Croissant (pronounced krwah-sahn
(French), kruh-sahnt (barbarians) or cross-ant (savages))
A rich,
buttery, often crescent-shaped, roll of leavened dough or puff paste.
1899: From the French croissant (crescent), present participle of the verb croître (to increase, to grow), from the
Middle French croistre, from the Old
French creistre derived from the
Classical Latin crēscēns & crēscentem, present active infinitive of
crēscō (I augment), drawn from the
Proto-Italic krēskō. The ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European
ḱreh (to grow, become bigger). Correct pronunciation here. Chefs & bakers have found the word adaptable when inventing pasteries, coining croffle (croissant-waffle hybrid), cronut (a croissant-doughnut hybrid), cruffin (a croissant-muffin hybrid) and doissant (an alternative name for a cronut). Croissant is a noun and croissantlike is an adjective; the noun plural is croissants.
The Austrian Pastry
Like
some other cultural artefacts thought quintessentially French (French fries
invented in Belgium; Nicolas Sarkozy (b 1955; French president 2007-2012) from here and there; the Citroën DS (1955-1975) styled
by an Italian) the croissant came from elsewhere, its origins Austrian, the Viennese kipferl a crescent-shaped
sweet made plain, with nuts or other fillings.
It varies from the French classic in being denser and less flaky, made
with softer dough. First noted in the thirteenth
century at which time, it was thought a “sweet” it was another three-hundred
years before it came to be regarded as a morning
pastry. Tastes changed as new techniques
of baking evolved and around the turn of the seventeenth century, recipes began
to appear in Le Pâtissier François
using Pâte feuilletée (puff pastry),
these being the first recognisably modern croissants.
Culinary
histories include a number of (likely apocryphal) tales of why the croissant
adopted a crescent shape. One suggests
it was baked first in Buda to celebrate the defeat of the Ummayyad (the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) was the second of the four major caliphates created after the death of the prophet Muhammad (circa 570-632)) forces by
the Franks in the Battle of Tours (732), the shape representing the Islamic crescent
moon although more famous is the notion it was designed after the battle of
1683 when the Ottomans were turned back from the gates of Vienna. A baker, said to have heard the Turks
tunneling under the walls of the city as he lit his ovens to bake the morning
bread, sounded an alarm, and the defending forces collapsed the tunnel, saving
the city. To celebrate, bread was baked
in the shape of the crescent moon of the Turkish flag.
Portrait
of Marie Antoinette (1755–1793; Queen of France 1774-1792) (1769), oil on canvas by Joseph Ducreux (1735-1802).
The official title of the portrait was Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria and
it was created as the era’s equivalent of a Tinder profile picture, the artist
summoned in 1769 to Vienna to paint a pleasing rendering of the young lady the
Hapsburg royal court planned to marry off to Louis, Dauphin of France (1754-1973)
who would reign as Louis XVI (King of France 1774-1792)). Tinder profile pictures can be misleading (some
pounds and even more years sometimes vanishing) so the work must be considered
in that context although she was barely fourteen when she sat so it may be true
to the subject. Ducreux’s portrait was
the first glimpse the prince had of his intended bride and it must have been
pleasing enough for him metaphorically to "swipe right" and the marriage lasted until the pair were executed with the blade of the guillotine. As a
reward, Ducreux was raised to the nobility as a seigneur de la baronnie (lord of the barony, the grade of of baron
granted to roturiers (commoners)) and appointed premier peintre de la reine (First Painter to the Queen), outliving the royal couple.
Rendered by
Vovsoft as cartoon character: a
brunette Lindsay Lohan in croissant T-shirt.
A more romantic tale attributes the pastry to Marie Antoinette, who, as an Austrian, preferred the food of her homeland to
that of the French court and, at state dinners, would sneak off to enjoy
pastries and coffee. There is no
documentary evidence for her having re-christened the kipferl as the croissant but the story is she so missed what she
knew as kipfel (German for crescent)
that she commanded the royal baker to clone the treat. More prosaic, but actually verified by
historical evidence, is that August Zang (1807-1888), a retired Austrian artillery officer
founded a Viennese Bakery in Paris in 1839 and most food historians agree he is
the one most likely to have introduced the kipfel
to France, a pastry that later inspired French bakers to create crescents of
their own. The
first mention of the croissant in French is in French chemist Anselme Payen’s (1795-1871) Des Substances alimentaires (1853),
published long after Marie-Antoinette’s time in court, the first known printed
recipe, using the name, appearing in Swiss chef Joseph Favre’s (1849-1903) Dictionnaire universel de cuisine (1905) although even that was a
more dense creation than the puffy thing known today.
