The Croissant Pastry (Le Croissant)

THE CROISSANT 🥐

1915 — A French breakfast essential

It’s hard to imagine Paris without its bakeries… and their freshly baked croissants straight from the oven.

Yet the croissant’s ancestor is believed to be Austrian: the Kipferl, a crescent-shaped pastry that had been around for centuries. It made its way to France in the 19th century, notably with the opening of bakeries in Paris offering Viennese specialities.

French bakers gradually made it their own and transformed it.

In 1915, French chef Sylvain Claudius Goy published a recipe for a croissant made with laminated yeast dough in his book La Cuisine anglo-américaine, one of the earliest written recipes resembling the modern croissant. This evolution marked a clear departure from its Austrian ancestor, the Kipferl, which was traditionally made with a dough closer to brioche.

Golden, crispy on the outside and deliciously flaky on the inside, throughout the 20th century the croissant became one of the most recognizable symbols of the French art of living.

A little piece of Paris to take with you wherever you go.