Pastry Day

Pastries. Rudy and Peter Skitterians / Pixabay.com / 2017 / CC0 1.0

The 9th of December is Pastry Day.

There are many different types of pastry to choose from to celebrate today, anything from filo-type pastry to pie crust. You could have a French pastry, a Danish pastry, a Middle Eastern pastry, a Greek pastry or a Chinese pastry — the list goes on because just about every cuisine makes them now. In Italy, it’s typical to have a sweet pastry for breakfast.

If you are not into sweets today, quiche and plain croissants count as pastry, too.

There are pastry chefs who dedicate their entire careers to making pastry. Many take the French to be the champions of pastries. Haute French pastry requires both exact science and creativity.

You could make something with pastry today. You can buy frozen pastry dough as a shortcut if you are short of time. Many cooks who have surmounted the challenge of making puff pastry now buy it frozen, reasoning that they’ve already proved themselves capable of surmounting the challenge.

If time or inclination doesn’t permit, you can of course buy a pastry. It might be a good day to support your local, independent bakery by getting a pastry there. In fact, you could get a bunch to share with your family, neighbours or co-workers.

Some restaurants and bakeries are now getting in on the day by offering special creations or promotions.

See also: Pastry War

#NationalPastryDay

History

The first print mention of a Pastry Day universally occurring on the 9th December that CooksInfo is aware of is in a list of “silly food holidays” compiled in 2004 by Emily Nunn of the Chicago Tribune. “December…. Gazpacho Day (6), Cotton Candy Day (7), Pastry Day (9), Noodle Ring Day (11), BouillabaisseDay (14) …” ^[1]Nunn, Emily. Surrender to never-ending glut of silly food holidays. Chicago Tribune. Reprinted in: Kerrville Daily Times. Kerrville, Texas. 22 Sep 2004. Page 3C. Col 1.

The second mention of National Pastry Day that CooksInfo is aware of in print occurred in the Del Rio News-Herald in Del Rio, Texas, in December 2013: “Unusual holidays this week: 9th [December] – National Pastry Day (Cream puffs, always go for cream puffs.)” ^[2]Bouldin, Bill: Drones helping in the hunt for swine. Del Rio, Texas: Del Rio News-Herald. 8 December 2013. Page 4A, col. 6.

Sources

Kang, Anna. 7 sweets restaurants are baking for National Pastry Day. Nation’s Restaurant News. 7 December 2017. Accessed November 2020 at https://www.nrn.com/dessert-trends/7-sweets-restaurants-are-baking-national-pastry-day

Porpora, Tracey. It’s National Pastry Day: How are you celebrating? The Staten Island Advance. 9 December 2018. Accessed November 2020 at https://www.silive.com/news/2018/12/its-national-pastry-day-how-are-you-celebrating.html

Sazegar, Nicole. National Pastry Day: 5 Fun and Weird Facts About Pastries. Entity Magazine. 28 August 2017. Accessed November 2020 at https://www.entitymag.com/national-pastry-day-5-facts/

Top 10 places to celebrate National Pastry Day. Toronto.com. 1 Dec 2015. Accessed November 2020 at https://www.toronto.com/shopping-story/6121442-top-10-places-to-celebrate-national-pastry-day/

Waldock, Julie. Happy National Pastry Day. WTVM TV. 9 December 2018. Accessed November 2020 at at http://www.wtvm.com/2018/12/09/happy-national-pastry-day/