Frenchman with the Austrian past: 7 facts about croissants and a simple recipe that everyone can repeat

Z January0 celebrates the day of Kruhassan. This is a good reason to pamper yourself with pastries

Symbol of France is not from France

The birthplace of Kruissanov is Austria. In fact, what we call the Croassan today came from the Austrian Crede’s form in the form of a crescent – Kipferl.

According to legend, the first such horned was prepared by the Viennese bakery in 1683 after the Turks’s unsuccessful attempt to seize the Austrian capital: baking in the form of a crescent – a symbol of the Ottoman Empire and Islam – symbolized the victory of the Austrian. Historians, however, do not complain this version: the first documented references to the horn-half-mixed are much earlier, back in the 13th century.

It is important to note that the Austrian pants were not yet – it was prepared from a dense dough, but the use of puff is already the innovation of the French.

Welcome home

How the croissants got to France? According to one version, this was contributed to the infamous spouse of the French king Louis XVI Maria Antoinette, Austrian by origin. The legend says that she introduced Viennese cuckolds at the Versailles court after the wedding in 1770 and preferred her native baking French dishes.

However, some researchers dispute this version: they believe that the croissants, or rather their Austrian “ancestors” became popular in France only 1837, when the Austrian Augustus Zang opened the Viennese bakery in Paris, where the famous Kipferl were sold among other things.

Croissant as we know him

The bakery of Zang, shortly after the opening, began to appear “imitators” – the French liked the baking so much. Soon, the Austrian Kipferl was replaced by the French Croissant, and the local bakers began to modernize the recipe, gradually creating what we call Croassan today. The main achievement of the French was the use of puff pastry.

The exact date of change of the recipe is unknown, but the first documented mention of the recipe for croissants from puff pastry dates back to 1905-1906: then baking was described in the book “New Culinary Encyclopedia”. Ten years later, in 1915, the recipe with puff text was also recorded by the French circuitar Silven Claudius Goyem.

Luxury for the rich

At the beginning of their history, the croissants were a dish for wealthy French: in the 1800s, the ingredients for baking, in particular eggs and milk, were too expensive, and only representatives of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie could afford the exquisite breakfast with a croissant.

Croissants reached representatives of the middle class only at the beginning of the 20th century, but quickly gained popularity – by the middle of the century they were considered a symbol of France and a traditional breakfast for all Frenchmen.

The dough is important

Any puff pastry dough for croissants – you definitely need a yeast to create traditional French pastries. The fact is that the composition of ordinary puff pastry, non -exposure, includes only water, flour, salt and oil, while not only obvious yeast, but also milk, egg and sugar are added to the bunkers used for croissants.

Milk makes the taste of the dough more saturated, and yeast makes the baking rise much higher than when using a non -freezing dough.

The question of the form

You most likely noticed that some croissimal. Do not be scared, straight does not mean fake. In the process of modifying the recipe, two main varieties of croissant formed: Croissant au Beurre, prepared in butter, and Croissants Ordinaire – on Margarine.

So, a more curved shape has a croissant on Margarine, while its “oil” fellow is more straight. Presumably, such a tradition of French bakers has developed to make it easier for customers and make the difference between two options more clear. However, not every bakery adheres to this rule today.

What about the filling?

The traditional French croissant is a croissant without filling. Moreover, the French do not lubricate the croissants with oil: it is believed that the baking itself already contains a sufficient amount of oil, and add more – Moveton. Many dipped croissants in coffee or hot chocolate, but such manipulations are more often held at home, in the family circle, and not in public.

However, there are, in the French reality, Pain Au Chocolate – a bun from the same yeast puff pastry with chocolate filling – and a croissant with almond cream, originally invented as a way to “give a second life” no longer such fresh croissants. Croissal sandwiches are also found, but still especially zealous adherents of traditions consider adding fillings to the croissant almost a crime.

How to cook the perfect French croissant

Ingredients:

• 500 g of flour

• 20 g of yeast

• 60 g of sugar

• 10 g of salt

• 1 egg

• 60 g of butter heated to room temperature

• 200 g of milk

• 300 g of butter of bar

Cooking method:

1. Sift flour, add salt and sugar, make a small recess in the center of the mixture.

2. Activate yeast in warm milk, then pour the resulting solution into a recess in flour, stirring the dough.

3. When kneading, add an egg to the dough and the oil heated to room temperature.

4. Leave the mixed dough under the grash film for 30–40 minutes, then give it a rectangular shape, wrap the film and put in the refrigerator at night.

5. Remove the oil bar in a cellophane bag and roll it into a rectangle, and then also put in the refrigerator.

6. Rinse the dough from the refrigerator into a rectangle in the size of a rectangle of rolled oil, wrap the oil into the resulting dough and re -roll out to a thickness of 1 cm.

7. The resulting layer of the dough needs to be folded again: the lower end of the dough is 2/3 of its length, the upper – by 1/3, and then once again in half. Turn the dough again with a film and send it to the refrigerator – for an hour.

8. The dough from the refrigerator must be rolled again, folded out three times again and again send a minimum for an hour in the cold.

9. The finally finished dough is again rolled out and cut into triangles.

10. At the base of each triangle, it is necessary to make an incision of 1-2 cm, and then turn the dough into a pungent, starting from the base.

11. Leave ready -made croissants in heat for 30–45 minutes, they should double in size.

12. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees.

The material was published in January 2022, partially updated in January 2023