bay Area.

Croffles aren’t cheap. While a standard butter croissant might cost $3 at a cafe, a croffle usually starts at $5 and can rise to $10 with toppings.

Despite the cost, they’re finding an audience all over the Bay Area, and bakers say there’s much more to come.

“I don’t think it’s going to come and go as a trend,” Ramirez said. “I think they’ll be here to stay.”

Elgin Nelson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elgin.nelson@sfchronicle.com

Elgin Nelson is the newsroom's Food & Wine intern. Nelson is from Phoenix, Ariz., and is in his second year at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. His studies include longform narratives and photojournalism surrounding the arts.

Before graduate school, Nelson interned at VinePair, a digital publication that covers the alcohol beverage industry. He also interned at Firelight Films, where he worked as a research and production intern.