Croissant

A pastry that came from Vienna

Despite its association with France, the croissant’s ancestor is the Austrian kipferl, a crescent-shaped enriched roll. The story (sometimes embroidered) holds that Marie Antoinette brought the kipferl to Versailles when she married the future Louis XVI. The laminated, butter-rich version that we know today emerged in Parisian bakeries in the late 19th century.

Lamination — what makes it flaky

A croissant has 27 to 81 alternating layers of dough and butter, created by folding (tourage). Cold butter is enclosed in dough, rolled flat, folded into thirds, and rested — a “single turn.” Three single turns produce 27 layers; four produce 81. When baked, the water in the butter steams and pushes the layers apart while the fat crisps each one.

How to spot a great croissant

A properly made croissant has visible honeycomb lamination when you tear it open — large irregular air pockets, not the dense uniform crumb of a brioche. The exterior should shatter into shards when you bite it, the interior should be silky and pull apart in long strands, and the entire thing should taste of butter, not sugar.

Cousins

• Pain au chocolat — same dough, rectangular, with two batons of dark chocolate.
• Croissant aux amandes — twice-baked with almond cream.
• Kouign-amann — Breton specialty that adds sugar to the lamination, caramelized in the bake.