Of Pain au Chocolat

Did you know that the pain au chocolat, which nowadays is a French trademark, actually only made it to France in the 19th century?

The first thing to clarify is that there are no documents or paper trail as to exactly how the pastry was created or how it made it to France. All we have are stories. Whether they are completely accurate is something we might never know.

Some say that the treat was invented in Austria as a way to keep the army fed in the 17th century.

The most popular story, however, says that the pastry was created by two Austrian who had opened a bakery in the 1830s at 92, rue Richelieu, in Paris: August Zang, an artillery officer and Ernest Schwarzer, an aristocrat.

Pain au chocolat and croissant were originally made from brioche dough, but French bakers replaced it by bread puffy dough, which gives us the pastry we know today. The first recorded French version of the croissant dates from 1915 and was made by Sylvain Claudius Goy. He used what is called a laminated yeast dough, which means dough and butter being folded repeatedly to create a thin, puffy, layered and flaky pastry.

So I guess, while the original version was created by 2 Austrian based on traditional Austrian pastries, the croissant and pain au chocolat as we know them today are technically French inventions.

Now, you might ask what is the difference between a croissant and a pain au chocolat? Is it only the shape? Well, yes it is.

The dough is the same, but the pain au chocolat is shaped like a little bread, rectangular, with chocolate bar added in, while the dough of the croissant is cut in triangles and then rolled. And this is why, calling a pain au chocolat a chocolate croissant drives me insane: croissant translates into crescent, so the shape is important. A croissant should not be rectangular, people!

Lastly, the names: pain au chocolat, chocolate croissant, chocolatine... which is it?

It is whichever one you want, as long you understand a croissant should be in the shape of a crescent (yes, I really have a beef about that particular bit)!

Overall, the name seems to depend on where you live. If you live in the central and south east side of France you will probably call it a pain au chocolat. If you are from the south west of France it will be a chocolatine and if you are from Alsace it will be called a petit pain (little bread). In Belgium those are called couque au chocolat and in the US and Canada they tend to be called chocolate croissant (do not get me started again, as to how a rectangular shaped pastry should not be called a croissant, I can go on for hours!).

Either way, I hope you enjoy those delicious little treats, and make sure you try artisanal pain au chocolat or croissant, made with real butter at least once in your life !

Sources: