National Pastry Day is tomorrow! Are any of your favorite pastry shops celebrating? If not, maybe they don’t know it’s their special day. You should definitely tell them because there might just be something extra in it for you!

Great pastries are the best, and I love to seek out local pastries when I travel. I’ve had some amazing ones this year in both Lisbon, Portugal and Stockholm, Sweden. I didn’t realize until I did some research that the word pastry defines such a wide variety of baked goods. What’s common are the ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs.

Pastry history is fascinating, too. Pastries can be traced to the ancient Mediterranean, though pastry making began in Northern Europe after the Crusaders brought it back from the Mediterranean. French and Italian Renaissance chefs established the puff and choux pastries (a light pastry with filling) while 17th and 18th century pastry chefs added other recipes. Culinary historians often consider French pastry chef Antonin Careme (1784 – 1833) to have been the original great master of pastry making in modern times.

It’s fun to observe national days, especially pastry day, don’t you think?

I don’t make pastries at home, so I’ll head to my favorite bakery, Bread & Cie, and indulge in a chocolate pan latte. Yum! I look for any excuse I can to enjoy pastry :) How will you observe National Pastry Day??