A croissant is a buttery, flaky, viennoiserie or Vienna-style pastry named for its well-known crescent shape.
Croissants and other viennoiserie are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough.
The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession,
then rolled into a sheet, in a technique called laminating.
The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry.
Crescent-shaped food breads have been made since the Middle Ages,
and crescent-shaped cakes possibly since antiquity.