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curved croissants are made with margarine...straight croissant are made with butter...that is what I was told. how did the shape and content not play a part in the history? I believe it is law in paris..
I'm a devout Townsends follower. One day a recommended video popped up with one of your videos, and I must say I enjoy your videos just as much as Townsends channel!
Applying egg wash on a pastry after baking means immediately after taking it out of the oven so the residual heat is enough to cook the thin egg mixture. Ends up lighter in color and a little bit tacky so it's used primarily for powdered sugar coatings.
Interesting, TIL. I wish I had known of that technique about 18 months ago, I had some bread loafs destined for powdered sugar dusting that would have absolutely sang with such a coating
Yep, residual heat is enough to cook eggs as long as you apply it quickly. Same principle behind egg drop/egg flower soup-you shut off the heat and then immediately stir the eggs into the broth.
I have been making this (1850s) version my whole life, mostly because that's what my parents used to make as well when I was a kid. I had no idea this was how they used to be. I assumed this was just a lazy home-cooking variantion
Exactly, when I first saw the picture I almost gasped because they look just like my grandma’s holiday staple rolls, that I thought were croissants growing up. Although she rubs the rolled out dough with butter, then you cut out the triangles and roll up into twists. (Actually my brother and I thought they looked like earthworms so we called them worm rolls;] )
I thought of Pillsbury cresents my mother would make for holiday meals lol. It was her best baking attempt because everything else even the birds refused to eat in the depth of winter. I taught myself baking just to protect us from her attempts at cake.
Little correction: The egg wash applied after baking does not leave raw egg on top. You're meant to do it immediately after it comes out the oven, and thinly, meaning it flash-cooks on the surface of the hot baked goods. It actually looks quite nice and shiny, but doesn't help with browning like egg-wash before baking would.
In French we even have a word “viennoiserie” (which could be translated to Vienna’s thing), that refers to all kind of pastries we, French people, eat at breakfast, for instance Pain au Chocolat, Croissant or Pain au Raisin…
Which is also why at the end of the video Max mentions croissants with other forms, for us the Croissant still refers to the shape and taste, because the rest is included in the Viennoiserie family which always shares this kind of dough!
You had me at “Free croissants for life!” Half the fun of croissants is saying “croissant” in a your best French accent. When I make them, I usually takes 3 days between all the steps. Happy to try this one out!
If you like croissants, you might like a Dutch version where they cover the croissant in chocolate and put - I think - hazelnut(?) on top. Obviously not an every day thing, though!
In the year 2000, I did a summer semester in London, and at the very end of my trip, I spent a week in Paris. I had almost no money left after six weeks abroad, but I ate on the cheap in France, subsisting mostly on croissants, pains au chocolat, crepes, and the occasional Royale with Cheese from McDonald's. Wandering along the Champs Elysees and eating pastries and bread: It was divine.
@@CharlieFoxtrot06 Tarantino and Avery wrote the film while staying in Europe, mainly Amsterdam. So a lot of the stuff Vincent says about Europe was probably based on their experiences there.
As a french person, I have to correct you at 18:08 : croissants are crecent-shaped. The filled ones you show are only called croissant abroad. The raisin one is called "pain au raisin" (raisin bread), and the chocolate one is called "pain au chocolat" (chocolate bread) or "chocolatine" depending on the place (there is a great french cultural fight about the name of this absolutely excellent pastry) It would be weird to call those croissants in France, because the name refers to the shape.
Just wanted to add that the one exception is the croissant aux amandes, which is made by putting almond paste in day-old croissants and cooking them a second time. It's done for waste-reducing and cost-cutting, but is often appreciated in its own right, and quite common.
When I was growing up in France, our local bakeries always had a mini baguette-shaped brioche style bread called a viennois (sometimes they have chocolate chips) and your description of the early croissant made me realise they're the same thing, just different shapes, and both exquisite. Bakeries in the the UK just aren't on the same level as patisseries.
Wonderful, Mr. Max! I work at a retirement home and am the unofficial baker and dessert maker. I was looking for a recipe for our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner and I think I have just the recipe to use!
In Italy we do something very similar to the croissant, it’s called cornetto (which technically means “little horn”, but I’m pretty sure it’s called like that because it sounds similar to the original kipfel). The main difference with the croissant is that it has eggs in the dough and it’s usually filled with cream or jam. Obviously it is my duty as an Italian to tell you that the French may have won the battle on the croissant, but they have not won the war and that one day the cornetto shall prevail
I think this is where the connection definitely comes from when people started to really put all kinds of flavouring and fillings into cakes. Right now i'm craving these little cake bars made in germany that has chocolate throughout the middle and i think it's vanilla cake i suppose they're like cake fingers but they call them bars in supermarkets. They're like cheap cake snacks sold i think pretty much everywhere these days.
Here in Argentina we have a pastry called medialuna (literally half-moon) which looks like a small croissant but they are denser and sweeter, the ones made with butter, also brushed with a syrup right out of the oven that makes them shiny. There's also more savoury ones made with fat which are thinner and paler
That's how they make ready made stuff in factories everywhere too denser with syrup painted on to make it shiny they do it for various buns and bread like cakes.
Kipferl continued on in Hungary as kifli, very similar in looks to the ones shown around 7:00 - it is a very plain non-sweet baked good these days, just like the bun (de-DE: Brötchen, de-AT: Semmel, hu: zsemle/zsömle). Both are mostly used as a sandwich base.
