Pain au chocolat

Hi everyone!  In the last few days the weather has gotten considerably cooler and rainy.  So after I watched my favorite football team play yesterday (Go Steelers!), I decided that I would bake something.  I always have a long list in my mind of things that I would like to try.  However, I decided on a tried and true favorite...  Chocolate croissants!! 

My love for them started in Culinary school.  The first class that I took was a bread class. I thought chocolate croissants would come later in my breakfast and pastries class.  Nope!  Much to my surprise, I was making these delicious little treats only a few weeks into school.  Every 2 month cycle (that is how long each class would last), I would go back to the breads instructor and he would give me a chocolate croissant from his demo batch.  Yum!  I was hooked!  

So when my sister gave me this book... 

and I found that there was a recipe for them, I had to try it!  Now this book has tons of good recipes for all things with pastry.  Pies, savory tarts, puff pastry, brioche, croissants, pate a choux (cream puffs), pizza dough and more!  If you like all those things, you would really like this book!  

Anyways... back to the croissants!

Chocolate Croissants

1 oz fresh yeast  (this really is better than the instant yeast and you can find it in most grocery stores these days by the butter)

generous 1 cup whole milk

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. fine salt

1/4 sugar

1 1/4 cup butter, cold but not too hard

eggwash (beat 1 egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk)

Chocolate chips

• Break the yeast up so it crumbles into a bowl.  Add the milk.  Let it sit for a minute or so and then mix with your fingers so the yeast dissolves.
• Put the flour, salt and sugar into a mixer bowl.  Use a stand mixer with a dough hook.
• Turn the mixer on low, gradually adding the yeast mixture.
• Stop working the dough as soon as a nice ball forms and it does not stick to the sides of the bowl.  (If it is dry, slowly add a little bit of milk until it comes together.  If it is too wet, slowly add a little bit of flour.  You want it to form a ball, but not be too sticky to the touch.)

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place (about 75 degrees) for about 45 minutes to an hour.  It should double in size.  
• Knock back the dough by flipping it over and letting the gases out, but do not over work the dough.  Do this gently.  
• Cover the bowl and chill for 4 hours in the fridge.  Do not chill for more than 8 hours.  
• Roll the dough out so it forms a long rectangle.  
• Cut the butter in thin strips and place it in the center 1/3 of the dough.

•  Fold one side over the butter.

• Then fold the other 1/3 of dough on top of that.

• First turn- turn the dough 90 degrees so that the next time you roll, you roll it in the opposite direction.  
• Lightly flour the surface and roll out the dough just like you did the first time in a long rectangle.  
• Fold in three.
• Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

• Second turn- give the dough a quarter turn, roll out to a rectangle, fold again, wrap and chill as you did for the first turn.
• Third and final turn- roll the dough out in the opposite direction from the 2nd turn to a rectangle and fold as before.  Wrap in plastic and chill 30 minutes.  No more than 1 hour.
• At this time, I cut the dough in half to make it easier to roll out.
• Roll the dough out so that it is about 1/4 inch thick.
• I cut mine into 10 even rectangles.

I usually like to use pain au chocolat sticks from King Arthur Flour, but I was out.  So I used whatever chocolate I had.  It happened to be these.  Love them!

• I placed chocolate chips in the middle 1/3 of the dough.

• Eggwash the bottom third of the dough.
• Fold the top part over the chocolate, and then the bottom part with the eggwash.  This will help everything to stick together.

• Flip them over so the seam side in down.
• Press the edges together so no chocolate escapes during the baking process.
• Using a sharp knife, cut a couple slits in the top so that steam can escape and they do not explode open in the oven.

• Eggwash and proof in a warm place for 1-2 hours, so they can rise and double in size.
• At this time, I turn the oven on to 350 degrees.  
• Eggwash one last time before you put them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes.  You want to make sure they are a very golden brown!  There are many layers of flaky goodness in there and you want to make sure that all the layers have baked!  No one wants to eat a raw croissant!
• Cool slightly and enjoy warm!

Look at all the flakiness! So yummy!

Now, I know this recipes takes time.  It can be intimidating the first time you try this.  But I promise, it is worth the wait and patience!  Store bought chocolate croissants do not even compare to these!  Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Happy baking!  :-)