Celebrating Croissant Day this January 30th
Croissants are more than just a pastry. | Photo by Joshua Hanks on Unsplash
We’ve gotten the question before: why croissants?
Well, have you ever sat a little too long at a coffee shop? As courtesy, you might buy another fresh coffee or buy an additional pastry. As any remote worker or freelancer has experienced before, sometimes you’ll sit there for a few hours in front of your laptop, and sometimes you might end up buying multiple pastries to tide you over for the day or to just keep your seat.
And sometimes those pastries are croissants.
Today, croissant is more than just a pastry to remote workers, entrepreneurs, and freelancers, but a way to find a go-to spot for wifi, coffee, and some focus time. And literally, today is National Croissant Day. So to celebrate our namesake, here are some fun facts about croissant, the pastry.
Fun Facts on Croissants
Croissants are a type of viennoiserie, a breakfast pastry from Vienna. They’re much like bread or puff pastry but include added ingredients like milk, eggs, butter, cream, and sugar to get that sweetness.
Marie Antoinette is credited as being the reason croissants came from Austria to France, but it’s actually because an Austrian soldier in the 1850s came and opened the first Viennese bakery in France.
The Austrian soldier who brought croissants to Paris was named August Zang, and the viennoiserie he baked was novel and super popular, much like present day food fads.
Croissants are said to be an homage to the Austrian victory over the Turks in 1683. The crescent shape is rumored to be from the crescent moon in the Turkish flag.
Why is it called croissant? | Photo by Orlova Maria on Unsplash
Croissants originally called kipfel.
Crescent-shaped shaped baked goods like kipfel are apparently some of the oldest pastry shapes and were said to be offerings for the moon goddess, Selene.
There’s no real recipe for the original kipfel and the croissant we know today is a laminated pastry— which means it’s all layers of folded pastry and butter over and over.
The style of baking croissants isn’t traditionally taught in culinary school. The type of dough used to make croissants, tourier, must be taught by another baker skilled in tourier.
Apparently, 50 percent croissants are not made in-house in Paris. A spike in the popularity in the 1970s encouraged fast-food growth for croissants. Most are now purchased frozen and baked in house.
How to celebrate Croissant Day with Croissant
We’re having some fun with Croissant Day on January 30, 2020. Be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter to follow along and join in!