History of Croissant Many people have heard that the croissant was created in 1686 in Budapest, Hungary by a courageous and watchful baker, at a time when the city was being attacked by the Turks. Working late one night, he heard odd rumbling noises and alerted the city's military leaders. They found that the Turks were trying to get into the city by tunneling under the city's walls. The tunnel was destroyed and the baker was a hero, but a humble hero — all he wanted in reward was the sole right to bake a special pastry commemorating the fight. The pastry was shaped like a crescent, the symbol of Islam, and presumably meant that the Hungarians had eaten the Turks for lunch. The problem with this story is that it's all made up. It first showed up in the first version of the great French food reference Larousse Gastronmique (Canada, UK), in 1938. Later on, the story switched locations to Vienna, during the Turkish siege there in 1863, but that was also a fabrication. The sad thing is, the truth in this case is not nearly as interesting as the myth. No one knows when or where the first croissant was baked, but it was definitely in France and certainly not before 1850. The word was first used in a dictionary in 1863. The first croissant recipe was published in 1891, but it wasn't the same kind of croissant we are familiar with today. The first recipe that would produce what we consider to be a croissant wasn't published until 1905, and, again, it was in France. Croissant is French for crescent or crescent- shaped. Croissants are composed of a light buttery rich yeast dough that can have either a sweet (jam, marzipan, chocolate) or savory (cheese, ham, chicken, mushrooms) filling. Traditionally enjoyed in France for breakfast with coffee and milk. Legend has it that one night during the war of 1686 between Austria and Turkey, bakers in Budapest Hungary heard Turkish soldiers tunneling under the city and sounded the alarm. This led to the Turkish defeat of the war and the bakers' reward was the honor of making a commemorative pastry in a crescent shape (the shape that is on the Turkish flag). Later the French were credited with reinventing the croissant dough to its current form using a puff pastry-like dough. However, in the Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, he states that the recipe for the present day croissant doesn't appear in a French recipe book until early in the 20th century and there is no reference to it origins being from the croissant made after the war of 1686. Whatever its true origins, the present day croissant is still credited to France and enjoyed in many parts of the world. Croissants that are made with butter are called "croissant au beurre" and any croissant containing other types of fat (usually margarine) must be called "croissants". Croissants The origin of the croissant is one of the great food legends of all time. The Larousse Gastronomique offers this explanation regarding the origin of the croissant: "Croissant...This delicious pastry originated in Budapest in 1686, when the Turks were besieging the city. To reach the centre of the town, they dug underground passages. Bakers, working during the night, heard the noise made by the Turks and gave the alarm. The assailants were repulsed and the bakers who had saved the city were granted the privilege of making a special pastry which had to take the form of a crescent in memory of the emblem on the Ottoman flag." ---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang, editor [Crown:New York] 1988 (p. 338) It's an interesting story. Is it true? Alan Davidson, noted food historian, expresses his doubts: "Culinary mythology--origin of the croissant According to one of a group of similar legends, which vary only in detail, a baker of the 17th century, working through the night at a time when his city (either Vienna in 1683 or Budapest in 1686) was under siege by the Turks, heard faint underground rumbling sounds which, on investigation, proved to be caused by a Turkish attempt to invade the city by tunnelling under the walls. The tunnel was blown up. The baker asked no reward other than the exclusive right to bake crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the incident, the crescent being the sympol of Islam. He was duly rewarded in this way, and the croissant was born. The story seems to owe its origin, or at least its wide diffusion, to Alfred Gottschalk, who wrote about the croissant for the first edition of the Larousse Gastronomique [1938] and there gave the legend in the Turkish attack on Budapest in 1686 version; but on the history of food, opted for the 'siege of Vienna in 1683' version." ---Oxford Comapion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Companion to Food:Oxford] 1999 (p. 232) While the history of pastry dates back to ancient times, the history of the croissant [as we know it today], seems to be a relatively new invention. Part of the problem may be how one defines "croissant." Food history sources confirm that crescent-shaped pastries were baked in Vienna during the 17th century and that they migrated to France soon thereafter. They recount, but do not confirm/deny the story of the brave bakers who supposedly created the first croissants. This is what Mr. Davidson has to say: "...croissant in its present form does not have a long history...The earliest French reference to the croissant seems to be in Payen's book "Des substances alimentaires," published in 1853. He cites, among the "Pains dit de fantasie ou de luxe," not only English 'muffins' but 'les croissants'. The term appears again, ten years later, in the great Littre dictionary [1863] where it is defined as 'a little crescent-shaped bread or cake'. Thirteen years later, Husson in "Les Consommations de Paris" [1875] includes 'croissants for coffee' in a list of 'ordinary' (as opposed to 'fine') pastry goods. Yet no trace of a recipe for croissants can be found earlier than that given by Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine [c. 1905], and his recipe bears no resemblance to the modern puff pastry concoction; it is rather an oriental pastry made of pounded almonds and sugar. Only in 1906, in Colombie's Nouvelle Encyclopedie culinaire, did a true croissant, and its development into a national symbol of France, is a 20th-century history." ---Oxford Companion to Food (p. 228) Pain au chocolat From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search croissant pastry with pain au chocolat on top Pain au Chocolat (pronunciation (help·info)) is a French pastry, consisting of a cuboid-shaped puff pastry containing two strips of chocolate down the centre. They are often heated before consumption, making the chocolate melt throughout. Although the phrase translates literally as 'bread with chocolate', it is fundamentally a croissant variation and is commonly sold alongside croissants in French bakeries and supermarkets. Like croissants, they are also typically eaten for breakfast, despite the chocolate content.