I have also seen them baked as a brioche style of bread, but they where slightly sweet. Like frauleintrude said, they are usually a version of Milchbrötchen (a soft, fluffy style of bread) but are also great for sandwiches. They pair nicely with more savoury inggredients!
Here in Denmark we have a bun that’s called a giffel, it’s plain white bread with crunchy crust and it looks kinda like a lazy croissant in shape, I can only imagine that’s a descendant of the kipferl too
I have to share this story: I love croissants & when I had a couple 17 year old French young women staying with me (in the US), we went to the grocery store & I offered to get them some for our breakfast. "Oh no!" they cried in unison, "We want Wooonder Bread!" I could only roll my eyes as I thought to myself, "Ah, kids!". 🙃 Love your show!
@Brandyalla it's very normal I think to want to try whatever weird local food there is when you're visiting a country. I'd always rather try some gross local food than a botched version of something from my home country.
My wife and I had a girl from Toulouse as a summer exchange student here in Michigan. She and her husband a master pastry chef, run a small shop near Toulouse. When we visit them I love all the pastries they make.
What a treat to learn the history of croissants! Just got back from Paris where we had the most buttery delicate croissants, but I so enjoyed hearing how we arrived at the modern version. And congrats on leading next year’s Danube river cruise! You’ll have lots of food history to talk about for that part of the world! Best of luck!
New Tasting History, perfect breakfast vid. Need a Fidough and Dachsbun pokemon mini-plush for the baking episodes - I think it will fit perfectly in the collection
"Mm, I mean, it's just warm bread" has never been spoken in such a satisfying way, LOL. I love modern croissants, but these seem more like something I can pull of myself, and I can't wait to try them this fall. As always, fantastic story and wonderful presentation.
I still remember the first time I had a croissant. It was the early 80s and croissants weren’t really a thing where I lived. A friend and I went out to the San Juan Islands (in WA state) and stayed at a hostel there. The stay came with a simple breakfast that included a croissant. I have loved them ever since.
Fortunately, I had already finished my morning coffee when you made the quip about "every time Vienna was under siege, we got a new pastry." It has been years since I had coffee being regurgitated out of my nose, but it is not a pleasant experience! Though it has only come from some statement that I could not help from laughing while simultaneously trying to swallow coffee. You are off the hook, I get up early, and my coffee quota was already completed. Interesting story, and thank you for the history lesson!
my grand Aunt (grandma's sister) used to make croissants, they were a soft bread roll (not a flaky pastry) served hot with butter and jam, we ate them french style, dipped in coffee (this was UK in around 80) we had camp coffee, which is chicory. i loved visiting my Aunt for the summer)
In Washington, DC, the Ted's Bulletin restaurants and their associated "Sidekick" bakeries serve croissants stuff with eggs, cheese, breakfast meats, sometimes cream cheese...they're divine :)
A wonderful video as always, Mr. Miller! Thank you for continuing to to do what you do: Educating and enlightening millions of people around the world through a medium that is universally understood, the medium of food.
Max reminds me of Anthony Bourdain. I'm glad I get to grow old watching Max and living my dreams through his adventures. 🙏May he never run out of avenues to explore!! 💙🌹
Interesting! I knew none of this, though it does explain why croissants (especially non crescent shaped ones, and often cinnamon roll like non flaky ones at that) are sometimes called "gifflar" in Swedish. "Giffel" is obviously just loaned into Swedish from the German "kipfel/gipfel."
There’s an YT video where a guy walked around Paris eating croissants from different bakeries while protestors filled the streets. That has to be the most French thing.
That reminds me I really want to make vanilla kipferl at some point. Obligatory Sabaton-reference: THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED! COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN SIDE!
Here in germany, we have a variant called "Laugen Croissant". It's a cross between a croissant and the typical "Laugen" dough you would use for a Brezel. They are delicious.
I swear, that's exactly how my gramma used to make them, in a God forgotten village in Romania, absolutely no connection with France or the 1880's! She used to make a filling with cottage chese, eggs, sugar and raisins... an absolute treat!
I was expecting Sabaton the second that Ottomans and Vienna were mentioned in the same breath. Glad to the see that the audience of Tasting History does not disappoint!
In Poland, we have "rogale" or singular "rogal". It means "horn-ey". Best ones are baked sprinkled with poppy seeds. Freshly baked they are simply mouth watering! 😍
I LOVE BIENENSTICH!!! I live in a city that was historically settled by a lot of Germans and we used to get it at our city’s Cristkindl market once a year but they haven’t been there the last few and I miss it. I’d be so happy for him to do a video on it. It’s one of the few things I’ve actually made myself before so I’d be interested what recipe he went with😊
Oh yes! Bienenstich! I tried a few different versions but none came close to the one our baker used to make when I was a kid. I'd trust Max to find the most delicious versions.
I will not lie. Ive oft fallen asleep to a video youve made, given how your vocie can still reach me in sleep. 😅 Atill. I get to watch the video a second time 😊
Now, I really want to try an idea I had for croissants. I've seen recipes, so it apparently works. Treating the surface of a baked good with a lye or baking soda solution gives a thicker browned skin thus giving one a pretzel crust croissant.
Omg jusr 2 days ago I had a croissant with Tea and wanted to watch while enjoying it one of your episodes, trying to find sth about croissants or similar pastries :)) now there it is:))😂🎉
Another stellar episode, Max! So much history resonates in the humble croissant! It was hard not to hear "Do you hear the people sing?" from Les Mis during the bakers riot part!
