Croissants: Beurre ou Naturel?
 

Which do you ask for in a Boulangerie?

I love the Croissants aux Beurre but feel my arteries clogging up immediately while chewing these real butter laden delights

So i usually ask for a Croissant Naturel - still awfully good.

I wonder which ones are more popular in France with the French?

(Pardon my French spellings)

Amande.

Have probably spelled that wrong but too lazy to look up.

Mmmmmm...croissants aux beurre. Oh, to have some right now! I haven't made any for awhile - think I'll do that this weekend.

I do not know which are more pupoular in France...

For your arteries, both are equally bad.

IMO, you get the best taste if you put fresh, cool butter on your croissant - then it does not matter if they are baked with or without butter.

With butter, it is the same as with fish - the fresher, the better. For my taste, croissants aux beurre are always a little bit rancid - but this may be a personal taste.

I agree with lennyba that croissants aux amandes are special - but VERY heavy.

All I ever ask for is a croissant...and that seems to be a butter croissant.

I'm not French, but I always ask for Pain au chocolat. I can eat 10 at a time...

hi pal,

in Saumur we came across pain au chocolat - literally. a baguette with chocolate inside it. my DS thought he'd died and gone to heaven. left up to him we'd have spent the whole holiday there, and never left. 6 years later, he still talks about it. [we don't get out much!].

for the sake of my diet, i buy the cheaper ones now, and keep them in the freezer. as they are not so tempting, they last longer!

regards, ann

regards, ann

A BAGUETTE with chocolate inside it? Oh heavens, thank goodness I've never come across one of those!

On a trip with a niece to Paris, while savoring fresh pain au chocolat, we decided that a culture that figured out how to incorporate chocolate into breakfast is one worth preserving.

St-Cirq,

You need to meet our French friends' children. The first thing they did on coming home from school was spread a big slab of Nutella on a halves of baguette, then put them together like a sandwich. That seemed to be a standard snack.

When I first went to France aged 14 to stay with a French family, I was surprised that the kids' afternoon snack was a couple of pieces of Poulain chocolate inside a piece of baguette. Though I thought it was very strange, after trying the chocolate sandwich it didn't take long for me to become addicted!

As for the original question, I always go for croissants au beurre in France. Though I don't think that the non-butter kind are much less fattening or any healthier, as you still need vast quantities of fat to make croissants of any kind.

Definately au beurre, as far as I am concerned. It's like ice cream - do it less often, but do it right !

-Kevin

p.s.: above logic holds for the very important point that not all boulangeries are the same. Never, ever get viennoiseries or patisseries at an average looking place !

The difference between a croissant "au beurre" and a croissant "ordinaire" is that the first is made with only butter, and the second is made with margarine.

PQ - as to popularity more than ten times the space at Carrefour is devoted to butter croissants than margarine ones. The margarine ones were less expensive and plastic bagged. The butter ones were displayed in plastic boxes.

As for healthiness, read "French Women Don't Get Fat" or check the health and obesity statistics of France vs US... France a country of natural food, portion control; US a country of diet food and excess.

May I register a vote for a gougere from Vezelay. Made with butter AND gruyere. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ah yes - Pain au chocolate is so so scrumptious and get him hot from the oven so the chocolate is still melting!

The word croissant comes from Vienna i believe and is called so because of the invading Turkish army at the gates of the city - these pastries were baked in the shape of the Turkish crescent and symbolically then the Viennese were eating the Turks.

As for the Viennesoise (sp?) pastries in France - some of these i believe are now covered with chocolate chips.

I adore pain au chocolat but for sheer breakfast decadence, nothing beats Argentina where a standard item on hotel buffets is a huge bowl of dulce de leche that you can slather on your bread! Forget the Nutella--bring me the dulce de leche!

It is also a popular sandwich filling! Goodness, I am hungry just writing these words!

Come to think of it, Underhill, my kids used to do the same thing at our house in St-Cirq. They went through a LOT of Nutella!

"Beurre" is the default croissant. "Ordinaire" must be mentioned if that's what you want.