MAISON DE KENNEDY

Pain au Chocolat

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍 (0/5) Tested by Cass — 55 min · Makes 8

Not made this one yet — no rating.

Real pain au chocolat is made from croissant dough — yeasted, laminated, a three-day project. The puff pastry version is the bakery's open secret: same shape, same chocolate, 90% of the experience, no yeast, no proofing, no overnight commitment. Once the proofer and croissant dough are mastered you can do the real thing, but this is the gateway drug.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Puff Pastry (~500 g) — makes 8
• 16 Chocolate Batons — 2 per pastry
• 1 Egg + 1 tsp Cream — glaze
• Optional: Pearl Sugar or Sliced Almonds

Method

1. Sheet the pastry: Roll to ~3 mm thick, in a rectangle roughly 40 × 24 cm.
2. Cut: Into 8 rectangles, each about 10 × 12 cm. Two rows of four; trim the edges square.
3. First baton: Lay one across the short width, ~2 cm in from one short edge. Fold that 2 cm flap up and over it.
4. Second baton: Place snug against the rolled-over edge, then continue rolling into a tight log. Finish seam-side down.
5. Tray up: All 8 on parchment, 5 cm apart — they spread.
6. Chill 20 minutes. This firms the butter back up and is critical for flake.
7. Glaze twice: Oven to 200°C / 400°F. Brush with egg-cream glaze, wait 5 minutes, brush again for a deep mahogany finish.
8. Optional topping: Pearl sugar or sliced almonds.
9. Bake 16–20 minutes until deeply golden and properly puffed.
10. Cool 5 minutes on the tray. The chocolate inside is molten lava and needs to set slightly.

Notes

• Chocolate batons are the long thin sticks made specifically for filling laminated pastries — Cacao Barry and Valrhona make the proper ones. Substitute by snapping a bar (Lindt 70% works) into 1 × 7 cm rectangles. Dark or semi-sweet only; milk chocolate melts too fast and leaks.
• The honest comparison. The puff version is denser and a touch greasier than yeasted croissant dough, and it lacks the airy interior crumb. But the shattery exterior plus chocolate is genuinely 90% of the magic, and you can go oven-to-plate in under an hour. Once you graduate to croissant dough, this becomes the fallback for "I want it now" mornings.
• Freezer-ready breakfast: assemble through the chill, glaze once, then freeze on the tray. Once solid, bag them. Bake straight from frozen at 375°F for 25 minutes, glazing again halfway. Better than anything frozen you can buy.

Variations

• Aux amandes — day-old ones split, filled with frangipane, brushed with rum syrup, baked again with sliced almonds on top. The French bakery method for unsold pastries. Heaven.
• Pain suisse — pastry cream and chocolate chips instead of batons. Sweeter, more breakfast-y.
• Noisette — replace one baton with a thin smear of Nutella or hazelnut paste.
• Cinnamon twist — dust with cinnamon sugar before rolling. Mexican hot chocolate energy.
• White chocolate and raspberry jam — for the dark-chocolate refusers. Pearl sugar on top is mandatory here.
• Orange — fine orange zest on the pastry before rolling. Classic French winter.

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