Finding a food once that you spend the rest of your life thinking about is incredibly relatable. My best memories of living in NYC are all about the food. Also really interesting that so many food components we think of as classic are really quite modern. Makes me excited to see what new food ideas we get in the coming years.
I took a river cruise on the Danube many years ago, and it was delightful. I hope your trip is fantastic. If you wind up enjoying that one, a Rhine river cruise is even more amazing. As an aside, at the risk of sound like a shill, I live where there are no bakeries, have had a Wild Grain sub for about 3 years, and am quite happy with it. Obviously, a local bakery would be better, but they're the next best thing. Which is good because now I am craving croissants and have some of theirs in my freezer!
Its funny, what you made at the end looks like the Kipferl we still have in bakeries here in vienna. And some old bakeries still prefer to call them "pariser kipferl" instead of croissants. We arent spiteful at all. :'D
Especially in Paris. I went there on my honeymoon about 25 years ago and fell in love with French baking. Any croissant I have had in Canada has not even been close. Although, believe it or not, the ones from Costco are about as good as you can get here.
We in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Albania, have a beloved bread called Kifla (or Kifle). It’s so popular that you could say the Balkans practically run on Kifle!
They look and sound like the croissants that my grandmother used to make. . She was raised on the prairie of South Dakota born in 1914. She always had a jam tray of all of her homemade jams with the center being whipped butter. Both plain and with herbs. It was one of my favorite things about Christmas! 💞
This is fascinating! After living in Paris in the early 1950s and returning to America, my grandpa learned to make croissants from a 50s cookbook. I assume they were a lot like what he ate in Paris at the time. He eventually passed on the croissant baking tradition to me, and I still make this recipe every Christmas. It's an odd recipe that uses softened butter between the layers. They are slightly more bread-like than modern croissants but so deliciously buttery. Now I realize the recipe may be more authentic than I thought, seeing how the recipe has changed over the years. Maybe this was the norm in the 1950s.
This reminds me of what we call „milchhörnchen“ (milk horns) in Germany, they used to be my favourite breakfast as a kid Slathered in Nutella of course
Your historic croissants look like the rolls the women in my mother's family (who came from rural middle Tennessee) hade for holiday meals and other special occasions. They called them crescent rolls. My memories are also from the late 1950's to the early 1970's. When eaten as a snack bread, we would break them in half and dab some butter and either jam or honey on the soft end, then bite it off, repeating as we worked down to the tip end. This works best while they are still warm. richard --
18:25 fun fact; the croissant is very popular in England but 99% of the time you'll find it not bent into a crescent shape but perfectly straight, because we like to cut them open and stuff them with cheese and ham (as in, proper English cheese like cheddar and proper slices of English cured ham, like gammon or honey roast).
Oh! My family still makes this particular version of the croissant you just made! I'm originally from Hungary where (as another commenter mentioned) kipfel continues on as 'kifli' and is still widely sold and used with daily meals. My Grandma has inherited the same recipe you made in this video from her family, I believe, and in my family, we call it 'semmi-kifli' (lit: 'nothing kipfel/plain kipfel.') We make it slightly smaller in size but it's otherwise the exact same. (We also sometimes make a version with caraway seeds on top.) Didn't know that the regular kifli and the 'semmi-kifli' were basically both ancestors to the French croissant at different stages, so this was a fascinating & surprising watch for sure!
I would not discard the story about the origin of the croissant from The Baker's Book as false because of some discrepancies. The Ottomans did not suddenly appear at Vienna's doorstep, they had been fighting the Holy Roman Empire for years, winning some significant battles. It is very likely that the croissant was indeed created in relation to the Ottoman flag, the baker must have been very well aware of the events and even if he had indeed died before the actual battle of Vienna (could not find any info on him), that does not mean the he hadn't indeed invented the croissant. The author of the book might have been the one who had set the events in besieged Vienna years later for better dramatic effect.
The point is, the shape had already been around in the 13th century when what would become the Ottoman Empire was still the Byzantine Empire. The counter-argument isn't that the baker in question died before the siege, the argument is that it was invented generations before he was even born.
Yay! Another Max Miller video! Downloaded for watching later this evening. I do enjoy a nice croissant, and I will be interested in learning about its history. Thank you!
To your point that the name crescent isnt really relevant anymore to the shape, as my french partner INSISTS on reminding me, anything thats not a "traditional" croissant is not called a croissant. Your example of a croissant with chocolate in it is more appropriately called a pain au chocolat. Anything else is just english speakers tossing the word croissant onto any pastry that has the same flaky consistency. We discuss this a lot because if you've ever been to Toronto, asian bakeries will make all sorts of things like cubes, etc., and call them croissants.
What interesting is I think only North American English speakers are this lax, in the UK and Australia we also refer to those pastries with the correct names
To second this, I think it's mostly Americans/Canadians who call anything puff pastry a croissant. Here in the UK a croissant is a croissant, a pain au chocolat is a pain au chocolat, etc. etc. Filled croissants exist, but they are crescent shaped; if it isn't a crescent it cannot be a croissant.