Once were
croissants: 1967 Mercedes-Benz 600 (with Biskuitrolles
(jam rolls) or Nackenrolles
(neck rolls), left), 1969 Mercedes-Benz 600 (with “croissants” or “rabbits ears”,
centre) and 1990 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL (with boring “headrests”, right).
Mercedes-Benz introduced their
Kopfstütze (literally “head support”
although in the factory’s technical documents the design project was the Kopfstützensystem (head restraint system))
when the 600 (W100, 1963-1981) was displayed at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show,
the early cars having only a rear-pair as standard equipment (there was an
expectation many 600s would be chauffeur-driven) with the front units optional but
the hand-built 600 could be ordered with one, two, three or four Kopfstützen (or even none although no 600s seem to have been ordered so-configured). In
1969 the design was updated and over three weeks the new type was phased in for
the models then in production. While a
totally new design (one cognizant of the US safety regulations which had mandated
them for the front seats of passenger vehicles) with a different internal
structure and mounting assembly, the most distinctive aspect was the raised
sides which some compared to the “pagoda” roof then in use on the W113 (230,
250 & 280 SL, 1963-1971) roadster but this was coincidental. In the early press reports the shapes were described
with culinary references, the previous versions said to resemble a Biskuitrolle mit Marmelade (jam filled
sponge roll) while the new generation was more like a croissant. In the English-speaking world, neither term
caught on, the older style was called something like “older style” while the
new came to be known as “rabbits ears” which was much more charming. Uncharmed, the humorless types at the factory
continued to call them teilt (split)
or offener Rahmen (open-frame). The “rabbits ears” were phased out in 1979
although the low volume 600 retained them (along with the archaic rear swing-axles!)
until the last was built in 1981. The
design introduced in 1979 seems never to have been compared to any kind of food
and it reverted to lateral symmetry although the structure was noticeably more vertiginous.
The factory may have described them as Kopfstützensystem (head restraint system, a pair in red leather to the left) but as well as the jam roll allusion, people also called them Nackenrolles (literally “neck roll”, centre) which were cylindrical pillows designed to support the head and neck when the user was seated. Long a fixture in the catalogues of interior decorators, they gained a new popularity when televisions became a standard feature in houses and remain available although much modern furniture is now designed with head-support “built-in”. Modern commerce adopted the term Nackenrolle (often without the initial capital when advertised in English-speaking markets) to cater to one growth market of the late twentieth century: frequent flyers and those on long haul flights. These included shapes ranging from a simple horseshoe to “wrap-around” items (right) and some which enveloped almost the entire head in a supportive padded surround, an aperture to allow breathing through the nose and mouth the only gap (resembling the once perpetually doomed Kenny McCormick in the animated TV series South Park on Paramount's Comedy Central cable channel).
Depending on this & that, it's a jam roll, Swiss jam roll, jelly roll or Biskuitrolle. Quick & simple to make and adaptable to a range of variants, the jam roll is a classic European sweet treat; usually it’s served sliced. In some English-speaking markets, commonly they’re sold as a “Swiss Jam Roll”, thus the not unreasonable assumption it was bakers in Switzerland who invented the things but although the documentary evidence is sketchy, it’s clear from surviving cookbooks they were a common creation, rolled sponge cakes appearing across Central and Western Europe by at least the early eighteenth century. However, the first known instance of the term “Swiss Jam Roll” in print was in England in the 1850s and that was as a marketing ploy; “Viennese”, “Danish”, or “French” often used as “prestige adjectives” because of the deservedly high reputation of the cakes and pastries served in Parisian & Viennese cafés, English cuisine not enjoying such high repute. The term “Swiss Jam Roll” certainly caught on although the roll (or roulade) is very much a generic rolled sponge cake and between European cities there would have been little local variation. In the US, they came to be known as “jelly rolls” because there what the English called “jam” was dubbed jelly and the Germans called them Biskuitrolles. That makes curious the US use of “biscuit” to mean a kind of soft, semi-sweet or savory bread (something like an English scone) whereas what the English call “biscuits”, the Americans call “cookies”. That does hint what the German immigrants to North America used for their Biskuitrolles may have been less sweet than the classic sponge cake used in the modern versions. As a footnote, in Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956), Nancy Mitford (1904–1973) listed “jam” as “non-U” (ie not the word used by the upper classes) while “preserves” (always in the plural) was the “U” form. Despite that, in class-conscious England, there appears to be no record of “preserve rolls”. Swiss or otherwise so either it was classless food or the toffs just forgave the name and enjoyed the treat.
