Part 3/8:

The croissant's journey begins long before it graced the tables of French cafés. It traces back to the sweet Viennese kipfel, which in the 1850s was first classified as a "pain de fantaisie," a playful pastry made without butter. According to French chemist Anselme Payen’s 1853 description, the original croissant was nothing like its modern iteration. Made with flour, eggs, water, and sometimes milk, this early version was simpler and lacked the complexities of lamination that define today’s croissants.