Pain au Chocolat

Ok, so I had great dreams about trying to make Pain au Chocolat for the first time and having them come out AMAZING! I got on-line found a "french" croissant recipe, done by a french chef no less, and started my first project for this blog. As I was going over this recipe I felt that somethings didn't seem right; should have trusted my gut when it said 150g salt, but not one to stray from the recipe the first time, I kept at it. It was an epic fail. I believe Mr. Woodward's exact words were, "This is awful!" In the 14 years I have known this man he has never once told me something was awful (first time for everything I guess), even when we were dating and I was poor and served him hotdogs and stove top for dinner. I think the chef should have had a better translator. Here is a picture of the awfulness.

Take two came out much better! Yay for sticking with it, right? They came out so flaky and yummy!

I have to admit that I was somewhat intimidated by these, especially after my first attempt failed. But I did a little more searching, and while these my not be from an "authentic" french recipe, they came out very well. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Tips:

I used mini semi-sweet chips, but next time I'll use semi-sweet baking squares. It'll make them easier to roll and give you more chocolate flavor. Just cut the one ounce square in half and roll in the dough.

I might also drizzle chocolate on top as well. Melt semi-sweet chocolate according to the directions on the package. I use a ziploc bag to drizzle my chocolate. Pour the melted chocolate into the bag and snip one of the corners off and drizzle over the pastry, BAM fancy pastries.

The dough recipe for this can also be used for croissants, after all it is a croissant dough to begin with!

It's important not to try to halve this recipe. When you need only a half recipe of dough use the rest for croissants or make double recipe of these delicious pain au chocolat. One batch of this dough is enough for 24 plain croissants or up to 32 pain au chocolate (depending on how thick you roll the dough).

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole milk, heated to warm (105 F-110 F)

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 Tbsp plus 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (two 1/4 oz packages)

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp kosher salt

3 sticks cold, unsalted butter

special equipment: a standing electric mixer with dough hook, a ruler and a pastry brush.

Preparation

Make dough:

Stir together warm milk, brown sugar and yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. If it doesn't foam, discard and start over. Add 4 cups flour and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and very soft, about 7 minutes.

Transfer dough to work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Form dough into a roughly 1 1/2 inch thick rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until cold, about one hour.

Prepare and shape butter:

While dough is chilling, cut sticks of butter in half (2 oz pieces). Lightly flour your work surface. While butter is still cold roll in flour, this will keep them from sticking to the counter and your rolling pin (sprinkle with more flour as needed).

Pound butter with rolling pin to flatten slightly. Then roll lightly till you get the butter as thin as you can. Place on a piece of parchment in the refrigerator till ready to use. Repeat with the remaining pieces of butter.

Roll out dough:

Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and lifting and stretching dough (especially in corners), into a 16 by 10 inch rectangle.

Arrange dough with short side nearest you. Place butter on 2/3 of the dough, making sure to leave a border around the edges so that you can seal it. Fold as you would a letter: bottom third of dough over butter, then top third down over dough.

The following 2 pictures don't show the butter, because I forgot to take a picture of it, sorry. This is just to show you how to fold it.

Turn dough so a short side is nearest you, then flatten dough slightly by pressing down horizontally with the rolling pin across dough at regular intervals, making uniform impressions. Roll out dough into a 15 by 10 inch rectangle, rolling just to, but not over the ends.

Brush off and excess flour. Fold in thirds like a letter, as above, stretching corners to square off dough, forming a 10 by 5 inch rectangle. This is considered the first fold. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 1 hour.

Make 3 more folds in the same manner, chilling dough 1 hour after each fold, for a total of 4 folds. If any butter oozes out while rolling, sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours, but no more than 18 (after 18 hours, dough may not rise sufficiently when baked).

Making Pain au Chocolat

Lightly flour the surface you will be working on. Cut dough in half. Roll half into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Taking a pizza cutter cut in half length wise, then cut across at even intervals to make 12 rectangles (not sure why I didn't take pictures of this). Place your piece of chocolate at one end of the rectangle and roll tightly. Once rolled, lightly push down (you might need to use an egg wash to seal the dough), making sure to keep it in a rectangle shape. Brush the top with an egg wash and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment, or silicone mat.

Bake at 375 F for 15-19 minutes or until golden brown.

Ok, some things I learned doing this project:

1) trust your instincts. If is sounds like it has too much of one thing or not enough of something else, you're more than likely right. I realized I had more baking knowledge than I gave myself credit for.

2) this takes a lot of time, but I completely enjoyed the process. It's a wonderful feeling when something you make comes out the way it's supposed too.

3) I really love anything with chocolate in it, just sayin'.