In Turkey, the croissant-shaped pastry filled with cinnamon, nuts, cacao, and raisin is ay çöreği. Its name literally combines the Turkish words for “moon” and “pastry,” reflecting its crescent form.
Ay çöreği is not simply a Turkish version of the classic French croissant. It is a filled pastry with a denser, sweet interior, commonly seasoned with cinnamon and containing walnuts or hazelnuts, cacao, and raisins. The filling gives it a flavor profile closer to a spiced nut-and-cocoa sweet than to a plain buttery viennoiserie.
The pastry is generally eaten at breakfast or with tea, fitting Turkey’s strong tea-and-pastry culture. Its shape explains why it is compared with a croissant, but the comparison is about appearance rather than identical dough, technique, or culinary history.
The main mix-up is with Turkish staples such as simit, poğaça, and börek. Simit is a ring-shaped sesame bread, poğaça is a savory or plain soft roll, and börek is a family of filled pastries. None is the crescent-shaped, cinnamon-and-cocoa-filled pastry described here.