Seven Amazing Historical Events That Inspired Today’s Bread and Pastry

This is a crescent-shaped pastry originated from Austria. It was said that the croissant was inspired by an event in 1683. While working through the night, a baker heard the Turks making tunnels beneath the city and managed to alert the Viennese army to prevent the siege. To commemorate the victory of Viennese troops against the Turks army, the said baker made a buttery flaky pastry in the shape of crescent moon based on the Turkish flag.

Mooncake is a traditional Chinese pastry, typically round or rectangular shaped with sweet lotus seed paste fillings usually eaten during the mid-autumn festival. The festival is actually linked to the mythical moon goddess of immortality. However, it was said that mooncakes were used during the Ming revolution era to distribute secret letters or messages hidden in the fillings in an effort to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. Sometimes, a puzzle or encrypted message will also be printed on the surface of the pastry to be solved by the other party.

This is a type of sweet bun made with spices and dried currants, with a cross mark on top usually eaten on Good Friday. It was said that hot cross bun came a long way during pagan days to worship the Sun and to honor the goddess of love and fertility called Astarte, by stamping the bread with horned emblem. However, the horned emblem became a cross when the Europe embraced Christianity. The cross on the bun is in memory of Jesus crucifixion. Nevertheless the cross on the bun had became issues ever since. On one occasion, the Protestant English monarchs attempted to ban the sale of the bun in fear of the fact that the bun could be used by the Catholics as communion wafer but in the end, the sales of the bun were permitted but only on Easter and Christmas day. And quite recently in 2003, the sales of hot cross buns had been banned in some schools in the UK on the ground that it could be offensive to non-Christians but this also was critically debated.

This is a type of baked dough twisted into knot shape. It is said that the Italian monks uses the leftover strips of dough and twisted them to resemble arms crossed in prayer. The tidbits were given by the Christian monks as rewards to well-behaved children and had became the world's popular snacks ever since.

Yu Tiao is a popular deep fried strip of dough, usually eaten by the Chinese during breakfast. Yu Tiao or U Char Kway in Hokkien dialect literally mean oil fried ghost. A Chinese government official named Qin Hui and his wife collaborated with the enemy and planned to frame the well-loved general Yue Fei and kill him. It is said that the fried dough was inspired by this traitorous couple who was sentenced to death (deep fried in oil) during the Song Dynasty. The Yu Tiao is often made by joining two rolls of dough side-by-side to represent the said husband and wife. Qin Hui's traitorous actions caused the public at that time to express their hatred towards him by making the dough.

This type of bread looks similarly like doughnut but it is made from yeast-wheat ring-shaped dough which is first boiled before baked, making the texture chewy. Bagel is said to be related to the victorious cavalry led by King John III of Poland, in which the dough is shaped like the lucky horseshoe joined together to form a ring. Bagel has become popular bread with many variations in the US and the UK especially in Jewish populated area.

Pasty is actually an individual pie with meat and vegetable fillings. It usually has solid ridge crust which is hand crimped along the pasty. It is said that pasty originated from the Cornish coal miner community in Cornwall, UK. The miners will pick the pasty by the edge of the crust and eat it and then throw the crust away. At that time, the miners believed that the crust should be left for the ghost in the mine. Actually, this is a practical way to eat the pasty as the dirty hands of the miners were usually contaminated with large amounts of arsenic. By throwing away the crust, it prevented them from eating the contaminated portion. Pasty recipe varies across the world as pasty was introduced by the English sailors who went to Russia and the English people who had migrated to the US. In fact there is also Pasty Day in Michigan, USA on the 24th May each year to represent the regional specialty.