Did Someone Say...Croissants?

Flaky, buttery, doughy deliciousness. Classically French and found all over the world, croissants are adored by all. 

Despite its heavy French connotations, the croissant was, shockingly enough, not created by a French person or of original French origin. August Zang, an Austrian artillery officer, founded a Viennese bakery called the "Boulangerie Viennoise" in the rue de Richelieu in Paris when he was 92 years old. His business saw some pretty good success and soon inspired French imitators, who turned the Viennese specialty, the kipferl, into what we now know today as a croissant. The French version of the kipferl was named for its crescent (croissant) shape.

While fresh croissants are obviously the best, today 30–40% of the croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries are frozen. The factory- and pre-made frozen croissants that you've probably eaten were developed in the late 1970s. The croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style fast food. 

There are two classic forms of croissants: le croissant au beurre (the butter croissant) and le croissant ordinaire (the ordinary croissant). They have different shapes: the croissant au beurre is more crescent shaped; the croissant ordinaire is a little straighter and more flattened out.

Now, you can see croissant dough wrapped around any praline, almond paste or chocolate before it is baked (pain au chocolat, anyone?) or sliced to include delicious sweet or savoury fillings. Sometimes, the pastry can have dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins, or other fruits such as apples sprinkled upon it for extra sweetness.

The French and Spanish generally eat croissants without filling and without added butter, though they sometimes eat their pastries with almond filling. In the United States, we eat croissants with sweet fillings or toppings pretty often. Warm croissants can also be wonderfully savory, filled with ham and cheese, or feta cheese and spinach. The Germans are also known to fill their croissants with Nutella or persipan. The German-speaking part of Switzerland eats a variation of a croissant, called a Gipfeli, which has a crisper crust and is less buttery than the French-style croissant.

If you're salivating to eat one of these tasty treats right now, I would recommend buying some at your local grocery store or pastry shop. They are difficult to make from scratch:because they are made out of puff pastry, which is very tricky to create. But, if you want to try, here's a recipe, taken from finecooking.com. Enjoy yourself!