Two days a week, some of the best croissants in Copenhagen come out of a bakery on Islands Brygge. This is Biscotto: two people, baking through the night, selling until it runs out.
This is Word of Mouth, where we find passionate people cooking what they love and show you how to get it. Most of the series is pre-order and pickup. This one you can actually walk into. You just have to know which two mornings.
The place
Biscotto is on Thorshavnsgade in Islands Brygge: a white shopfront, the name over the door, flowers climbing around the sign. Two people run the whole thing. They bake overnight, open on Friday and Saturday morning, and sell until the trays are empty.
Besides the pastries there is specialty coffee, so it works as a proper weekend breakfast stop and not just a box to carry home. The whole idea, in their own words, is that simple things made thoughtfully turn out best. Everything on the counter backs that up.
What we ate
We start with the tiramisu croissant, and it is the one to order first. Mascarpone cream all the way through, cocoa across the top, and a pipette of coffee reduction stuck in the crown. You squeeze it in yourself, as much as you like. Tiramisu, rebuilt as a croissant, and it works.
The pistachio croissant is pure green. Bronte pistachios, grown on the slopes of Etna, crushed thick across the top, with pistachio cream inside. Nutty, rich, and generous with it.
The strawberry spandauer is one of the two specials they run every week. Flaky pastry, smooth vanilla cream in the middle, fresh strawberries on top. The Danish classic, done with fruit that tastes like fruit.
Then the Dubai croissant. Chocolate coated, pistachio cream inside, and plenty of crunch on the outside. This is the one everyone is chasing right now, and here it is actually built on a good croissant.
The chocolate croissant goes all in: chocolate cream, cocoa nibs, and chocolate from Friis Holm, which is about as good as chocolate gets. Deep, dark and not too sweet.
The cinnamon swirl is where the food nerds get their moment. Real Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka, softer and more fragrant than the everyday kind, and the cream inside is vanilla infused with fig leaf. That is not a detail anyone would notice if they left it out. They did it anyway.
Finishing it all off, a cookie: soft and chewy in the middle, loaded with chocolate. Take one for later. It will not make it that far.
The ingredients
The list is short and it is the whole point. French butter and French flour for the layers, which is where that shattering outside and light, open inside comes from. Bronte pistachio and Piedmont hazelnut, from two of the most celebrated growing regions in Italy, for the fillings. Friis Holm for the chocolate. Only the best ingredients, and you can taste every one of them.
How to get it
Walk in. No booking. Friday from 08:00 and Saturday from 09:00, at Thorshavnsgade 18, 2300 København S. Both days it runs until sold out and closes at one at the latest, so go early, especially if you want the weekly specials.
They also take private and B2B orders, for meetings, events and anything else that needs a box of croissants on the table. Write to biscottodk@gmail.com, and follow @biscottodk to see what is coming out of the oven that week.
This visit was sponsored.
Who it is for
Anyone who takes their weekend breakfast seriously, and anyone living on Islands Brygge who has not found it yet. Come on Friday if you can, when the full range is out. Get the tiramisu croissant, the pistachio and one of the specials, and share them, or do not.
Two people, two mornings, and croissants worth setting an alarm for.
But now… the real question is… where do we go next?
