A croissant is a buttery, flaky, viennoiserie pastry of Austrian origin,
but mostly associated with France.
Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape and, like other
viennoiseries, are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough.
The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in
succession, then rolled into a thin sheet, in a technique called
laminating.
The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff
pastry.
Crescent-shaped breads have been made since the Renaissance, and
crescent-shaped cakes possibly since antiquity. Croissants have long been
a staple of Austrian, Italian, and French bakeries and pĆ¢tisseries.
The modern croissant was developed in the early 20th century. In the late
1970s, the development of factory-made, frozen, preformed but unbaked
dough made them into a fast food that could be freshly baked by unskilled
labor.
The croissant bakery, notably the La Croissanterie chain, was a French
response to American-style fast food, and as of 2008, 30-40% of the
croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries were baked from frozen
dough.