Pão francês

Pão francês (Portuguese: [ˈpɐ̃w̃ fɾɐ̃ˈses] ⓘ; lit. 'French bread')

is a short cylindrical bread roll with a soft white crumb and a
golden crispy shell that is popular in Brazil. This bread has
different names throughout the different states in Brazil such
as pão de sal (salt bread), cacetinho, carioquinha, pão de
água (water bread), pão Jacó (Jacó bread), pão filão (loaf
bread), pão aguado (watery bread), and careca.[1][2] Despite its
name, pão francês is unique to Brazil and is not a bread
from France.[3]

Pão francês is the most popular bread in Brazil.[3] A 2019 study

by Puratos [nl] found that 95.7% of the residents of the city
of São Paulo eat pão francês.[1] According to Sampapão (the
São Paulo Bakery and Confectionery Industry Union and
Association), more rolls of pão francês are baked every day in
the city of São Paulo than there are residents.[3][a]

March 21 is Pão Francês Day in Brazil.[2]

While the exact origin of pão francês is unknown, there are

several theories of how it was created. One theory is that pão
francês was invented in the 1900s by wealthy Brazilians who
asked French bakers to teach them how to bake
the baguettes that they encountered in their visits to France.
Despite using the same base ingredients, the shape of pão
francês differed from the baguettes that they were based on as
they were smaller and rounder.[2] A similar theory places the
origin of pão francês in the kitchens of the wealthy elite of São
Paulo near the onset of World War I. The bread was supposedly
created by their personal chefs at the request to reproduce the
breads made by the French that the children encountered abroad
in their travels in Europe.[1]

One final theory places the origin of the bread much earlier in
the royal court of Rio de Janeiro during colonial times.
Dom João VI and his court encouraged the import of wheat
flour to bake bread, as breads in Brazil at this time were heartier
and baked with flour made of yuca, corn, or rye. The bread
baked with this french wheat flour would be called pão francês.
It wasn't until the early 1900s when imported wheat flour
became more accessible and the Matarazzo [pt] and Santista
Mill opened in the state of São Paulo that pão francês spread
throughout the Brazilian Southeast and eventually the entire
country.[3]