The croissant is a pastry most people instantly recognise: crescent-shaped, buttery, and equally good sweet or savoury. Today you can find croissants almost everywhere, even as ready-made croissant sandwiches in convenience stores. Many people assume the croissant is a French invention, but that is not quite the whole story. Let's take a look.
The Austrian Kipferl: The Croissant's Ancestor
The croissant traces its roots to the Kipferl, a traditional Austrian bake. Like the croissant, the Kipferl is crescent-shaped and made from a dough enriched with butter. Whether it ends up sweet or savoury is up to the baker; sweet versions are topped with sugar and almonds.
So how are the two connected? We need to go back to 1683, when the Ottoman army attacked Vienna, the capital of Austria. One morning, a baker who had risen early to bake bread noticed Ottoman soldiers digging a tunnel to break into the city. He shouted a loud warning, the townspeople were alerted, and together they defended the city. After the Ottomans retreated, the baker and the townspeople made crescent-shaped pastries (Kipferl), mirroring the crescent on the Ottoman flag, to celebrate their victory.
So Why Do People Think the Croissant Is French?
One legend says that Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, missed her native Vienna and asked her cooks to make her an Austrian-style Kipferl. The cooks couldn't reproduce the original exactly, and what they made looked like the croissant we know today.
Another story dates to around the 19th century. An Austrian officer named August Zang opened an Austrian-style bakery called Boulangerie Viennoise in Paris. One of the items he sold was the Kipferl, and his bakes were a huge success, especially the Kipferl. They were fairly expensive, however, so it was mostly wealthy customers who bought them. Before long Zang returned to Austria, leaving Parisians longing for his Kipferl. Local bakeries tried to recreate it and gave it a new look, making it puffier, until it evolved into the croissant we know today.
Croissants Today
Croissants are now sold everywhere, and every bakery has its own recipe. Croissant machines have made production even easier: many industrial bakeries and pastry shops rely on them, because rolling and cutting each piece by hand simply can't keep up with demand. A machine saves labour and turns out beautifully shaped croissants every time.
