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The croissant is a widely known and enjoyed kind of pastry made from leavened laminated dough and baked plain or with some sort of filling or topping, most commonly chocolate.
The word itself is translated as “crescent” into English, which is the shape most typically associated with this flaky pastry, although it can be found in other forms as well.
There are countless stories and legends about where this pastry originated and how it was made. In 1683, Vienna (the capital of Austria) was under siege by over a hundred thousand Ottoman Turks. After several months of trying to starve the city into submission, the Turks attempted to tunnel underneath the walls of the city. Fortunately for the entire city, some bakers hard at work in the middle of the night heard the sounds of the Turks digging and alerted the city’s defenders. This advance warning gave the defenders enough time to do something about the tunnel before it was completed. Soon, King John III of Poland arrived at the head of an army that defeated the Turks and forced them to retreat.
To celebrate the end of the siege and the part they had played in lifting it, several bakers in Vienna made a pastry in the shape of the crescents they had seen on the battle standards of the enemy. They called this new pastry the “Kipfel” which is the German word for “crescent” and continued baking if for many years to commemorate the Austrian victory over the Turks in 1683. It was not until 1770 that the pastry came to be known as the croissant.
In that year, Marie Antoinette, a 15-year-old Austrian Princess, married King Louis XVI of France. To honor their new queen, the bakers in Paris made some “kipfels” of their own. The only difference was that they called it by the French word for crescent, “croissant”. The pastry proved as popular in Paris as it had in Vienna and Parisian bakers have been making it ever since as have bakers around the world who learned it from the Parisians.
The flavor of a croissant should be intensely buttery with a natural dairy sweetness. It should not taste like added sugar or be cloying. It should be well-seasoned, but not so salty that you can’t imagine eating it with jam or preserves. The ideal crust should be distinct from the softer interior. It should be extremely flaky and shatter when torn or bitten into. It should be extremely crisp, but not crunchy or tough. Each layer of flaky pastry should virtually melt on the tongue, but not feel greasy in your hands. It should be an even, golden brown color all around.
The interior should be feather-light with many layers. It should be tender and moist but not gummy or doughy. The layers of dough should show plenty of stretch and separate gently from each other when you pull at them with your fingers.
Today, the croissant is both a symbol of French culture and tradition.
參考譯文：
牛角面包這種廣受歡迎的糕點是由層狀發(fā)酵面團進行烘烤而成，或者是純面團，或者配上餡料和裝飾配料，通常是巧克力。
croissant這個詞在英語中譯為“新月”，新月形是這種酥餅最普遍的形狀，不過也有做成其他形狀的牛角面包。
關(guān)于這種面包的起源和做法有數(shù)不清的故事和傳說。1683年，維也納（奧地利的首都）被一萬多名奧斯曼土耳其人圍困。他們先是截斷糧食來源，逼迫這座城市屈服，幾個月后，他們又嘗試從城墻下挖地道進行偷襲。幸運的是，一些在夜里工作的面包師聽到了地下的動靜，并通知了城市的守軍。這個情報讓守軍有足夠的時間在隧道完工前挫敗了敵人的陰謀。不久，波蘭的國王約翰三世帶領(lǐng)部隊趕到，擊敗了土耳其人，迫使他們撤退。
為慶祝城市的解圍以及他們所起的作用，維也納的幾位面包師制作了一種新月形糕點，這是他們在敵人軍旗上看到的圖案。他們將這種新糕點命名為“Kipfel”，這是“新月”德語的叫法，之后許多年，它一直被用來慶祝1683年奧地利對土耳其人的勝利。直到1770年，這種糕點才以牛角面包的名字流傳開來。
在那一年，15歲的奧地利帝國公主瑪麗•安托瓦內(nèi)特嫁給了法國國王路易十六。為了向新王后致敬，巴黎的面包師制作了他們自己的“新月形面包”。唯一的區(qū)別是，他們用“新月”的法語來為之命名，那就是“croissant”。這種糕點在巴黎和在維也納一樣受到歡迎。從此，巴黎的面包師就一直做這種糕點，而全世界的面包師都是從巴黎學會了制作牛角面包的方法。
牛角面包應該是奶油味濃郁，有一種天然奶制品的甜味。它吃起來不應該是感覺加了糖或者甜得膩人。它的味道應該均衡，但不會太咸，無法配著果醬或者蜜餞來吃。理想的牛角面包應該是外焦里嫩。面包皮應該非常酥脆，但是不會嘎吱作響或太硬。面包的每一層應該是入口即化，但是拿在手里又不會覺得太油膩。面包在整體上應呈現(xiàn)一種均勻的金褐色。
面包心應該很輕盈，有很多層。它應該很柔軟潮濕，不黏也不軟稠。面包的各層應該有足夠的延展性，用手去拉時，能夠很容易分開。
如今，牛角面包已經(jīng)成了法國文化也是法國傳統(tǒng)的一種象征。
