About the bake
Enjoy making this classic French treat in the comfort of your own kitchen. Featuring classic pastry dough made with butter, flour, sugar, and milk this recipe is then baked with plain chocolate.
Method
Step 1:
Mix together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water in a mixing bowl to form a firm dough. Knead for 10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in an electric mixer bowl using a dough hook.
Step 2:
Remove the butter from the fridge and warm very slightly so that it can be flattened out into a rough rectangle about 1-2cm thick.
Step 3:
Roll out the dough into a rectangle that is roughly a third larger than the size of the butter.
Step 4:
Place the butter on top of the dough, making sure it only covers two-thirds of it.
Step 5:
Fold the third of the dough that's not covered by the butter over the butter-covered dough. You will be left with a third of the butter-covered dough exposed. Fold that back onto the dough, layering the dough and the butter.
Step 6:
Roll the butter and dough layers with a rolling pin to press them down. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Step 7:
Take the dough butter mix out of the fridge, place the short end towards you and roll out the dough into a rectangular shape, approximately 15mm thick. Repeat the folding process, cover with cling-film and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Step 8:
Repeat the folding and chilling process two more times so that you have rolled and folded 4 times. Wrap loosely in cling film and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. Roll out the chilled dough to a large rectangle the thickness of a pound coin.
Step 9:
Cut the dough into 12 x 12cm squares.
Step 10:
Using a sharp knife, cut the chocolate into 12 lengths (don't worry if it shatters a little). Arrange a row of chocolate along one edge of each piece of dough and roll the dough over forming a sausage.
Step 11:
Place the pain au chocolat on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to prove for 1 hour.
Step 12:
Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan 200°C, gas mark 7). Bake the pain au chocolat for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden. Serve warm.
Ingredients
- 500g Very strong white bread flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Easy bake yeast sachet ((7g))
- 75g Billington's Unrefined Golden Caster Sugar
- 270ml Water
- 350g Butter (unsalted)
- 250g Plain chocolate (70% cocoa)
Recipe Reviews
I wish somebody would reconcile for me that noted pastry chefs like Cedric Grolet, Dominique Ansel, et al. use Type 45 flour (pastry flour) in their croissant dough. This flour is the antithesis of "strong bread flour." I've had them both ways, the T45 pastries are far, far better. That said, I applaud this recipe in that it is at least uses weights where appropriate and metric measurements for the fluid components.
i loved it!
I used normal plain flour and they come out really well. I'll be making them all the time now.
I love this recipie I am eleven and I think it was very simple and easy to make my mum dad and two siblings loved them and it was a lot easier than the other recipes I have tried
Terrible, timing all wrong, tastes of bread flour and is SO raw, do not recommend this recipe
The instructions on how to layer it were quite confusing and I found that the bread flour dominates the taste of the pastry
Ingredients
- 500g Very strong white bread flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Easy bake yeast sachet ((7g))
- 75g Billington's Unrefined Golden Caster Sugar
- 270ml Water
- 350g Butter (unsalted)
- 250g Plain chocolate (70% cocoa)