Photo by tabitha turner on Unsplash

Way back in high school, like most of you, I had to choose a foreign language to study. No idea why, but I choose French. My French studies continued in college as, for some reason God only knows, I decided to major in this language. I had the amazing chance to study abroad in the city of Dijon between my sophomore and junior years. It was while I was over there that I became introduced and then later "addicted" to the french pastry known as "Pain Au Chocolat." Literally meaning, bread with chocolate, this delicate delectable pastry combines flaky buttery crust with chocolate. What could be better, right?

I've had my fair share of pain au chocolate aka: Chocolate Croissants while in the US. Starbucks has them, most grocery stores carry them, and occasionally I find a bakery to support. Here in Wilmington, we have a bakery owned by French nationals along with an Italian bakery that both carry excellent pain au chocolat. 

Recently, I was stuck home in covid quarantine and decided I wanted one of these pastries. I've made them before, and they are super time-consuming as is the rolling, buttering, folding, chilling process can take forever to make many layers. I'm not always the patient person when rolling and folding pastry either, nor sometimes can I get yeast to set properly. I found this recipe while googling the best methods and if you ever get the desire to make your own, well, here you go!

I have used various recipes I've found online and this one is probably my favorite. Check out King Arthur Baking for this fabulous Pain Au Chocolat recipe. Of course, they recommend their own flour but honestly, any flour  will do!

So I'll say that I typically only make half the recipe. It's just me and I really don't need 16=18 chocolate croissants, as tempting as that may be! 

To minimize chaos, I utilize wax paper layers between my rolling method. Flouring the wax paper means the dough won't stick. Part of this reasoning is because I don't have a proper counter board for rolling and part of it is that it makes it way easier to transfer dough between folding and chilling!

Part of the mystique of the pain au chocolat is the nice buttery flakes. Most recipes call for a lot of butter. I find that unsalted works the best but that I usually don't use as much as the recipe calls. Again, wax paper and "rolling" the butter into a thin layer helps a lot too! 

The process of kneading and rising is really important. Over kneading means the pastry won't be light and airy. Rising is an important part of the process too!

Be sure to do an egg wash to get that maximum golden brown. For my last go around, I added a bit of honey to the egg wash, and it was so good!

Most recipes will call for chocolate batons. Chocolate baking bars, chocolate regular candy bars, and chocolate chips will all work. Be sure to make sure the pain au chocolate edges are sealed so that chocolate doesn't seep out and burn because that is the worst!

If you get an inkling to try these, I hope you enjoy. Or, find your favorite bakery and pick up some of these classic treats! Be sure to properly store your pain au chocolats too!