Croissants and crème brûlée are two of my favourite things and now I’m going to have to spend my life hunting that down too😫 I already dream of a very specific croissant I had once and can never have again, it was from my friends culinary class and it was just like an extra tester from some experiments they were doing so they don’t even exist but I dream of it sometimes, it was so good🤤
Je kiffe les croissants. You just learned how to say “I like/love/dig croissants” in slang French. You’re welcome. And yes French people will tell us Americans that there aren’t any good French bakeries here in the US😂
Fun fact - the word for croissant in German is the same as the word for squirrel - hörnchen - or "little horned thing." Squirrels in Europe have fuzzy tufts by their ears that resemble horns. Chipmunks are streifenhörnchen or "striped little horned thing," but I like to imagine chipmunks in German are understood to be striped croissants. Certainly similar to how my cat always thought of them.
My favourite croissant adjacent baked good has always been a German variety called Bamberger (or Bamberger Hörnla / Hörnchen). I‘m not from Bamberg myself but when I was a child you could easily get them in other parts of Franconia / Bavaria. Haven’t been able to find any in 10+ years though, unfortunately. (I’m sure they’re still available in some regions but certainly not where I live.) They look very similar to modern croissants but the taste was even more buttery and they didn’t flake as much iirc.
I just had the 1850s version today from a local Mexican Bakery so it seems that style of pastry is still done today. I had it with a cup of coffee and yes they are very much sweet bread when you think about it.
Thank you Wildgrain for sponsoring. Visit wildgrain.com/tastinghistory and use code
“TASTINGHISTORY” at checkout to receive $30 your first box + free croissants for life!
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curved croissants are made with margarine...straight croissant are made with butter...that is what I was told. how did the shape and content not play a part in the history? I believe it is law in paris..
The cruise sounds amazing! I looked at the itinerary. Can I ask some of the things you will be leading?
Silly question do they have vegan croissants or are my neighbors gonna love me?
Your Danube cruise website shows a picture of Prague which is not located anywhere close to the Danube.
@@parpar3 omg you’re right! 😂 Not sure why they’d do that. I’ll see if they can’t update it. It should be Budapest.
OPENING LINE: "What is better than a buttery, flaky croissant?"
"TWO buttery, flaky croissants!"
THREE buttery, flaky croissants
@@lexietheemeraldminecart [THUNDER & LIGHTNING] HA HA HA HAAAA!
Why an I hearing this thread in the voice of 'The Count'
I swear there was a burger king ad with that libe
‘Through the magic of making two’
2:26 A real "pain". Intentional or not, that's a solid bread pun
😂
*sigh*
Ba dum tss
It’s the yeast he could do…😶
You have to have some crust to tell a joke like that.
I came here to say that same thing!
max miller is a national treasure
🥰
Spittin facts
The only question is "Which Nation?"
@tal_the_great
agree, he is a treasure for all humanity 🌏❤
@@tal_the_great
He is a treasure for all humanity 🌏❤
I'm a devout Townsends follower. One day a recommended video popped up with one of your videos, and I must say I enjoy your videos just as much as Townsends channel!
As a lover of Townsends, that’s high praise!
We are so spoiled to be able to follow them both ❤
I love Townsends channel!
I found him through a Bernadette Banner Christmas video of all things 😅 it recommended his gingerbread video and I’ve been hooked ever since ❤
Applying egg wash on a pastry after baking means immediately after taking it out of the oven so the residual heat is enough to cook the thin egg mixture. Ends up lighter in color and a little bit tacky so it's used primarily for powdered sugar coatings.
Interesting, TIL. I wish I had known of that technique about 18 months ago, I had some bread loafs destined for powdered sugar dusting that would have absolutely sang with such a coating
Thank you for the explanation.!
Yep, residual heat is enough to cook eggs as long as you apply it quickly. Same principle behind egg drop/egg flower soup-you shut off the heat and then immediately stir the eggs into the broth.
I have been making this (1850s) version my whole life, mostly because that's what my parents used to make as well when I was a kid. I had no idea this was how they used to be. I assumed this was just a lazy home-cooking variantion
Exactly, when I first saw the picture I almost gasped because they look just like my grandma’s holiday staple rolls, that I thought were croissants growing up. Although she rubs the rolled out dough with butter, then you cut out the triangles and roll up into twists. (Actually my brother and I thought they looked like earthworms so we called them worm rolls;] )
I thought of Pillsbury cresents my mother would make for holiday meals lol. It was her best baking attempt because everything else even the birds refused to eat in the depth of winter. I taught myself baking just to protect us from her attempts at cake.
Little correction: The egg wash applied after baking does not leave raw egg on top. You're meant to do it immediately after it comes out the oven, and thinly, meaning it flash-cooks on the surface of the hot baked goods. It actually looks quite nice and shiny, but doesn't help with browning like egg-wash before baking would.
In French we even have a word “viennoiserie” (which could be translated to Vienna’s thing), that refers to all kind of pastries we, French people, eat at breakfast, for instance Pain au Chocolat, Croissant or Pain au Raisin…
Which is also why at the end of the video Max mentions croissants with other forms, for us the Croissant still refers to the shape and taste, because the rest is included in the Viennoiserie family which always shares this kind of dough!
We have the same in Denmark, it's all called "Wienerbrød", Viennese bread.
To be a bit nitpicky, viennoiseries are fancy breads, made by a baker, and not pastries, those are made by pastry chefs (two different jobs).
@@AtomikGround Oh wow, you're right! I never considered that! That's so funny.
@@AtomikGroundas an austrian i never knew viennas bread was so influential
You had me at “Free croissants for life!”
Half the fun of croissants is saying “croissant” in a your best French accent.
When I make them, I usually takes 3 days between all the steps. Happy to try this one out!
