Pain au Chocolat
Updated May 11, 2021
- Total Time
- About 4 hours, largely unattended
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Croissant dough, rolled out to a 15-by-16-inch slab, chilled (See Notes)
- All-purpose flour, for rolling
- 20chocolate croissant sticks, or 4 ounces semisweet bar chocolate, cut crosswise into 20 even pieces
- 1large egg yolk
- 1tablespoon heavy cream
Preparation
- Step 1
Arrange racks in the upper third and lower thirds of the oven. Bring a skillet of water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Transfer the skillet to the floor of the oven and close the door. (The steam released inside the oven will create an ideal proofing environment for the pains au chocolat.) Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Step 2
Remove the slab of dough from the refrigerator and let sit for 5 minutes at room temperature. Unwrap (save the plastic for proofing) and place on a very lightly floured surface. If the dough has shrunk during chilling, roll it out again to a slab that’s 16 inches long and 15 inches wide. Dust off any excess flour with a pastry brush.
- Step 3
Use a wheel cutter to trim ½ inch of dough from all four sides, straightening and squaring them off, creating a slab that’s 15 inches long by 14 inches wide. Using a ruler, cut the slab lengthwise into 5 equal strips each measuring 3 inches wide. Cut each strip in half crosswise, creating 10 rectangles.
- Step 4
Working one rectangle at a time, place a stick of chocolate along one of the shorter sides, leaving about a 1-inch border. Fold the pastry over the chocolate until it’s wrapped around one time, then tuck another bar of chocolate into the fold. Wrap the pastry around the second bar of chocolate and continue to roll until you have a snug spiral. Transfer the pain au chocolat to a prepared baking sheet, resting it on the seam. Repeat with the remaining dough and chocolate, dividing between the baking sheets and spacing evenly. Very loosely cover with plastic wrap so the pastries have some room to expand.
- Step 5
Open the oven and stick your hand inside — it should be humid but not hot, as the water in the skillet will have cooled. You want the pains au chocolat to proof at 70 to 75 degrees. (Any hotter and the butter will melt, leading to a denser pastry.) Gently place the baking sheets inside the oven and let the pastries proof until they’re doubled in size, extremely puffy, and jiggle delicately on the baking sheet, 2 to 2½ hours.
- Step 6
Remove the baking sheets from the oven and carefully uncover them. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes while you heat the oven. Remove the skillet from the oven and heat to 375 degrees.
- Step 7
In a small bowl, stir the yolk and heavy cream until streak-free. Remove the baking sheets from the refrigerator and use a pastry brush to gently brush each pain au chocolat with the yolk mixture. Transfer the sheets to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets and switch racks, and continue to bake until the pains au chocolat are deeply browned, another 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheets.
- For the dough, follow the Croissants recipe through Step 16.
- Pains au chocolat are best within an hour or two of baking. After that, revive them by warming in a 350-degree oven for 5 to 8 minutes. Keep wrapped airtight at room temperature.
Private Notes
Comments
Absolutely fabulous say all of my 'victims'. Better than any bakery said one. Clearly all the work is worth the wait for these pastries. Will willingly do it again just to provide a wee bit of joy during these troubling times.
Turned out great the first try! I did even longer cold rises in the refrigerator (because of work schedule) and didn’t seem to make a difference. Do not underestimate how much they’ll proof and expand in the oven; I only had one full baking sheet so I tried doing 7 on the sheet and 3 in a cake pan. Ended up having sides touching; all worked out though!
I just made these and they are delicious. I used dark chocolate chips instead of batons, they were rather large so I put 8/10 in each croissant. I baked on cookie sheets, don’t be like me, use rimmed sheets as there will be butter overflow. Overall, a great set of instructions and a fun weekend project!
Well done. I lived a few doors down from a Patisserie on the Rue St. Honore in Paris in 1992 and would walk by the door each morning on my way to class. St. Honore being the patron Saint of Bakers must have had an eye on this Patisserie because they turned out consistently fabulous Pain au Chocolat morning after morning. I've just used this recipe for a guide, but substituted Salted Vegan Butter in my Pate Feullitee for Dairy Butter and the Pain au Chocolat turned out very nicely.
Had a bit of trouble with the dough. Perhaps overproofed them. Butter leaked. Do you know…they were still amazing?
Just made these, they were phenomenal. I folded the croissant dough one extra turn before rolling out after reading the comments on the other recipe. I just used bar chocolate broken into pieces and it worked great.