Rogalowe Muzeum Poznania (Poznan Croissant Museum) was one of the most funny and interesting activity we had in Poznan. The museum opened early this year and it is still rather unknown to most of the tourist. There we attended a 1 hour class, where we learnt how a typical rogal świętomarciński (St. Martin Croissant) is baked and the story behind it. And yes, a tasting was included 🙂
St. Martin was a roman soldier. Born in Hungary and raised in Italy he spent most of his adulthood in France. According to the legend, once during a snowstorm he bumped into a beggar suffering from the cold, so he cut his cloak in half and shared it with the poor man, saving him from dying in the cold night. That same night St. Martin had a dream in which he found out the beggar was no less than Jesus himself: wearing the half cloak St. Martin shared with him, Jesus told the angels: “Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clothed me“.
The priest of the St. Martin Church used to retell this story every year before the parish fair took place. It was by hearing this story that the local baker Jan Melzer got moved and decided to do something good as St. Martin did.
The night before the fair he heard horses hooves’s clatter from the road, and when he looked outside he saw a knight (St. Martin) riding his horse. He went outside but St. Martin and the horse were gone, only one horseshoe was left. He decided to bake horseshoe shaped croissants and give them to the poors in occasion of the St. Martin day celebration on 11th of November (which is also Poland independence day). Soon enough also other bakers in town followed the example of Jan Melzer and St. Martin Croissants rapidly became a sign of Poznan. They can be found all year around but it is on 11th of November that their are consumed the most: during this day about 120 tones of croissants are eaten in the city!
The museum is located right behind the main square and 3 visits per day are scheduled, each with a 25 person limit (so get there a bit earlier!). As said it is not so crowd with foreigners and except we and a group from Quebec, the visitors were all from Poland. Luckily enough the guides knew english and french too, so both we and the Quebec group had not trouble understand what was going on. The visit is interesting because we also learned a bit of Poznan dialect and saw a short historical movie which focused on city’s history and on the legends of Lech, Čech, and Rus, the 3 brothers which founded the polish, czech and ruthenian (russia plus bielarus and ukrain) nations respectively. The cooking lesson is funny and interactive; dressed up in chef’s uniform we helped our head chef through the croissant preparation’s process.
The preparation normally takes up to 6 hours because the dough needs to rest for some hours at different stage of the process. Once the dough is ready it is cut in triangular shapes which are then filled with a cream-mix consisting of raisins, walnuts, haselnuts, almond and white poppy seeds. To make the croissant less dry, before rolling and closing the dough, extra filling is added inside, which while in the oven will spread also on the surface of the pastry, giving the croissant extra softness and tastiness. Last but not least a sugar cream and nuts topping are added, resulting in a weight between 150gr and 250gr and a total amount of around 1000 kcal….I’m watering while typing, remembering how delicious (and caloric) it was!
Baking such a pastry is not a job for anybody. In 2009 European Union recognised it as Protected Geographical Indication product, so in order to prepare a proper St. Martin Croissant, its preparation have some conditions that must be met. First of all, only certified bakers are entitled to prepare this pastry. A baker willing to get the certification not only has to be native to the historical Wielkopolska region (of which Poznan is the main city), but he also has to pass a series of tests to prove his croissant is good enough. The tests must then be repeated once every year. Funnily enough, our head chef who explained the dos & don’ts and all the details about the preparation is not an authorized St. Martin baker! He explained us how to bake a proper one, but the one we tried was actually supplied by a museum’s partner, the famous (and certified) Fawor bakery, which is just around the corner.
At the end of the show, we also got a certificate of partecipation, which may not be official enough to prepare a St. Martin Croissant, but it’s still a nice memory of such a funny and interesting morning in Poznan 🙂
Useful links:
– St. Martin on Wikipedia
– Poznan Croissant Museum
– Poznań opens croissant museum
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