Zopf makes brilliant toast . . . it's my weekend treat, with a fried egg on top. Brioche is even better though.
I agree that French croissants are better than most gipfeli I've had in Zürich. I suspect this is to do with quantity of butter (the quality of Swiss butter is generally pretty good and sometimes excellent), type of flour (Type 55) and production method.
It's an entirely different kind of thing, but I find it hard to resist a schinkengipfeli from Kauffmann in Zürich HB . . . at least, when I'm not having a wurstwegge from said establishment.
Well, the ones one the left (which I like much much more than those made by Mirabell) are not even made in Austria but by Reber in Bad Reichenhall, Germany.
You of course CAN eat it on any day, but in the tradional way your wife is absolutely correct that a Zopf is the bread for Sunday ! And many bakeries only start work at 2am on Sunday and open up shop on Sunday morning for the "Zöpfe" , or "Züpfe" in many places ! Even laws and regulations pay tribute to this.
No idea about ZH, but if you are brave enough to venture into the Heart Of Darkness, you'll find most bakeries open of a Sunday morning. When we Schwzyers say 'give us this day our daily bread' we really do mean daily .
And not to worry if you sleep in past noon, just keep going farther in to the Darkness until you get to Einsiedeln - Tulipan is open until 18:30.
At least one bakery in Adliswil is also open Sundays ... until about 13:00. They also sell a few dairy products and other items, in case you've somehow not 'prepared' for the weekend ...
Oh, and don't forget your major train stations (eg, HB, Stadelhofen) which have shopping areas open seven days a week.
Near where I live there is a bakery that sell croissants, gipfeli and zopf amongst other breads. They are open on Sunday mornings. The croissants taste like the french ones, the gipfeli tastes like the swiss ones, go figure!
Using the same word does not mean that it is the same product, and the same product can have different names from country to country. So every thing is thinkable when it comes to croissants/Gipfeli.
The Swiss version differs from the French version, that's just two different products. One like the one or the other, your taste. But when a backery offers both products, they present them under two names. How they choose, frankly, is probalby just arbitrary, as the Swiss Gipfeli is the same product as the German Croissant, different from French croissant. It's a question of recepies, not language. The latter just tries to catch up and fails sometimes to make sense out of the reality of pastery. Tough life.
Depends on taste really! Now are we talking proper baker's croissant, or Migros/Coop style? In my village there are 3 excellent bakeries, and he croissants are quite different in all 3- and so are most of the breads and other specialities. There is no 1 croissant fits all here (thank goodness).
I originally posted in this thread that I preferred French croissants, but now I'm not so sure. I went to two cafés while on ski holiday in Graubünden and ordered buttergipfel. Not bad, competes quite well with the French.
If ever in Fribourg, come and try a croissant at Bertherin, rue de Lausanne 61... Good stuff, buttery as it should, so good you don't care it's being swiss or french...
It's a real ordeal passing the shopwindow twice a day (I live nextdoor). I go to the office before opening hours just to avoid temptation...