It’s about 8:30 am, and we’re at the café. While in Milan some have breakfast with a cappuccino and brioche, those in Naples are having it with a cappuccino and cornetto... But will they be eating the same breakfast? The answer is yes, both are eating the same thing: calling it brioche is just an improper use of the term, widespread in northern Italy. A real brioche is different from the cornetto, but beware: neither of them is an honest to goodness croissant. The differences between the brioche, the cornetto and the croissant are in the ingredients, their shapes and in their history. Let’s clear things up.
The brioche
A real French brioche is a leavened pastry made with butter, flour, sugar, eggs, yeast, water and lard. It has more butter and sugar than its “colleagues” and is softer and more airy. Its shape is roundish and it often has a ball of dough on the surface, similar to a Sicilian brioche with topknots. The French brioche can be empty or stuffed with creams, chocolate, jams and marmalades, while the Sicilian one is soaked or filled with granita and gelato.
The cornetto
The Italian-style cornetto is based on a typical Viennese dessert: kipfel, a sweet and savory specialty with a crescent shape. It seems that the kipfel came to in Italy in 1683, a period of commercial trade between the Republic of Venice and Vienna. It later became a cornetto thanks to Venetian pastry chefs. In this case, too, the fundamental difference lies in the ingredients. A cornetto is in fact made with flour, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, butter and yeast and can be served empty or filled. There is also a regional variation: the polacca from Ancona, larger in size and filled with a thin layer of marzipan and covered with a glaze made with egg whites and sugar.
The croissant
Although it comes from the same Viennese kipfel, the croissant is not a cornetto. It was in fact invented later, precisely with the opening of the Boulangerie Viennoise in Paris in 1838. The ingredients are the same as the cornetto, except for one: eggs. The absence of eggs in a croissant (although sometimes egg whites are brushed on the surface of the dough to make them more golden) means that the aroma of the butter prevails, resulting in that unmistakable taste and its more layered and light texture compared to the Italian cornetto. In France croissants are not usually filled with creams or chocolate. For that there is the pain au chocolat, prepared with a similar mixture and stuffed with pieces of chocolate. The croissant recipe also calls for less sugar than the cornetto, which makes it more neutral and also suitable for being filled with salami and cheese for a snack or a savory breakfast.
Lastly (even if they are actually the same thing), there is an important difference between the brioches in northern Italy and the cornettos in the central and southern parts: when they are eaten. The brioche is eaten almost exclusively at breakfast, while the cornetto is found everywhere, even at night. In northern Italy it’s quite rare to come across bakeries or cafés that churn out hot cornettos after sunset. Whereas in central and southern Italy it’s common practice to go and enjoy them even at the end of the evening. A sweet night is guaranteed!