While café culture is a strong point in the Gold Coast’s culinary scene, a completely new concept store is a breath of fresh air. All it took was one Le Cordon Bleu chef with a penchant for detail and her business-oriented partner working together for months to perfect their product. Not so simple! Finally, they reached the point where their dreams came to life.
Dipcro Pastry, short for ‘dipping croissant’, opened in November 2023. It was a long journey for first time owners Michael and Evelyn Njam, who emigrated from Indonesia about seven years ago with big dreams. All is not as it seems, though, with the couple bringing a long history of baking to the Gold Coast.
Food is in Evelyn’s blood, her family owning a family bakery in Northern Sumatra for 47 years. Passionate about pastry, Evelyn completed her training in the best French pastry school in Australia, Le Cordon Bleu, Sydney, consolidating her learning in well-regarded pastry chains Passiontree Velvet and Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart. Michael brought his business acumen to the table, helping make their dreams of owning their own pastry shop come true.
Realising that a point of difference is vital to success, they opened their puff pastry shop in the heart of the Gold Coast’s hospo territory, Chevron Island. Approaching their products as a blend of Southeast Asian flavours, French technique and European style, the couple first launched with a menu of puff pastry products and Campos coffee as well as their signature product, The Dipcro.
Visiting the bakery, our eyes are drawn to two areas: the working patisserie on our left in sight behind huge glass picture windows and the counter display of pastries available for sale. We can see croissants being made and baked, trays entering and exiting the oven as we choose a pastry delight from the display.
The three DipCro flavours take pride of place in the counter display, surrounded by an abundant choice of both savoury and sweet puff pastries. A Germanic-origin sausage encrusted with pastry forms the equivalent of a sausage roll, while a taro-filled bow gives a nod to Indonesia’s Filipino neighbours.
French Mille Feuille stand beside Pain au Chocolat and savoury delights such as Dipcro’s Spinach & Cheese Pain Suisse and Chicken Danish. This is pastry that leans on world cuisine for its inspiration.
“Most of our ingredients come from Europe, the butter from France, the chocolate from Belgium,” Michael tells us, adding that making pastry is a labour-intensive process that’s a work of love. “It takes three days to make the croissants; four days to make some of the other pastries,” he adds.
It took months of preparation, refining, and perfecting every detail before they launched The Dipcro, a totally new concept product. Instead of tearing an envelope-shaped croissant apart, The Dipcro provides a way to enjoy croissants by dipping a signature Dipscotti into a delicious filling-filled bowl-shaped croissant. In other words, much like an Italian would dip biscotti in coffee, the Dipscotti is a handmade biscuit of caramelised croissant made to dip into the Dipcro’s luscious filling. The maximum taste is achieved by eating all the parts of the croissant together, Michael tells us.
At present, The Dipcro fillings available are Coconut Pandan, Vanilla Crème Brûlée and Lotus Biscoff flavours. A nod to their Indonesian heritage, the Coconut Pandan filling is made from scratch, boiling pandan leaves for four hours before mixing with a little palm sugar syrup to balance the flavour. As we smash the Crème Brûlée DipCro, Biscoff, still made in its hometown of Lembeke, Belgium, overflows from another. The café’s sweet is not too sweet, though, the flavours nuanced rather than depending on cloying sugar content.
Acknowledging their roots, but bringing us something totally new from time-honoured traditions, not only have Evelyn and Michael launched a unique product in an aesthetically pleasing #nailedthevibe café, but each month a new product hits the store. That’s reinvention at its best!
Dipcro Pastry, 55 Thomas Drive, Surfers Paradise, QLD 4217 Open daily 7am – 2.30pm.
NOTE: Good Food Gold Coast dined as a guest of Dipcro.