Croissants

The croissant is a crescent-shaped breakfast roll made from a very buttery dough resembling puff pastry. It is said to have been created by Viennese bakers or by Budapest bakers to celebrate the late-seventeenth-century defeat of the Turks, whose symbol was the crescent. No primary evidence has surfaced to support these contentions. It became part of French culinary traditions in the mid-nineteenth century. The first known introduction of croissants into the United States was not until after World War I; croissants became increasingly popular beginning in the 1960s, and in the early 2000s stuffed croissants were served as breakfast sandwiches by fast food outlets.