Pain au Chocolat

Or chocolate croissants. These are wonderful, easy to make, buttery, and full of chocolate. Really, what's not to love? It helps to have some puff pastry around, and homemade is best. If you are making a recipe like, um, venison pie (or chicken pot pie) then you will probably have some pastry dough left over that needs to be used up. That's what happened to me when I made my Easter dinner of venison pie. It could happen to you, too.

All I did was take my remaining half of puff pastry and roll it out into the shape of a rough rectangle.


I then took one of my crappy knives and trimmed the edges of the pastry dough so that it was nice and neat looking. I was starting to feel like a real French pastry chef at this point.

Then I got out my most important pastry tool of all: my Stanley Fat Max 25' measuring tape. I cut some small marks at even intervals on the pastry dough and then cut the big rectangle into smaller rectangles. Symmetry is important here. Now I was starting to feel like a former construction worker-turned-pastry chef in Austin, Texas.

Now it was time for the "Laying on of Chocolate". I had a mixture of Callebaut Bittersweet and 80% Dark chocolate. I put a little chocolate in the middle of each rectangle.

To make the croissant simply bring up the ends of a rectangle and then roll it up.


Place the croissants on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush them with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 Tbsp. milk or cream) and place the whole sheet pan in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. While the croissants are cooling preheat the oven to 400°.

When the croissants are thoroughly cool put the pan of them in the oven and bake them until they are puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Remove the croissants to a rack and let them cool slightly before eating (good luck with that).