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Pain de chocolat3/21/2023 ![]() Indeed, if a pain au chocolat is cut in rectangular shapes and filled with two chocolate bars, conversely, croissants are cut in triangles before rolling to create a crescent moon shape. For us, even if these pastries are both made of the same layered dough ( “pâte feuilletée”), croissants and pains au chocolat are radically different. If you’re asking in a French boulangerie a “chocolate croissant” chances are the baker will correct you and says “pain au chocolat”. In France, in addition to the traditional croissant au beurre you’ll find in most bakeries the croissant aux amandes (or “almond croissant”) or the croissant aux abricots also known as Oranais but no “chocolate croissants”. Pain au chocolat or chocolate croissant?īeing French, I’ve never heard the term “chocolate croissant” referring to a pain au chocolat. Others say the name originated with August Zang -the Austrian baker who sold Viennese croissants at his Parisian bakery in the 1830s- who was baking crescent-shaped, chocolate-filled croissants called schokoladencroissants, which translates into French as chocolatine. Some say that it comes from 15th-century English Aquitaine rulers who would ask for “chocolate in bread” in bakeries, which the French understood as “chocolate in”. The origin of the word chocolatine is unclear. The effort was unsuccessful, with deputies in the national assembly voting it down. In 2018, there was even a linguistic debate about the official name of chocolate pastries in the French parliament, with MPs debating over whether the word chocolatine should be an official alternative to the better-known pain au chocolat. Indeed, in central France, southern and Paris, the word pain au chocolat is used, whereas in southwestern France (Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie) the word chocolatine is preferred. This is the famous pain au chocolat-chocolatine linguistic debate of France. And there is an old yet actual argument over what this pastry should be called. In France, the name of the pain au chocolat varies by region. Originally, croissants and pains au chocolat were made from a brioche base but later evolved to incorporate a buttery flaky dough ( pâte feuilletée). ![]() Indeed, these types of pastries, called “viennoiseries” in French, were introduced in the early 19th century, when August Zang, an Austrian officer, and Ernest Schwarzer, an Austrian aristocrat, founded a Viennese bakery in Paris located at 92, rue de Richelieu. ![]() The pain au chocolat is made of the same layered doughs as a croissant.īoth croissants and pains au chocolat are relatively modern inventions. It’s a type of viennoiserie sweet pastry consisting of a cuboid-shaped piece of yeast-leavened laminated dough, with two pieces of dark chocolate in the center. Pain au chocolat, literally “chocolate bread”, is one of the best-known French pastries. For more French recipes, see my article on the best French pastry books of all time. Here is Cedric Grolet’s famous pain au chocolat recipe! This recipe is from the star pâtissier’s pastry book called Opera Patisserie.
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