Adieu, curvy croissants
Tesco to ditch crescent-shaped pastry in favour of straight variety
SACRÉ bleu! Lovers of curved croissants are about to get a little bent out of shape thanks to Tesco’s decision to ditch the half-moon shaped pastry in favour for their straight variety.
The supermarket giant is saying ‘ au revoir’ to traditional curved croissants – even though the name means ‘crescent’ in French.
Tesco has decided to only stock straight versions of the breakfast pastry on the basis it is easier for spreading jam or adding a filling.
The company has f ound that demand for the curved croissants has fallen in recent years.
A spokeswoman for Tesco Ireland said yesterday: ‘Tesco Ireland will soon be introducing a new straight shape Tesco Finest French butter croissant. We have listened to customer feedback and are introducing this croissant because the majority find it easier to spread butter or t heir preferred t opping on a straighter shape.’
The date of the change-over has yet to be announced. The spokeswoman added: ‘The new Tesco Finest straight shape croissants are made with French butter and improved laminations to give a crispier outside and a softer centre.’
However, Irish baker Damian Cusack, who owns La Boulangerie Francaise in Swords, Dublin, with his wife Florence, suspects the supermarket may be stocking straight croissants as they are easier to store.
Mr Cusack, who bakes more than 1,000 croissants a week, said: ‘I do my croissants straight and that’s purely because they’re easier to store. I could make 300 pastries in one batch and they’re just easier to freeze. I don’t think spreading butter or jam on the croissants has anything to do with it. It’s ease of storage. The croissants from Tesco would be mass produced and run through a machine. You usually need curved croissants to be done by hand so that could be why.’
The baker also explained that croissants are so-called because of their shape. He said: ‘The shape of a croissant comes from when the Turks were attacking Vienna and the Viennese were defeated and the King had a cake made which looked like a crescent, the same as on the Turkish flag, and that’s where the word croissant comes from.’ Croissants are made from a leavened form of puff pastry with the yeast dough layered with butter then rolled and folded several times in succession before being rolled into a sheet.
While the croissant is the world’ s most famous French pastry, its origins lie in Austria and a crescent shaped roll called a kipferl – the German word for ‘crescent-shaped’.
Tesco stores in the UK will only be stocking straight croissants from today.
The move will affect nearly 1million of the supermarket’s own label croissants a week which are currently made in a crescent shape.
Tesco’s UK croissant buyer Harry Jones said: ‘After demand for crescent shaped croissants started falling, we spoke to our customers and nearly 75% of them told us that they preferred straight ones.
‘At the heart of the move away from curved croissants is the spreadability factor.
‘With the crescent shaped croissants, it’s more fiddly and most people can take up to three attempts to achieve perfect coverage, which increases the potential for accidents involving sticky fingers and tables.’