A croissant is a buttery, flaky, viennoiserie pastry of Austrian origin,
named for its historical crescent shape.
Croissants and other viennoiserie
are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough.
The Austrian pastry known as a Kipferl is the croissant's ancestorāin the 1830s, an Austrian opened a Viennese
bakery in
Paris, which became extremely popular and inspired French versions of the Kipferl, eventually named the
croissant.