What cookbook contained the 1906 recipe corresponding to the modern croissant?

The 1906 recipe corresponding to the modern croissant appeared in Auguste Colombié’s Nouvelle Encyclopédie culinaire. It is significant because it described not just a crescent-shaped pastry, but one with the laminated, yeast-raised dough and characteristic texture associated with croissants today.

Croissants developed from older Austrian crescent pastries such as the kipferl. The modern French form emerged when bakers moved beyond the earlier brioche-like dough and adopted laminated dough: a yeast-containing dough repeatedly folded around butter. Baking then creates distinct flaky layers through fermentation, steam, and melting fat.

A common mix-up is crediting an earlier crescent pastry recipe as the first modern croissant recipe. Earlier recipes existed, including recipes for non-laminated croissants, but they did not necessarily describe the same dough or texture. A later 1915 recipe by Sylvain Claudius Goy is also often called an early modern-croissant recipe, which explains why different historical summaries cite different milestones.