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| Kipfel (German for"Crescent") |
Do I miss-read? No, you're not dear.. I know. The croissant is not French- it was first baked in Austria. And its shape is anything but accident. That popular pastry dates back to 1683. In that year an army of more than a hundred thousand Ottoman (empire) Turks was surrounding the city of vienna for months and residents inside the walls began to wonder if each day would be their last.
When the Turks tried tunneling under the walls, bakers working through the night heard the digging sounds and raised the alarm. This early warning prevented the Turks from breaching Vienna's walls and helped save the city. (Merci beaucoup bakers!) Eventually, an army under polish King John III reached Vienna and drove the Turks away.
The bakers celebrated the end of the siege (pengepungan) in a remarkable way. They copied the crescent moon from their enemy's flag and turned it into a commemorative pastry. It was called Kipfel (German for "Crescent") back then and it honored a victory that might never happened but for the bakers themselves.
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| Turkish Flag |
And how it can be so popular in French?
If you watch Marie Antoinette played by Kristen Dunst, it is her that introduced croissant to the French people. No, not Kristen Dunst. Thanks to Marie Antoinette, the 15 year-old Austrian Princess arrived in France to marry the future King Louis XVI in 1770. Parisian baker started turning out Kipfels in her honor, and the French themselves in love with a breakfast treat that they soon made their own..
Bisous,
Agy.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant
Book - The greatest stories never told by Rick Beyer
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