Easy Pain au Chocolat Recipe
This easy pain au chocolate recipe will help you make chocolate filled croissants in a simple and easy way.This Easy Homemade chocolate croissants recipe does not require lot of time and effort and the resulting Pain au chocolat are very delicious with crispy flaky crust and soft moist crumb.
Ingredients
For Pastrydough
- 390 g Flour or 3 cups (loosely packed)
- 251 ml Water or 1 cup + 1 tbsp
- 3 g Yeast or 1 tsp
- 1.7 g Salt or 1/4 tsp
- 50 g Sugar or 4 tbsp
- 113 g Soft Butter or 1 stick or 1/2 cup
For Chocolate Filling
- 120-150 g Chocolate
For egg wash
- Lightly beat one egg
Instructions
PREPARE THE DOUGH
- Into a bowl, add in the water.We don’t need to use cold or warm water in this danish pastry recipe.We can use room temperature water.Add sugar, salt, yeast and stir to dissolve the ingredients in water.
- Then add the flour.Combine everything together to form a shaggy mass of dough.
- Transfer the dough on to a clean work surface and knead the dough for about 4-5 minutes or until we get a soft and smooth dough.You can also use a stand mixer to prepare the dough.
Divide, shape into circles and layer them with butter
- Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces.
- Shape them into round balls.Let them sit and rest for 10-15 minutes.I pressed the balls on top to flatten them.Then cover them with a damp cloth so that they won’t get dry.This resting time will give some time for the gluten strands to relax. This will prevent its tendency to rebound back while we roll them out.
- After 10 minutes, roll out each of the portion to a circle of approximately 16-18 cm in diameter.Then smear butter( about 3/4 tbsp) on each layer.
- Place it on a plastic film.Repeat the same with rest of the dough balls.
- Stack them one over the other until we are done with all of them.The butter layers are now ready.But as the butter is very soft at this point, we will not be able to work with the dough right now.
Keep it in freezer / refrigerator until the butter is stiff
- So keep the stack of layers covered in the freezer for 30-35 minutes.
- We can also keep it overnight in the refrigerator.After 35 minutes in freezer, the butter is now more stiff and pliable.Place it on to a well floured work surface and roll out into a rectangle of approximately 42 cm x 44 cm.
- It should be around 4-5 mm thick.The more thinner the layers the more flakier our croissants will be.
- Dust the work surface with enough flour so that you can work smoothly.Using a sharp knife or with a pizza cutter, cut and remove the edges to make it even.I divided the rectangle into 12 equal parts so that we can make 12 pain au chocolate.
Place the Chocolate sticks
- Place 2 sticks of chocolate on each sheet.
- Fold and shape them.
- Transfer them onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
PROOF THE CHOCOLATE FILLED CROISSANTS
- Cover and let them proof for around 120 minutes.
- In a warm environment, they will rise faster and in a colder environment they will rise slowly.Keeping the baking tray in freezer for 10 minutes prior to baking will help to keep the butter stay intact while baking.Other wise the butter will melt too fast and we may end up with a pool of butter.
- Just before taking them into the oven for baking, give an egg wash.For egg wash, lightly beat one egg.
- Egg wash will give a nice shine and golden brown color to our pastry crust when baked.
BAKE THE PAIN AU CHOCOLAT
- Bake the pain au chocolate at 400 F or 205 C for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 375 F or 190 C and bake for another 8-12 minutes.After baking, you will get chocolate filled croissants that are crispy and flaky on the outside and soft ,moist inside.Transfer them onto a cooling rack immediately, so that the bottom will not trap any steam and get soggy.
Video
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!