Petit-déjeuner à Paris: café; croissant; Gauloises.
In 2025, for some to enjoy the pleasure of a croissant at breakfast began to demand a little more planning after the French government banned the smoking of cigarettes in all outdoor areas where children can be present (US$130 on-the-spot fine). Vaping was still allowed (!) so there was that and terrasses (the outdoor areas of coffee shops bars) were exempt. While inhaling a known carcinogen is not good and should be discouraged, the odd concession such as allowing consenting adults together to enjoy a coffee and cigarette does seem a worthwhile tribute civilization can pay to the irrational. It's good Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) & Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) didn't live to see this day.
Although the famous shape is much admired, for purists, the choice is always the un-curved croissant au beurre, (butter croissant), the more eye-catching crescents being usually the ordinaires, made with margarine. The
taste in the English-speaking world for things like ham-and-cheese croissants
is regarded by the French as proof of Anglo-Saxon barbarism although they will
tolerate a sparse drizzle of chocolate if it’s for children and food critics reluctantly concede the almond croissant (with a frangipane filling, topped with slivered
almonds and a dusting of powdered sugar) is “…enjoyed by younger women”. Generally though, the French stick to the
classics, eschewing even butter, a croissant being best enjoyed unadorned and
taken with a strong black coffee and while some will insist this should be accompanied with a Gitanes, that is optional.
Although much focused upon, the shape of a croissant of course becomes less relevant when eaten when the experience becomes one of taste and texture. For that reason the pastry used has long attracted those chefs for whom food offers architectural possibilities and while for more than a century one-offs have been created for competition and special event, in recent years the phenomenon of social media has been a design stimulant, Instagram, TikTok etc fuelling a culinary arms race and patisseries have built (sometimes short-lived) product lines in response to viral videos. Fillings have of course been a feature but it’s the shapes which have been most eye-catching (and by extension click-catching which is the point for the content providers). There have been “croissants” in the shape of spheres, discs, pyramids, spirals, wedges and cubes, the last among the more amusing with chefs referencing objects and concepts such as dice, cubist art and, of course, the Rubik’s Cube. Many have been just a moment while some have for a while trended.
Dominique Ansel's
Cronut, stacked and sliced.
Some have endured for longer such as the Cronut (the portmanteau’s construct being cro(issant) + (dough)nut) and so serious was New York based French pastry chef Dominique Ansel (b 1978) that in 2013 he trademarked his creation. In the familiar shape of a doughnut, the composition was described as “a croissant-like pastry with a filling of flavored cream and fried in grapeseed oil.” Interviewed by Murdoch tabloid the New York Post, the chef revealed it took “two months of R&D (research & development)” before the Cronut was perfected and the effort was clearly worthwhile because after being released in his eponymous bakery in Manhattan’s SoHo neighbourhood, the city’s food bloggers (a numerous and competitive population) responded and within days photographs circulated of dozens waiting for opening time, a reaction which prompted the application to the US Patent and Trademark Office. In the way of such things, around the planet “clones”, “tributes”, “knock-offs”, “imitations”, “rip-offs” (the descriptions as varied as the slight changes in the recipes introduced presumably to fend off a C&D (cease and desist letter)) soon appeared. Predictably, some were called “Doughssants” (the Germanic eszett a nice touch) although others were less derivative.
Rupert Murdoch's (b 1931) New York Post, 16 August, 2022.
Monsieur Ansel in 2015 released Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes, a cookbook which included the Cronut recipe and the thing in its authentic form was clearly for the obsessives, the instructions noting making one or a batch was a three-day process. In its review of the year, Time magazine nominated the Cronut as one of the “best inventions of 2013”, prompting one cultural commentator (another species which proliferates in New York City) to observe the decadence of the West had reached the point the breakdown of society was close. There may have been something in the idea the new “Visigoths at the Gates of Rome” were actually pastry chefs because in the wake of the Cronut the city was soon flooded with all sorts of novel sugary treats, mostly elaborations of croissants, doughnuts and, it being NYC, bagels. By 2022 the New York Post was prepared to proclaim: “Move over cronuts! NYC's hot new baked good is the Suprême”, the defenestrator from Noho’s Lafayette Grand Café and revealed to be a “unique circular croissant filled with pastry crème and topped with ganache and crushed up cookies.” Again of the Instagram & TikTok age, queues were reported even though at a unit cost of US$8.50 it was two dollars more expensive than a Cronut, the price of which had increased fairly modestly since 2013 when it debuted at US$5.00.
