Find a Taste of France in Dongzhimen at this Authentic Bakery

Discover a Taste of France in Dongzhimen at Authentic Boulangerie Alesia

Kyle Mullin | Jun 8, 2018 11:29 am | Add a comment | 2279 reads | Paid for by Alesia La Boulangerie Française

As Shuang Chai plunges a butterknife into one of her freshly baked croissants, the delicate, flaky exterior breaks open to reveal the buttery fluffiness within. Alluring as the textures of the croissants and other French-style baked goods are at Chai’s Alesia La Boulangerie Française in Dongzhimen, the topping on this particular croissant is what puts it over the top, as it were. The lightly sweet almond topping is tantalizing enough to make your tastebuds sing and crunchy enough to bring a smile to your lips (at RMB 25 each, the price tag is nothing to scoff at, either).

The almond croissant is one of many new, must-try items on offer at Alesia, which will soon celebrate its one year anniversary. The secret to the bakery’s success is Chai’s background as a Cordon Bleu-trained baker. While that highly prestigious training has certainly equipped her with plenty of technique – evident in the nuanced flavors and textures of her desserts, along with their eye-fetching aesthetic – an arguably greater asset from her studies is her understanding of quality ingredients.

Prime examples include new loaves of bread flecked with succulent semi-dry tomatoes from Italy and savory Spanish green olives. Meanwhile, another fresh batch of bread features a sprinkling of figs from Turkey (priced at RMB 22 each).

Chai and her fellow baker and Alesia co-founder Andy Chu are always on the lookout for new ingredients to experiment with. In addition to importing a wide array of items, they also enjoy spontaneously happening upon others treasures, such as authentic matcha that they brought back from Beijing after a recent trip to Tokyo. They have since used that Japanese ingredient – all the rage these days in Beijing – to make a unique matcha cheesecake (RMB 35 per slice), which is one of the many new refrigerated items that they have readied to keep customers cool this summer. Other such items include raspberry and wild blueberry cheesecake slices (also RMB 35 each), lemon tarts, lemonade pressed in-house, and more.

While exotic ingredients may very well be at the forefront of some of their baked goods, Chai and Chu take equally great care with the other more traditional items on Alesia’s menu. They import all their chocolate from Belgium, for instance, and all of their recipes use flour and butter from France.

With the range of new items on the menu and their penchant for experimentation, Chai and Chu hope to keep dessert lovers hooked and coming back to their Dongzhimen bakery, giving them a true taste of French elegance time and time again.

Alesia La Boulangerie Française
Tue-Sun, 9am-7pm. 107, Bojing Haoting, 8 Shizipo Jie, Dongcheng District (138 1085 3324)
东城区十字坡街8号铂晶豪庭底商107

The baked goods at Alesia La Boulangerie Française are available in-store or online; order from Sherpa’s or via their Weidian by scanning the QR code below.