The flaky, buttery croissant is as French as a beret or a baguette, but its roots lie in a seventeenth century Austrian battle.
The legend of the croissant traces this pastry’s ancestry back to the 1683 Battle of Vienna… The city was under siege. It had been surrounded by thousands of Ottoman soldiers for two months. Supplies and morale were running low. Messengers had been sent to neighboring countries begging for help, but as yet, there had been no response. The weary Viennese were just about to run up the white flag of surrender when a messenger arrived. Good news: The King of Poland was coming with an army of allied forces. If the Viennese could hold out for just a few more days they would be saved.
Meanwhile, outside the city, the Ottoman army had a new plan for breaking through Vienna’s thick protective walls. They would tunnel under them, fill the trenches with gunpowder, and blow the walls to smithereens. The Ottomans were shoveling away in the wee hours of morning when everyone was asleep. However, that was also the time when the city’s bakers had to fire up their ovens to bake everyone’s daily bread from their last remaining bit of grain. As they were kneading their dough, they heard strange noises under their feet. They hurried to contact the authorities who were able to dig their own tunnels and intercept the gunpowder. Finally, the king of Poland and his army of allied forces appeared on the horizon. They charged the Ottomans who fled the scene. The battle was won and Vienna was saved.
To commemorate the victory, and the role they played in saving their city, the bakers created a special pastry. They made it in a crescent moon shape which was the symbol on the Ottoman flag. It was to remind everyone of their victory. They called their creation kipferl which means crescent in the Austrian German language. These pastries would migrate to France and eventually become the croissant (the French word for crescent).