All
the recent variations on the croissant are built on the theme chefs have for
centuries understood is the easy path to popularity: FSS; add fat, salt &
sugar, the substances mankind has for millennia sought. Once it took much effort (and often some
risk) to find these things but now they’re conveniently packaged and widely
available at prices which, although subject to political and economic forces, remain
by historic standards very cheap. Often,
we don’t even need to seek out the packages because so much of the preparation
and distribution of food has been outsourced to specialists, mostly industrial
concerns but the artisans persist in niches.
That’s certainly true of the croissant, few making their own whether basic
or embellished and one of the latest of the croissant crazes is FSS writ large:
the crookie.
Miss Sina's crookie (without added topping or powered sugar).
A
crookie is a croissant stuffed with chocolate chip cookie dough and its very existence
will be thought particularly shameful by some Parisian purists because it was
first sold in December 2023 by the Boulangerie Louvard, located on Rue de
Châteaudun in Paris’s 9th arrondissement which, in an Instragram
post announced the arrival: “Our pure
butter croissant, awarded the seventh best croissant in the Île-de-France
region in 2022, is made every morning with a 24-hour fermented milk sourdough
and layered with Charente butter. For
our cookie dough, we use one of the best and purest chocolates in the world,
from @xoco.gourmet.” Offered
originally in a test batch to test the market, the boulangerie soon announced “The concept was well received, so we're
keeping it. Available every day
in-store!”
Unlike
a Cronut which (at least in its pure form) demands three days to make, the charm
of the crookie is its elegant simplicity and Instagrammers quickly deconstructed
and posted the instructions:
(1)
With a serrated knife, cut open a croissant lengthwise, leaving a “hinge” at
the back.
(2)
Add 2-3 tablespoons of your chocolate chip cookie dough (from a packet or home-made).
(3)
Close the two sections of croissant wholly encasing the dough.
(4)
When the dough is almost cooked (time will vary according to oven and the
volume of dough but it takes only a few minutes), remove from oven.
(5)
Add more cookie dough to the top of croissant and return to the oven for final
bake.
(6)
When the outside is crispy and the centre gooey, remove from oven and top with
a dusting of powdered sugar.
Some crookie critics don't recommend either adding the second lashing of dough or the powered sugar because they tend to "overwhelm" the croissant and limit the surface area, thereby denying the dish some of the essential crispiness.
The croissant in fashion
Louis Vuitton Croissant (2001) and Loop (2021).
While
a handbag lends itself well to the shape of a crescent, it does inherently limit
the efficiency of space utilization but this aspect is often not a primary goal
in the upper reaches of the market. With
garments however, although actually a common component because the shape makes
all sorts of engineering possible such as the underwire of the bra or other
constructions where any sort of cantilever effect is demanded, it’s usually
just an element rather than a design motif.
As a playful touch, a distinctive crescent moon or croissant might
appear on a T-shirt or scarf but it’s rare to see a whole garment pursue the
theme although they have appeared on the catwalks where they attract the usual
mix of admiration and derision. The original Louis Vuitton Croissant was introduced early in the twenty-first century and although modest compared with some of the company's designs, it proved to be one of the "goldilocks" bags in that it was for many just the right size and shape; now discontinued, it's still in demand through the vibrant after-market channels, fine examples selling for well-above their original list price. Louis Vuitton must have noted the appeal because in 2021 the Loop was released, designed by Nicolas Ghesquière (b 1971) for the Cruise 2022 Collection. The Loop was described as a "half-moon baguette" and and is closer to a crescent than the earlier bag which was in the shape of a classic butter croissant. Some might find the fussiness in the Loop over-detailed but markets east of Suez are now important and the added bling in the detailing reflects modern consumer preferences.
SJP (Sarah Jessica Parker; b 1965) in "croissant dress" (left) and a HD (heavy duty) PVC (polyvinyl chloride) dishwashing glove in action (right).
Occasionally, catwalk creations escape and are seen in the wild. In 2022, the actor Sarah Jessica Parker appeared in HBO's (Home Box Office) And Just Like That (2021-2022; a revival of the Sex and the City TV series (1998-2004)), wearing an orange Valentino Haute Couture gown from the house’s spring/summer 2019 collection. It recalled a large croissant, the piece chosen presumably because the scene was set in Paris although it must have been thought viewers needed the verisimilitude laid on with a trowel because also prominent was a handbag in the shape of the Eifel Tower. A gift to the meme-makers, while comments were numerous, admiration for the dress seemed restrained although many were taken by what at first glance appeared to be a pair of PVC (also available in latex) dishwashing gloves in a fetching pink (closer to hot pink than fashion fuchsia); few critics doubted they really were opera gloves from Valentino Haute Couture.