I don't know about you, but he already got me at Garum
If you like croissants, you might like a Dutch version where they cover the croissant in chocolate and put - I think - hazelnut(?) on top. Obviously not an every day thing, though!
or your worst French accent, no judgements here
Dave Barry referred to the French r as dislodging a live eel from your esophagus.
In the year 2000, I did a summer semester in London, and at the very end of my trip, I spent a week in Paris. I had almost no money left after six weeks abroad, but I ate on the cheap in France, subsisting mostly on croissants, pains au chocolat, crepes, and the occasional Royale with Cheese from McDonald's. Wandering along the Champs Elysees and eating pastries and bread: It was divine.
So it really is called a Royale with Cheese in France? I always thought Tarantino made that up.
@@CharlieFoxtrot06 Tarantino and Avery wrote the film while staying in Europe, mainly Amsterdam. So a lot of the stuff Vincent says about Europe was probably based on their experiences there.
Say "What?" again, I dare you!
@@bill6843 somehow I had forgotten that. Thanks!
@@RonJohn63 they speak English in What?!
As a french person, I have to correct you at 18:08 : croissants are crecent-shaped. The filled ones you show are only called croissant abroad. The raisin one is called "pain au raisin" (raisin bread), and the chocolate one is called "pain au chocolat" (chocolate bread) or "chocolatine" depending on the place (there is a great french cultural fight about the name of this absolutely excellent pastry)
It would be weird to call those croissants in France, because the name refers to the shape.
Same in Belgium and UK
And if they're both croissant-shaped *and* chocolate-filled?
@@darthplagueis13 It's not usually done, though I suppose then we would call it a stuffed croissant.
Indeed, croissants are crescent shaped. Bad Croissants might be straight ish. Those shown are not croissants. Dutch here.
Just wanted to add that the one exception is the croissant aux amandes, which is made by putting almond paste in day-old croissants and cooking them a second time. It's done for waste-reducing and cost-cutting, but is often appreciated in its own right, and quite common.
When I was growing up in France, our local bakeries always had a mini baguette-shaped brioche style bread called a viennois (sometimes they have chocolate chips) and your description of the early croissant made me realise they're the same thing, just different shapes, and both exquisite. Bakeries in the the UK just aren't on the same level as patisseries.
"Max, what is best in life?"
"To drive your enemies before you & hear the laminations of their dough."
That's exactly what I was thinking when I heard him say "laminations of their dough"!
Crush your butter. See it rolled before you and taste the laminations of their croissants.
It's the only way to keep these beasts off your back lol
Wonderful, Mr. Max!
I work at a retirement home and am the unofficial baker and dessert maker. I was looking for a recipe for our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner and I think I have just the recipe to use!
Hope the residents ❤ them.
In Italy we do something very similar to the croissant, it’s called cornetto (which technically means “little horn”, but I’m pretty sure it’s called like that because it sounds similar to the original kipfel). The main difference with the croissant is that it has eggs in the dough and it’s usually filled with cream or jam. Obviously it is my duty as an Italian to tell you that the French may have won the battle on the croissant, but they have not won the war and that one day the cornetto shall prevail
I think this is where the connection definitely comes from when people started to really put all kinds of flavouring and fillings into cakes. Right now i'm craving these little cake bars made in germany that has chocolate throughout the middle and i think it's vanilla cake i suppose they're like cake fingers but they call them bars in supermarkets. They're like cheap cake snacks sold i think pretty much everywhere these days.
italian bread is better than french bread any day
Here in Argentina we have a pastry called medialuna (literally half-moon) which looks like a small croissant but they are denser and sweeter, the ones made with butter, also brushed with a syrup right out of the oven that makes them shiny. There's also more savoury ones made with fat which are thinner and paler
I saw these pastries and thought that they resemble the medialuna, as well! Medialunas are sooooooooo good, and I miss them all a lot!
I came here looking for someone talking about medialunas!!! 😊
That's how they make ready made stuff in factories everywhere too denser with syrup painted on to make it shiny they do it for various buns and bread like cakes.
Medialunas are infinitely superior to dry half burnt croussants 🇦🇷
@@Harteo3917except no, they arent made in factories but in bakeries by hand.
Mr Miller, you've become my favourite youtuber. Although I can't afford ingredients, your lessons are a great joy.
Kipferl continued on in Hungary as kifli, very similar in looks to the ones shown around 7:00 - it is a very plain non-sweet baked good these days, just like the bun (de-DE: Brötchen, de-AT: Semmel, hu: zsemle/zsömle). Both are mostly used as a sandwich base.
Same here called Milchhörnchen or milk cornet - not really sweet, not buttery, more kind of soft bun.
I have also seen them baked as a brioche style of bread, but they where slightly sweet. Like frauleintrude said, they are usually a version of Milchbrötchen (a soft, fluffy style of bread) but are also great for sandwiches. They pair nicely with more savoury inggredients!
Here in Denmark we have a bun that’s called a giffel, it’s plain white bread with crunchy crust and it looks kinda like a lazy croissant in shape, I can only imagine that’s a descendant of the kipferl too
I think I will buy Croatian version of your book at book fair next month. Can't wait.
7:48
🎼🎵And the Winged Hussars arrived!!!!!🎵🎼
(Epic music swells!!)
I instantly went to the comments to see how long it would take for someone to make this joke
Coming down the mountain side!
Aw man, beat me to it. ;D
@@NachoDaManwith Gandalf?
Was looking for that!
