The croissant

Marie-Antoinette and croissants: The curious story of the croissant continues with another legend concerning Marie-Antoinette, the infamous Queen of Austria. She was sent to France at the age of fourteen to marry the future King Louis XVI. The lonely girl was bored of her homeland and asked the bakers in the yard to make her the kipferl that she remembered from home. She presented it to the court along with other small pastries from her home country. Collectively, they were known as viennoiserie.

Croissant in the 19th century: In the 19th century, kipferl took up residence in France, but it was far from the puff pastry we know today. It was the Austrian version again: made of a heavy dough, similar to that of a brioche, but small and crescent-shaped. Around 1837, two Austrians opened a Viennese bakery in Paris. At that time, the crescent-shaped dough was still called kipferl, and by the middle of the century it had become a popular bread in France. As it became more common, the name was changed from kipferl (the Austrian German word for croissant) to croissant (the French word for croissant). Towards the end of the 19th century, the crescent took on its now familiar, flaky form and was well on its way to becoming a symbol of France.