In France, in addition to the traditional croissant au beurre you’ll find in most bakeries the croissant aux amandes (or “almond croissant”) or the croissant aux abricots also known as Oranais but no “chocolate croissants”. Pain au chocolat or chocolate croissant?īeing French, I’ve never heard the term “chocolate croissant” referring to a pain au chocolat. Others say the name originated with August Zang -the Austrian baker who sold Viennese croissants at his Parisian bakery in the 1830s- who was baking crescent-shaped, chocolate-filled croissants called schokoladencroissants, which translates into French as chocolatine. Some say that it comes from 15th-century English Aquitaine rulers who would ask for “chocolate in bread” in bakeries, which the French understood as “chocolate in”. The origin of the word chocolatine is unclear. The effort was unsuccessful, with deputies in the national assembly voting it down. In 2018, there was even a linguistic debate about the official name of chocolate pastries in the French parliament, with MPs debating over whether the word chocolatine should be an official alternative to the better-known pain au chocolat. Indeed, in central France, southern and Paris, the word pain au chocolat is used, whereas in southwestern France (Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie) the word chocolatine is preferred. This is the famous pain au chocolat-chocolatine linguistic debate of France. And there is an old yet actual argument over what this pastry should be called. In France, the name of the pain au chocolat varies by region.
Originally, croissants and pains au chocolat were made from a brioche base but later evolved to incorporate a buttery flaky dough ( pâte feuilletée). Indeed, these types of pastries, called “viennoiseries” in French, were introduced in the early 19th century, when August Zang, an Austrian officer, and Ernest Schwarzer, an Austrian aristocrat, founded a Viennese bakery in Paris located at 92, rue de Richelieu. The pain au chocolat is made of the same layered doughs as a croissant.īoth croissants and pains au chocolat are relatively modern inventions. It’s a type of viennoiserie sweet pastry consisting of a cuboid-shaped piece of yeast-leavened laminated dough, with two pieces of dark chocolate in the center. Pain au chocolat, literally “chocolate bread”, is one of the best-known French pastries. For more French recipes, see my article on the best French pastry books of all time. Not to be confused with: Croissant au chocolat (the term used in Alsace), petit pain au chocolat (Hauts-de-France), couque au chocolat (Ardennes) and those unspeakable greasy objects that pass for pains au chocolat in the UK.ĭo say: “It’s what it tastes like that matters, not what you call it.Here is Cedric Grolet’s famous pain au chocolat recipe! This recipe is from the star pâtissier’s pastry book called Opera Patisserie. Sacré bleu! Bien sûr, vous réalisez cela signifie la guerre. Pain au chocolat remains the official term. The rebel deputies said they want to defeat the “pain au chocolat snobbery of our Parisian colleagues”.Īnd did they? Non! The deputies in the national assembly voted the amendment to give the two names equal status down. The pain au chocolat v chocolatine struggle – the “eternal debate”, as one French news website calls it – is the symbol of a battle between the capital and the regions, modernity and tradition, Macron technocrats and regional rightwingers. You fail to understand the power of words. I really don’t see that what you call it matters. “It’s an amendment that aims to protect popular expressions that give value to culinary expertise.” This is more about the past than the pastry.ĭidn’t Voltaire say that? Unfortunately not. “This is not just a chocolatine amendment,” said Aurélien Pradié, a young deputy from Lot. Ten parliamentary deputies from the south-west last week tabled a motion demanding that the term chocolatine be given the same status as pain au chocolat. Who cares? Everyone in Gascony, that’s who. Why? One theory is that Zang’s chocolatine coalesced with an existing local word, chicolatina.
Most of France called the resulting pastry a pain au chocolat, but in the old region of Gascony in the south-west it has always been known as the chocolatine. Zang’s schokoladencroissant and the chocolate-and-bread sandwich French schoolchildren had been eating for generations became indistinguishable in the course of the 19th century. What on earth are you on about? Cultural and linguistic apartheid, that’s what. Do not use that hated term!īut you have to admit, it does look like a … Please, down here in the south-west of France we have been fighting this loathsome cultural imperialism for almost two centuries. Looks awfully like a pain au chocolat to me.
0 kommentar(er)
