French Croissant Or Viennese Muffin

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

The famous French croissant, which melts in your mouth and smells of butter and dough, is actually the heir of the good old Viennese muffin. Many of us remember the hostess with a Viennese muffin and a cup of coffee from Tangra's song, but we hardly know the story of the famous breakfast, which turned into the story of one of the most famous heroes of French cuisine.

Most historians agree that it all began in 1683 in Turkish-besieged Vienna. The troops of the Ottoman Empire prepared to attack at night so as not to be noticed, but a Viennese baker, Adam Spiel, woke up before dawn and sounded the alarm. The attack was repulsed and the city was saved.

And in order to immortalize this victory, the bakers of the city made a horhen (a small knife in German), whose semicircular shape symbolized the Ottoman flag.

This is how the Viennese muffin is believed to have been born, whose history is closely connected with that of the Turks.

There is another legend, and it is related to Vienna and the invasion of the Ottoman Empire. According to her, when the Turks besieged the city for the second time, the Polish King Jan II Sobietski came to the aid of the Viennese. He defeated the Ottoman troops and left a huge convoy of cocoa and coffee. The governor of the Viennese fortress then issued an order to bake crescent-shaped cakes from the Turkish flag and place them on the fortresses when the Ottomans arrived. He also ordered all to be distributed Viennese muffins and coffee.

But what does all this have to do with France and Paris, the city that is famous all over the world for making the best croissants?

The reason is Marie-Antoinette, ironically left in history with the phrase When there is no bread, eat pasta. But long before it was uttered by Marie Antoinette of Austria, daughter of Queen Maria-Theresa of Austria, a native of Vienna, she married King Louis XIV of France. It was she who introduced the croissant to Paris. Although there are reports that crescent-shaped muffins were present at royal banquets as early as the 16th century.

In the 18th century the croissant is a simple loaf of improved dough. The puff pastry croissant, fragrant with butter, which we know and eat today, was created in 1920 by French bakers.

Unfortunately, even in France today, it is increasingly difficult to find real homemade croissants with butter. Most are made industrially and with margarine, and come frozen to bakers who simply bake them.