I have to share this story: I love croissants & when I had a couple 17 year old French young women staying with me (in the US), we went to the grocery store & I offered to get them some for our breakfast. "Oh no!" they cried in unison, "We want Wooonder Bread!" I could only roll my eyes as I thought to myself, "Ah, kids!". 🙃 Love your show!
They were probably just trying to save themselves from whatever awful bread concoction an american grocery store called a croissant.
@@Jexdane By replacing it with the infinitely worse bread concoction that is Wonder Bread?
@Brandyalla it's very normal I think to want to try whatever weird local food there is when you're visiting a country. I'd always rather try some gross local food than a botched version of something from my home country.
@@Jexdane Yes, I got that...afterwards. 😆
@@Jexdane I thought of that, too...after a minute
My wife and I had a girl from Toulouse as a summer exchange student here in Michigan. She and her husband a master pastry chef, run a small shop near Toulouse. When we visit them I love all the pastries they make.
Croissants my beloved
I just started the video, but seeing the one you hold up in the intro, they turned out BEAUTIFULLY
What a treat to learn the history of croissants! Just got back from Paris where we had the most buttery delicate croissants, but I so enjoyed hearing how we arrived at the modern version. And congrats on leading next year’s Danube river cruise! You’ll have lots of food history to talk about for that part of the world! Best of luck!
New Tasting History, perfect breakfast vid.
Need a Fidough and Dachsbun pokemon mini-plush for the baking episodes - I think it will fit perfectly in the collection
For this episode, I spied a Cresselia on the counter behind him.
@@leannsmarie Yee there was a Cresselia, but Fidough and Dachsbun would be adorable additions to the hidden Pokemon Minis in the background
@@TheDreamingRoyal Maybe he thought that would be too on-the-nose?
Nothing beats a warm, buttery, flakey croissant with fresh jam. Can't wait to watch this video!
Absolutely 💯
A hammer does the job
Warm Buchty filled with poppy seeds, glistening with butter beat the croissant
Croissant with cream cheese. That’s good
Happy to be here in time to see this in the first hour :)
Happy Tuesday, Max!
"Mm, I mean, it's just warm bread" has never been spoken in such a satisfying way, LOL. I love modern croissants, but these seem more like something I can pull of myself, and I can't wait to try them this fall. As always, fantastic story and wonderful presentation.
I still remember the first time I had a croissant. It was the early 80s and croissants weren’t really a thing where I lived. A friend and I went out to the San Juan Islands (in WA state) and stayed at a hostel there. The stay came with a simple breakfast that included a croissant. I have loved them ever since.
Oh my, a river cruise along the Danube! Always a dream of mine one with Max Miller and concentrating on culinary/ history? 😍🤩
I let out a huge sigh on that comment as that is my dream vacation.... Alas, I can't go at that time...😢
If you want it act fast! They’re already down to only balcony rooms and suites available, the cheaper staterooms are showing as sold out.
Fortunately, I had already finished my morning coffee when you made the quip about "every time Vienna was under siege, we got a new pastry." It has been years since I had coffee being regurgitated out of my nose, but it is not a pleasant experience! Though it has only come from some statement that I could not help from laughing while simultaneously trying to swallow coffee.
You are off the hook, I get up early, and my coffee quota was already completed. Interesting story, and thank you for the history lesson!
my grand Aunt (grandma's sister) used to make croissants, they were a soft bread roll (not a flaky pastry) served hot with butter and jam, we ate them french style, dipped in coffee (this was UK in around 80) we had camp coffee, which is chicory.
i loved visiting my Aunt for the summer)
TASTING HISTORY TUESDAY LET'S GOOOO!!!!!!
That split triangle technique looks interesting. When I make them from puff pastry I just use a triangle. I will try the split next time.
In Washington, DC, the Ted's Bulletin restaurants and their associated "Sidekick" bakeries serve croissants stuff with eggs, cheese, breakfast meats, sometimes cream cheese...they're divine :)
A wonderful video as always, Mr. Miller! Thank you for continuing to to do what you do: Educating and enlightening millions of people around the world through a medium that is universally understood, the medium of food.
Max reminds me of Anthony Bourdain. I'm glad I get to grow old watching Max and living my dreams through his adventures. 🙏May he never run out of avenues to explore!! 💙🌹
Just found your channel last night, been binge-watching when I saw a new upload!
Interesting! I knew none of this, though it does explain why croissants (especially non crescent shaped ones, and often cinnamon roll like non flaky ones at that) are sometimes called "gifflar" in Swedish. "Giffel" is obviously just loaned into Swedish from the German "kipfel/gipfel."
There’s an YT video where a guy walked around Paris eating croissants from different bakeries while protestors filled the streets. That has to be the most French thing.
So true 😅😂
One of my favorite treats! Always feel a little weird eating them cuz they look exactly like my dog.
Like the Fidough?
Thanks for the vid breakfast is always better when I have a new vid from you to watch
That reminds me I really want to make vanilla kipferl at some point.
Obligatory Sabaton-reference:
THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED! COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN SIDE!
Here in germany, we have a variant called "Laugen Croissant". It's a cross between a croissant and the typical "Laugen" dough you would use for a Brezel. They are delicious.
Good pronounciation of "Kipferl". You really took of advantage of your stay in Vienna. Greetings from Austria.
I swear, that's exactly how my gramma used to make them, in a God forgotten village in Romania, absolutely no connection with France or the 1880's! She used to make a filling with cottage chese, eggs, sugar and raisins... an absolute treat!
...And at 07:45, the Winged Hussars arrived.
Coming down the mountainside.
