French Kitchen Classic: Pain au Chocolat

Today, we’re featuring another favorite French snack sure to be enjoyed by your loved ones — the pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant). French bakeries are stocked up with fresh pains au chocolat around 4pm when children typically get their snacks in France — or their “quatre heure” (four o’clock) as it is also called. Pains au chocolat, like madeleines, fill the memories of children and their mother or grandmother who often get this treat for them at the local boulangerie (bakery). In France, it is so prevalent and cheap too that I never make them when I am over there. But when I am in the US, first it’s hard to find a real pain au chocolat and then when you find one, it is often so expensive. So, I prefer to make my own homemade pain au chocolat using the Art of the Home recipe below. Enjoy and bon appétit!

Pain au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissant)

by Art of the Home

Ingredients (for 4 chocolate croissants)

1 sheet of croissant dough (Pillsbury croissant dough or any croissant type dough)
8 chocolate sticks (e.g. dark chocolate).
1 egg yolk

Directions

Pre-heat oven 400 °F (about 200 °C).
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Unfold croissant dough and instead of separating the dough in triangles, separate in 4 rectangles. Seal back the perforated holes (as best as you can, it does not have to be perfectly sealed)
Place 2 chocolate sticks on each rectangle, one at a time, just like this baker does in the 1 min. clip below. You want to make sure the fold is facing down so your petits pains au chocolat don’t open up during baking:
In a small cup, mix the egg yolk with about 1-2 TBSP of water. With a food brush, spread the egg yolk mixture on each petit pain au chocolat (it will give them that rich golden color when they are done).
Bake the pains au chocolat for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Remove from cooking sheet and let cool for about 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm or cold.

Art of the Home Suggestions:

Chocolate substitution: you can line the dough with chocolate chips if you don’t have chocolate sticks handy. Your pains au chocolat will be delicious too.
Big crowd: double up the croissant dough and chocolate and make 8 pains au chocolat. No need to double up the egg yolk, it is enough for 8.

Comments

Gail Lovett says:

May 14, 2011 at 2:23 pm

I tried to print your recipe for chocolate croissant and wasn’t able to. I even e-mailed to my daughter to see if I could print it from there but again..not able. Is there a way to access your recipes and print them.
eriiicaa says:

February 29, 2012 at 3:46 pm

im working on a skl prrojject and i need a way to print thiis recipe out, my partner is doing the asessment while im doing food ssssooooo pllease hellpp mme, and this project is due by friddaayy ssooo thhannkkss
eriiicaa says:

March 1, 2012 at 3:36 pm

well tomorrow is friday and i still cant print thhis recipe out so i guess im just gonna have to write it by hand hahaha thanks for your help annyy waaaayyy hhahaahahahahahhaahahahahahahha
sincerly
eRRiica Ree <<33 [;
Bonnie says:

September 29, 2012 at 10:43 am

Try saving the recipes to your favorites!
kim says:

September 29, 2012 at 11:26 am

hit ctrl P and print it that way.
Joel says:

September 29, 2012 at 3:47 pm

What is a “chocolate stick”?
Art of the Home says:

October 13, 2012 at 8:57 am

Dear Joel, thank you for your question. Chocolate sticks are sticks of chocolate about 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide. I understand your question, they are not as common on the US as they are in France. If you can’t find any, simply use chocolate squares cut in half and line them up as in the video. That’s what we do sometimes – it won’t matter since it will melt anyway. The key is to get your favorite chocolate – enjoy!

Update: found some chocolate bars at Trader Joe’s which are almost the same as the French one we use so that would work too.