The shape of a croissant

Let us state once and for all that a chocolate croissant is called a “pain au chocolat” – bread with chocolate. The square variant can for good reasons not be called a croissant, and here you get the explanation.

Croissant means “crescent” and has been a staple of the French breakfast table since the 1950s, but in fact the cake is an Austrian invention.

The most famous story of how the croissant originated dates back to the Ottoman forces’ occupation of Vienna in 1683. The Ottomans wanted to conquer the city under cover of darkness by digging a tunnel under the city walls. Fortunately, Vienna’s bakers were already up and sounding the alarm, and Vienna was able to knock the Ottomans out of the city. To celebrate the victory of the troops, the small horns (“Hörnchen”) baked with the same shape as the crescent in the Ottoman flag.

The spread to France is believed to have originated from the Austrian Marie Antoinette, who came to Paris in 1770. The story goes that the only 15-year-old queen missed her homeland, and that Parisian bakers in her honor created a new variant that called for more at the royal dining table.

Dip your croissant into your morning coffee or enjoy it with jam.

Picture on the right by Sam Greenhalgh / CC