COMING DOWN THEY TURNED THE TIDE
Thank you, I was scrolling looking for this inevitability
I was expecting Sabaton the second that Ottomans and Vienna were mentioned in the same breath. Glad to the see that the audience of Tasting History does not disappoint!
WE REMEMBER IN SEPTEMBER
Excellent pokemon choice very on theme. I am so glad i found this channel.
In Poland, we have "rogale" or singular "rogal". It means "horn-ey". Best ones are baked sprinkled with poppy seeds. Freshly baked they are simply mouth watering! 😍
I love twisted baked goods. The texture is just so interesting.
Omg the kipfel! My (Swedish) mum always made us ”giffel”. I loved it.
In Ashkenaz culture we make something similar with cinnamon called rugelach 😁
@@ezrafriesner8370that’s so cool, united by food ❤
Did I miss the "Time for History" stinger in this video? I miss it! Another fantastic episode! I look so forward to these!
6:51
You need to do Bienenstich, it has a silly story about fighting of army as well. It’s my all time favorite desert
I LOVE BIENENSTICH!!! I live in a city that was historically settled by a lot of Germans and we used to get it at our city’s Cristkindl market once a year but they haven’t been there the last few and I miss it.
I’d be so happy for him to do a video on it. It’s one of the few things I’ve actually made myself before so I’d be interested what recipe he went with😊
Oh yes! Bienenstich! I tried a few different versions but none came close to the one our baker used to make when I was a kid. I'd trust Max to find the most delicious versions.
I'd love to see that.
this makes me wonder if Pillsbury crescent rolls are just historically accurate croissants...
I was thinking much the same.
Croissant means crescent and they are crescent 🌙 shaped, so...
My local Danish bakery calls crescent shaped rolls 'butter horns".
I love how history can have so many variables and accounts.
I will not lie. Ive oft fallen asleep to a video youve made, given how your vocie can still reach me in sleep. 😅
Atill. I get to watch the video a second time 😊
Now, I really want to try an idea I had for croissants. I've seen recipes, so it apparently works. Treating the surface of a baked good with a lye or baking soda solution gives a thicker browned skin thus giving one a pretzel crust croissant.
Ummm, grains of truth when discussing the history of baked goods. Love it 😂
Something I would love to see some day is a history of fish and chips. Especially after I heard they were originally from Portugal and not England
Omg jusr 2 days ago I had a croissant with Tea and wanted to watch while enjoying it one of your episodes, trying to find sth about croissants or similar pastries :)) now there it is:))😂🎉
Another stellar episode, Max! So much history resonates in the humble croissant! It was hard not to hear "Do you hear the people sing?" from Les Mis during the bakers riot part!
Love how this video just devolves into you saying croissant on repeat at the end
Finding a food once that you spend the rest of your life thinking about is incredibly relatable. My best memories of living in NYC are all about the food.
Also really interesting that so many food components we think of as classic are really quite modern. Makes me excited to see what new food ideas we get in the coming years.
AAH ZE CROISSANT, MAGNIFIQUE =)
Hon Hon Hon!
I took a river cruise on the Danube many years ago, and it was delightful. I hope your trip is fantastic. If you wind up enjoying that one, a Rhine river cruise is even more amazing.
As an aside, at the risk of sound like a shill, I live where there are no bakeries, have had a Wild Grain sub for about 3 years, and am quite happy with it. Obviously, a local bakery would be better, but they're the next best thing. Which is good because now I am craving croissants and have some of theirs in my freezer!
Its funny, what you made at the end looks like the Kipferl we still have in bakeries here in vienna.
And some old bakeries still prefer to call them "pariser kipferl" instead of croissants. We arent spiteful at all. :'D
33:55 - it is so refreshing to hear that, thank you!
Croissant 🥐 and coffee ☕ is my favorite breakfast meal
Especially in Paris. I went there on my honeymoon about 25 years ago and fell in love with French baking. Any croissant I have had in Canada has not even been close. Although, believe it or not, the ones from Costco are about as good as you can get here.
Perfect timing!
We in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Albania, have a beloved bread called Kifla (or Kifle). It’s so popular that you could say the Balkans practically run on Kifle!
И в България се нарича кифла, модифицирано от Kipferl.
Years of watching and I finally caught a video 2 minutes after it dropped! Woooooo not gonna be days behind for me! XD
They look and sound like the croissants that my grandmother used to make. . She was raised on the prairie of South Dakota born in 1914. She always had a jam tray of all of her homemade jams with the center being whipped butter. Both plain and with herbs. It was one of my favorite things about Christmas! 💞
I see Cresselia. Very much on shape. This channel's content always makes the day brighter.
Thanks, I couldn't tell which Pokémon it was. Now I don't know how I couldn't see it.🤷♀️
This is fascinating! After living in Paris in the early 1950s and returning to America, my grandpa learned to make croissants from a 50s cookbook. I assume they were a lot like what he ate in Paris at the time. He eventually passed on the croissant baking tradition to me, and I still make this recipe every Christmas. It's an odd recipe that uses softened butter between the layers. They are slightly more bread-like than modern croissants but so deliciously buttery. Now I realize the recipe may be more authentic than I thought, seeing how the recipe has changed over the years. Maybe this was the norm in the 1950s.
7:50 😆 never figured you for a Sabaton fan, but 👍.
