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Photo: djwtwo, Flickr
No one doubts the supremacy of the French when it comes to all things patisserie -- and the croissant is the roi of this realm. But lesser known are the origins of the buttery delight. While the Larousse Gastronomique pits the pastry as originating in 1686 Budapest, other historians refute this as a colorful tale, arguing that the French croissant as we know it is a more recent invention, recorded in France as early as the mid-1850s as a crescent-shaped bread or cake. The Oxford Companion to Food argues that it wasn't until 1906, in Colombie's Nouvelle Encyclopedie culinaire, that "a true croissant, and its development into a national symbol of France, [emerge as] a 20th-century history."
And while today the croissant indeed is a culinary emblem for France, they can be relatively easily baked in one's own kitchen. Pictured here, photographer Djwtwo's perfectly golden, egg-shone rendition was his first successful attempt, but turned out as magnificent as those we've seen in any Paris bakery. For the recipe, he relied on America's premiere culinary ambassador to France, the beloved Julia Child. But for such a small batch of ingredients, the steps are infinitely more convoluted -- he recommends this PBS video as an aid to sculpting your own buttery batch of croissants.
As Julia would say, "Bon appétit!"
Dunkin' Donuts has been trying to change its image all year. Some say "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Others, like the firms that now own the company, don't really subscribe to that theory and concentrate of fixing things anyway. In this case, they're planning to 
