These flaky, golden-colored, crescent-shaped pastries are best made with pure butter and a slightly sweet yeast dough. If made properly, the yellow-white interior should be just the slightest bit elastic when pulled from the center, ready to be covered with a pad of butter or some fresh jam.

Experts agree that the croissant was heavily influenced by Austrian kipfels. This pastry originated in 1683 as a celebration of the Austrian victory over the Ottoman Empire, its shape supposedly mimicking the crescent moon found on the Turkish flag. 

Pain au chocolat is a French viennoiserie roll made with a combination of rectangular, yeast-leavened dough and a few chocolate sticks or chocolate ganache. The filled dough is rolled, baked, then served, ideally while still hot or warm. This flaky pastry can be bought at numerous French bakeries and supermarkets.

Interestingly, another name for pain au chocolat is chocolatine, and it is mostly used in the southwest of the country. In Bordeaux, there is even a case where customers had to pay more if they ordered a pain au chocolat rather than a chocolatine. 

Kouign-amann is a cake that originated in the 1800s in the French region of Bretagne. Its name is derived from the Breton words for cake (kouign) and butter (amann). The cake consists of layers of butter and sugar that are folded into a dough.

Bretons claim that the cake is "the fattiest pastry in the world", due to its flaky yellow dough that is mixed with large amounts of sugar and butter. Although there are many theories about the origin of the cake, the most popular one says that it was invented by accident, when a 19th-century baker from Douarnenez wanted to save a failed batch of dough, so he added butter and sugar to the mix, creating the delicacy that we know today.

These elongated pastries with an appealing glaze, a crispy exterior, a soft doughy interior, and a sweet, creamy center originated in France at the turn of the 20th century. Most food historians believe they were invented by Marie-Antoine Carême, a famous French chef. Éclairs (French for lightning) are believed to have received their name because of how the light would reflect off of them after a coating of confectioner’s glaze.

The oldest recipe for these tasty treats can be found in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, published in 1884. Today, éclairs are becoming increasingly popular in France and throughout the world, and have begun to sport new fillings such as green tea and lemon cream.

This baked specialty is a French type of viennoiserie, a cross between a pastry and a bread, with a high butter, milk, and egg content that makes it rich, soft, and flaky. It has been enjoyed for centuries both as a delicacy and as a status symbol.

One popular theory claims that it was invented by Norman Vikings, who settled in France in the 9th century and brought the secrets of making butter with them. The word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, and the name is believed to be derived from bris and hocher, meaning to knead and to stir. 

These chocolate-covered puff pastries are filled with either whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or vanilla ice cream. Many theories exist about the origin of this dessert, but the most likely one traces it back to the 13th century, when the chefs who first created the puff pastry in France and southern Germany began filling them with savory cheese mixtures and herbs.

Sweet versions of the dish followed, and by the 17th century, the small pastries were referred to as choux (lit. cabbage), because the pastries were visually reminiscent of heads of cabbage. By the mid-19th century, the puffs had become known as profiteroles in France and England – they were decorated to resemble swans or pyramids, and were often served with dessert wine, tea, or coffee. 

These squares of deep-fried pastry dough are sprinkled with powdered sugar and are traditionally served hot. The dish hails from France, and French settlers brought it to the Acadia region of Canada in the 17th century. Many of the Acadians later moved to Louisiana, and they brought their culinary traditions with them.

Today, beignets are most commonly associated with the French Quarter of New Orleans, where they were declared the official state donut in 1986. These treats are typically served alongside chocolate milk or café au lait, a combination often served at the Cafe Du Monde - a New Orleans restaurant that is most often associated with beignets.

Created in 1910 by chef Louis Durand to celebrate the famous Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race, which led from the center of Paris past the door of his pastry shop in Maisons-Laffitte to Brittany and back, this decadent dessert is a true French classic found in pâtisseries all over the country.

With a shape resembling that of a bicycle wheel, Paris-Brest is made with a ring of pâte à choux – a puffy hollow pastry traditionally flavored with fleur de sel, topped with flaked almonds, and baked until golden brown.

The airy pastry ring is then sliced horizontally and filled with a rich hazelnut and almond mousseline praliné cream, while the upper crust is generously dusted with powdered sugar. 

Amazingly tender and extremely light, chouquettes are airy pâte à choux pastry puffs studded with the so-called sucre perlé (lit. pearl sugar); coarse sugar crystals which hold both their shape and crunch when baked.

Chouquettes are basically profiterole shells and fall into the category of viennoiseries or, more precisely, pâtisseries viennoises. These Viennese-style baked goods are found in bakery shops throughout the country and are traditionally consumed for breakfast or as an afternoon snack known as le goûter.