Mashed with a muffin. Bedazzled with rainbow sprinkles. Shrunk to $50 boxes of petite céréale. And now, flattened and adorned with all manner of outrageous toppings.
Who knew the croissant was such a reinventionist?
For centuries, the viennoiserie has been an elegant display of French craft and simplicity. But just in time for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, which kick off on July 26, the croissant seems to be donning its party clothes and going on a bender.
“I’ve always been obsessed with croissants,” says Sophie Smith, owner of Butter & Crumble in San Francisco, which has a rotating menu consisting of the likes of bacon, egg and cheese croissants, strawberry vanilla cruffins and other laminated pastries. “Whether it’s shapes you create, or the fillings you put in before or after it bakes, there are endless ways to be creative with croissant dough.”
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Like many French things, the croissant is created with equal parts substance and style. But the pastry is actually an Austrian invention. It is said to have been around as early as the 13th century, made from a yeasted dough and known as a kipferi. Stories vary, but it was likely an Austrian artillery officer who brought the pastry to Paris in the 19th century, where it was eventually rechristened as the “croissant” owing to its crescent shape. In 1915, a baker by the name of Sylvain Claudius Goy used laminated yeast dough instead of the denser brioche-like dough, transforming the Austrian pastry into today’s light and flaky, billowy, and buttery French version.
For many bakers, perfecting the croissant is a source of pride. “The best croissant makers ultimately just have an appreciation for the craft,” says James Beard award-nominated pastry chef Nora Allen of Mel the Bakery in Hudson, NY. As well they should—the process is notoriously labor-intensive, time-consuming, and subject to the whims of the weather. Lamination includes folding butter (preferably French) into dough again and again, creating the many billowy-on-the-inside and flaky-on-the-outside layers that implode when bitten into, before being shaped, proofed, and baked. While the technique is textbook, taking up to three days to produce, there are variations that enable each baker to create nuances in balance, structure, and flavor profile.