Croissant

A croissant is laminated, butter-layered yeast dough rolled and folded dozens of times, shaped into a crescent and baked until it shatters. It's the pastry France perfected — the crescent shape and the original idea trace back to Vienna's kipferl, but the laminated, all-butter technique that defines a modern croissant was developed and standardized in French bakeries, which is why it's regarded as a French pastry today.

What it actually is

A yeasted dough is layered with cold butter through a repeated process of rolling and folding — lamination — building up dozens of paper-thin alternating layers of dough and fat. The laminated block is rolled thin, cut into triangles and rolled up into the familiar crescent, then left to rise before baking in a hot oven, where the butter layers melt and steam apart the dough into a shatteringly crisp, deeply flaky exterior around a soft, honeycombed interior.

Getting the lamination right — even layers, butter never melting into the dough before baking — is the entire technical challenge; a poorly laminated croissant bakes dense and bread-like instead of visibly layered and light.

How it's served

• Warm, whole, torn rather than sliced.
• Plain, or split and buttered, at breakfast.
• Alongside coffee, as the standard French breakfast pairing.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten, dairy and egg; the laminated dough and egg wash carry all three.
• Say if you make it in-house with real lamination, since that's a genuine point of craft distinct from a par-baked or frozen version.
• Note that it's best eaten fresh, the same day; a croissant loses its flaky structure quickly once it sits.
• Mention if a plain butter version is offered alongside filled varieties, since the classic croissant itself has no filling.