Petit-Beurre facts for kids
The Petit Beurre (pronounced "Puh-tee Burr"), also known as the Véritable Petit Beurre or VPB, is a famous type of shortbread cookie. It comes from the city of Nantes in France. This cookie is super popular in France, especially in the area called Pays de la Loire.
The most well-known Petit Beurre is made by the LU company. This cookie has become famous all over the world! Louis Lefèvre-Utile invented this dry cookie in 1886 in Nantes. He got the idea from some English cookies that were popular back then. However, the LU Petit Beurre wasn't the very first one, and LU doesn't own the name "Petit Beurre" exclusively.
The name "Petit Beurre" means "little butter" in French. In other countries, it's known as the French Petit Beurre. In Turkey, people call it "Petibör," and in Greece, it's "PteeBer."
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The LU Petit Beurre Story
Louis Lefèvre-Utile created the LU Petit Beurre in 1886. He even had a special cookie cutter made in the shape of the Petit Beurre on September 8, 1886. But he didn't officially register the "Petit Beurre LU" trademark until April 9, 1888, in Nantes.
What Makes It Special?
Petit Beurre cookies are about 6.5 centimeters (2.5 inches) long, 5.4 centimeters (2.1 inches) wide, and 0.65 centimeters (0.25 inches) thick. Each cookie weighs about 8.33 grams.
The top of the cookie is smooth and has 24 small bumps, arranged in four rows of six. Between these bumps, you can read "LU PETIT-BEURRE NANTES" written in three lines. The way the letters are shaped is meant to remind people of the old writing books that the grandmother of one of the cookie's creators used to read. Before baking, the cookies are brushed with milk. This gives them a nice "homemade" look. Eight cookies stacked on top of each other are as tall as one cookie is wide, which helps them fit perfectly into square packages.
The LU Petit Beurre has four "ears" at its corners, like little points. It also has 14 "teeth" along its length and 10 "teeth" along its width. That's a total of 52 "teeth" all around the edge! The 24 bumps inside are arranged in four rows of six. People have fun trying to figure out what these numbers mean. They could represent the four seasons, the 52 weeks in a year, or the 24 hours in a day. One famous slogan for the Petit Beurre is: "Four ears and forty-eight teeth."
How It's Made
The LU company makes a huge number of Petit Beurre cookies every year. At their factory in La Haie-Fouassière, which is near Nantes, they produce over 9,000 tons of these cookies annually. That's about 1 billion cookies, packed into 41 million packages!
What's Inside?
The LU Petit Beurre is made with simple ingredients. Here's what the maker says is in them:
- Wheat flour: 73.5%
- Powdered sugar
- Butter: 13.6%
- Evaporated milk: 1.3%
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Flavoring
Here's a look at the nutrition information for the cookie:
| Per 100 grams | Per 1 cookie | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 440 calories – 1850 kilojoules | 36 calories – 154 kilojoules |
| Protein | 8 grams | 0.7 grams |
| Carbohydrates | 73 grams | 6.1 grams |
| Fats | 12 grams | 1 gram |
Other Similar Biscuits
When Louis Lefèvre-Utile first created the Petit Beurre, other companies quickly started making similar cookies. To show that his cookie was the original and best, he launched a strong advertising campaign. He started calling his cookie the "Véritable Petit Beurre," which means "True Petit Beurre." Over many years, he managed to make his original recipe, without any extra chemicals, the standard. This also helped reduce the number of competitors.
Another sweet butter cookie made in France is called the "Petit beurre with Lorient sea salt."
In 1891, in Hanover, Germany, a company called Bahlsen started making a Butterkeks (butter biscuit). It was very similar to the French Petit Beurre. They named it Leibniz-Keks to honor a famous philosopher and mathematician named Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Today, many other companies around the world make cookies that are like the Petit Beurre.
