As the name suggests, France’s bakers learned the recipe for the viennoiserie of their morning croissants from the Austrians, in particular a Viennese artillery officer named August Zang, who came to Paris and opened the Boulangerie Viennoise, where he introduced the küpfel bread rolls and steam oven to the French. He then returned to Vienna to found Die Presse, a newspaper based on the former French newspaper La Presse, and which is still published today.
The French made the küpfel their own with the creation of the special flaky pâte feuilletée used today.
Image by Dr. Manavpreet Kaur