Viennoiserie


Viennoiseries are baked goods made from a yeast-leavened dough in a manner similar to bread, or from puff pastry, but with added ingredients giving them a richer, sweeter character, approaching that of pastry. The dough is often laminated. Viennoiseries are typically eaten at breakfast or as snacks.

Types

Examples include: croissants; Vienna bread and its French equivalent, pain viennois, often shaped into baguettes; brioche; pain au chocolat; pain au lait; pain aux raisins; chouquettes; Danish pastries; xuixo; bugnes; and chausson aux pommes.

History

The popularity of Viennese-style baked goods in France began with the Viennese Bakery opened by August Zang in 1839. The first usage of the expression "pâtisseries viennoises" appears in a book by French author Alphonse Daudet, Le Nabab in 1877. The use of puff pastry to make them came later, however, and is a French, not Viennese, method.

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