'bread with chocolate'), also known as chocolatine (French: [ʃɔkɔlatin] ⓘ) in the south-west part of France and in French speaking parts of Canada, couque au chocolat in Belgium, or chocolate croissant in the United States, is a type of Viennoiserie pastry consisting of a cuboid-shaped piece of yeast-leavened laminated dough, similar in texture to a puff pastry, with one or two pieces of dark chocolate in the center.
They are often sold in packages at supermarkets and convenience stores, or made fresh in pastry shops.
[3] The word croissant, which refers to a pastry shaped like a half-moon or "crescent", made its entry in the French dictionary in 1863.
[4] The type of pastry, called viennoiserie in French, was introduced in the early 19th century, when August Zang, an Austrian officer, and Ernest Schwarzer, an Austrian aristocrat, founded a Viennese bakery in Paris located at 92, rue de Richelieu.
[citation needed] Croissants and pains au chocolat were originally made from a brioche base, but this was later replaced by French bakers with a bread puff pastry (pâte feuilletée levée) to become the modern product.