Yes, these are chocolate croissants. Not just pains au chocolat, but croissants, shaped like crescents, made out of yeasted and laminated chocolate dough. As far as Google can find, this is the first English* tutorial on how to make them to ever exist on the interwebs. Like, ever. I'm not sure why.
*EDIT as of 3/8: Pinterest has informed me that tutorials for similar chocolate croissants exist in Chinese and Italian -- I don't know how close they are to these (I can't read either language well enough) but it doesn't look like they are the same from the pictures... just putting out this disclaimer. Shoutout to the international lamination nation. :D
First off, I am indebted to my cousin Angela's Instagram post about chocolate croissants in a random HK mall stall, pleading for anyone to make them in the Philippines, or for a class on croissants. I have taught many a croissant class at ICE and Monroe College (hi, students!!), but she's not in the same city.
Plus, chocolate ones! Here I have to point you to the stunning pix on Francois Brunet's Instagram -- he has the most riveting chocolate pains au chocolat photos (as well as myriad other absolutely stunning bread and pastry work. Seriously it's awe-inspiring.)
But no recipes, let alone tutorials. Sure, there are many that are filled with chocolate, some that have a layer of chocolate dough so they are striped, or even leopard patterned. But none like these.
So on to the figuring!
My formula is based on one in Advanced Bread and Pastry: A Professional Approach by Michel Suas, but adjusted to yield a quantity manageable at home having a stand mixer and a rolling pin but no sheeter, but the dough is easily mixed by hand as well. I use bread flour because of the added cocoa.
I jump at any chance to use my sourdough starter, so it features here too. It tastes wonderful -- the cocoa's bitterness is tempered by the almost leafy tang, and a bit of salt and malt or sugar bump up the lush flavor of both the chocolate and the yeasted dough.
It's a two-part process but can easily by divided into more 30-minute sets -- no need to block off your whole weekend to make croissants! This part is making the dough and putting in the layers, and the second part will be shaping and finishing.
If you don't have an active sourdough or levain (but really if you like to make bread you should!), or if this is the only yeasted recipe you will ever make (no judgement!) you can make an overnight poolish.
220 g. all-purpose flour
220 g room temp water
2.2 g (1/2 tsp) active dry yeast or instant yeast
Whisk together, cover, let rise 10-16 hours.
Chocolate Croissant and Pains au Chocolat
yields 24 full-sized croissant or 12 each croissant and pains au chocolat, or 48 half-size croissant
Detrempe (dough part):
500 g. bread flour
60 g. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)
130 g. water
140 g. milk
7.5 g. (1 1/2 tsp) active dry or instant yeast
440 g. sourdough starter, or the poolish from above
93 g. sugar
15 g. (1 tbsp) salt
2 g. (1/2 tsp) powdered malt, 5 g.malt syrup, or 7 g. more sugar
29 g. butter, softened
With a mixer: Combine flour and cocoa in a mixer bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water, then add that and the milk and starter or poolish to the cocoa and flour. Mix with the dough hook until no dry bits remain, then 1 minute on low speed. Add the sugar, salt, malt and butter, and mix on medium until the dough comes together and cleans off the bowl.
to mix by hand: Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together flour, cocoa, salt, sugar, and malt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers until it disappears. Make a well and add the yeast/water, milk, and starter or poolish. Mix with a wooden spoon, then your hands, until the dough comes together and no dry bits remain. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead a few strokes until it is smooth and uniform.
Cover the dough in the bowl and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
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Lightly butter or oil a large piece of plastic wrap. Press the dough (it will be a bit puffy but might not have doubled) into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick on the wrap, fold it over to enclose, and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to 6 hours.
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Buerrage (roll-in butter part):
340 g. unsalted butter, cold
20 g. unsweetened cocoa powder
The goal is to get the butter to the same malleable texture as the detrempe but still very cold -- softened manually, not by temperature. Place the butter (in two or three pieces) on a large piece of plastic wrap, or a nonstick mat. (A piece of heavy vinyl, like from a shower curtain or book cover, works well too.) Scatter the cocoa powder on. Roll the butter so it is coated all over, then fold the plastic on top and start to work the butter and cocoa together by hitting it with a rolling pin.
Use the plastic or mat to fold and shape the butter as you strike. So whack and fold until the cocoa is incorporated, trying to keep the butter pressed together and even. It is a messy process, but pretty satisfying and therapeutic! When all the cocoa is worked in, shape the buerrage into a 10 inch square on the mat, about 1/4 inch thick.
Enclosing (forming the Paton)
Clear off the counter and dust with flour. Unwrap the cold dough and flip it onto the floured surface, trying not to have it fold over on itself. Press the dough out with your hands into a rectangle, 12 inches by 18 inches. (my dough scraper is 6 inches wide - super handy!)
Center the roll-in butter square at the bottom 2/3 of the rectangle, with 1 inch on 3 sides and the rest of the dough at the top.
fold the empty 1/3 of dough onto the buerrage and dust off the excess flour.
Now fold the bottom 1/3 over the middle, making a 3-fold, like a letter to fit an envelope. Press the edges together to seal in the buerrage. You now have 2 layers of butter roll-in between 3 layers of dough.
Press in short up-down strokes with the pin to get the rectangle even and align the layers, then keep pressing until the folded dough is about 1/2 inch thick. I like to do so on the diagonals, so the corners stay true.
When it is thin enough so your knuckles hit the counter, start to roll to a rectangle to make your first laminating fold. My counter doesn't allow me to get around its side, so I turn the dough parallel to the edge so i can leverage to roll the length.
Don't be afraid to flour the surface well -- you don't want the dough to stick and rip to make the butter leak out. Use your scraper to make sure the dough is loose from the counter, moving it around to maintain the even thickness. Aim for a rectangle 3 times as long as it is wide -- in this case, about 9 inches by 27 inches.
Now fold one side over the middle, aligning the edges.
Brush off the excess flour and fold the other side over, making 3 layers.
That was your first fold! You will end up with a 9 inch square. Wrap the croissant dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. This gives the butter roll-in a chance to chill and firm up, and the gluten developed to relax -- both make it easier for you to do the 2nd and 3rd folds. (Yeah, you can rest and chill too.)
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Flour the counter again and place the rested, cold dough square so the folded edges are parallel to the edge of the counter. You want to roll so the open edges become the short sides of the rectangle and the folds become the long edges, so press across with the rolling pin to 1/2 inch thickness, as before.
Roll the dough back out to a 9x27 inch rectangle, then make the 2nd fold just like the first, brushing off any excess flour and aligning the edges. You'll notice that it gets more cohesive and manageable as the butter layers get thinner, but pay attention so you don't have sticking, and it stays an even thickness -- the tendency is for the edges to get thin and the middle to be thicker, so to prevent that, make sure to roll from the middle out, with consistent pressure.
Wrap and rest as before, then repeat one more time, for a total of 3 sets of folds. Yay, the lamination is complete! Wrap the finished dough and let it rest in the fridge at least 2 hours, or up to three days.
This got long enough, so rolling, shaping, baking and finishing will be the next post! Thanks for your patience, see you back here soon for that.
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