This reminds me of what we call „milchhörnchen“ (milk horns) in Germany, they used to be my favourite breakfast as a kid
Slathered in Nutella of course
Your historic croissants look like the rolls the women in my mother's family (who came from rural middle Tennessee) hade for holiday meals and other special occasions. They called them crescent rolls. My memories are also from the late 1950's to the early 1970's. When eaten as a snack bread, we would break them in half and dab some butter and either jam or honey on the soft end, then bite it off, repeating as we worked down to the tip end. This works best while they are still warm.
richard
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18:25 fun fact; the croissant is very popular in England but 99% of the time you'll find it not bent into a crescent shape but perfectly straight, because we like to cut them open and stuff them with cheese and ham (as in, proper English cheese like cheddar and proper slices of English cured ham, like gammon or honey roast).
My TH-cam says this has no views yet - I've never been this early before in my life.
Oh! My family still makes this particular version of the croissant you just made!
I'm originally from Hungary where (as another commenter mentioned) kipfel continues on as 'kifli' and is still widely sold and used with daily meals.
My Grandma has inherited the same recipe you made in this video from her family, I believe, and in my family, we call it 'semmi-kifli' (lit: 'nothing kipfel/plain kipfel.') We make it slightly smaller in size but it's otherwise the exact same. (We also sometimes make a version with caraway seeds on top.)
Didn't know that the regular kifli and the 'semmi-kifli' were basically both ancestors to the French croissant at different stages, so this was a fascinating & surprising watch for sure!
Missed opertunity to use mega salamence as the background plush with his croissant wing
Ah, but we did get Cresselia.
*Croisselia
Awesome as always thanks Max Love you and your channel!❤
0:20 Croissant
I would love to see your cookbook library! Thank you for all your work, Max! ❤
Carl Wheezer whould be proud Max
Thank you for the education!!!!! I was very excited especially for this food.
I would not discard the story about the origin of the croissant from The Baker's Book as false because of some discrepancies. The Ottomans did not suddenly appear at Vienna's doorstep, they had been fighting the Holy Roman Empire for years, winning some significant battles. It is very likely that the croissant was indeed created in relation to the Ottoman flag, the baker must have been very well aware of the events and even if he had indeed died before the actual battle of Vienna (could not find any info on him), that does not mean the he hadn't indeed invented the croissant. The author of the book might have been the one who had set the events in besieged Vienna years later for better dramatic effect.
The point is, the shape had already been around in the 13th century when what would become the Ottoman Empire was still the Byzantine Empire.
The counter-argument isn't that the baker in question died before the siege, the argument is that it was invented generations before he was even born.
Yay! Another Max Miller video! Downloaded for watching later this evening. I do enjoy a nice croissant, and I will be interested in learning about its history. Thank you!
To your point that the name crescent isnt really relevant anymore to the shape, as my french partner INSISTS on reminding me, anything thats not a "traditional" croissant is not called a croissant. Your example of a croissant with chocolate in it is more appropriately called a pain au chocolat. Anything else is just english speakers tossing the word croissant onto any pastry that has the same flaky consistency.
We discuss this a lot because if you've ever been to Toronto, asian bakeries will make all sorts of things like cubes, etc., and call them croissants.
What interesting is I think only North American English speakers are this lax, in the UK and Australia we also refer to those pastries with the correct names
To second this, I think it's mostly Americans/Canadians who call anything puff pastry a croissant. Here in the UK a croissant is a croissant, a pain au chocolat is a pain au chocolat, etc. etc. Filled croissants exist, but they are crescent shaped; if it isn't a crescent it cannot be a croissant.
Those really look like the Pillsbury croissants, which were my childhood introduction to the genre.
Just in time
Same
Croissants and crème brûlée are two of my favourite things and now I’m going to have to spend my life hunting that down too😫
I already dream of a very specific croissant I had once and can never have again, it was from my friends culinary class and it was just like an extra tester from some experiments they were doing so they don’t even exist but I dream of it sometimes, it was so good🤤
Try a conetto Crema. The conetto is an italien Croissant. And the crema filling is so good! 😋
Je kiffe les croissants.
You just learned how to say “I like/love/dig croissants” in slang French. You’re welcome. And yes French people will tell us Americans that there aren’t any good French bakeries here in the US😂
Brilliant video Max! Enjoy your time on that river cruise!
Fun fact - the word for croissant in German is the same as the word for squirrel - hörnchen - or "little horned thing." Squirrels in Europe have fuzzy tufts by their ears that resemble horns. Chipmunks are streifenhörnchen or "striped little horned thing," but I like to imagine chipmunks in German are understood to be striped croissants. Certainly similar to how my cat always thought of them.
I'm pretty sure you mean kipfel as being called Hörnchen because we use the French name
You mean Eichhörnchen?
My favourite croissant adjacent baked good has always been a German variety called Bamberger (or Bamberger Hörnla / Hörnchen).
I‘m not from Bamberg myself but when I was a child you could easily get them in other parts of Franconia / Bavaria.
Haven’t been able to find any in 10+ years though, unfortunately.
(I’m sure they’re still available in some regions but certainly not where I live.)
They look very similar to modern croissants but the taste was even more buttery and they didn’t flake as much iirc.
I like my croissants with goat cheese, fig jam, radicchio and pear or with ham, manchego and onion chutney. Highly recommended!
I was going to say comté, bacon and blueberry preserve but I am very on board with your version. Both versions, actually.
I just had the 1850s version today from a local Mexican Bakery so it seems that style of pastry is still done today. I had it with a cup of coffee and yes they are very much sweet bread when you think about it.
QUASO