Croissants and pains au chocolat

Didier
Nov 4, 2023
2 min read

Updated: Nov 22, 2023

Everyone thinks of Paris and France when they think of croissants, but did you know that they originated in Austria and that we owe the croissant recipe as we know it today to Sylvain Claudius Goy, who first introduced puff pastry in 1915.

If you've never tried making homemade croissants or pains au chocolat, it's not that complicated, and there's nothing like the smell of freshly baked viennoiseries to get your weekend off to a good start.

The recipe may seem a little technical, but with some patience, the result is well worth the effort.

Recipe

Ingredients for about 25 croissants or pains au chocolat:

45 g fresh yeast
100 g sugar
1 kg flour
18 g honey
95 g butter
15 g salt
420 g of water at room temperature
370 g of butter
2 eggs

For the dough

Place the yeast, sugar, flour, honey, butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Turn the food processor to medium speed and add the water a little at a time. Increase the speed to medium and process until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This should take 4-5 minutes.

Place the dough in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Wrap the butter in baking paper or parchment paper and roll out into a 20*20cm square or 20*25cm rectangle and chill.

Turning

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out into a rectangle twice the length of your butter square or rectangle (20*40cm or 25*40cm).

Also remove the butter and make sure the texture is identical to that of your dough. Remove the baking paper and place it in the center of your pastry rectangle.

Fold over the flaps and lightly seal with your fingertips.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a rectangle measuring approximately 25*60cm, and fold into a wallet shape.

Chill for 30 minutes.

Take out the dough and make sure the fold is to the side. Roll out the dough again and fold into thirds.

Return to the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out and cut croissants or pains au chocolat

Divide the dough in half.

Roll out the first half into a rectangle of about 60*40cm and cut out triangles of 10cm base.

Roll the croissants up from the base and place on a baking sheet.

Roll out the second half of the dough as described above.

Cut out 10cm strips.

To form the pains au chocolat, place the first chocolate stick on the dough and start rolling before placing the second.

Place your pains au chocolat on a baking tray, spacing them well apart.

Cover your croissants and/or pains au chocolat with a tea towel and leave to rise for around 2 hours. They should double in size.

Tips

You can freeze your croissants or pains au chocolat immediately after shaping them.

Simply take them out of the freezer the evening before and leave them to defrost and proof in the oven overnight. You can then bake them in the morning.

Baking

Preheat your oven to 180°C or 350°F.

Break and beat the eggs, then brush the pastries.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. The croissants / pains au chocolat should be golden brown and plump.