Pain Au Chocolat Chocolate Filled Croissant Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix the flour, water, milk, sugar, salt, yeast, and butter.
• Once the dough starts to clump, turn it out onto a clean counter.
• Lightly knead the dough and form it into a ball, making sure not to over-knead it.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
• Slice the cold butter in thirds and place it onto a sheet of parchment paper..
• Place another piece of parchment on top of the butter, and beat it with a rolling pin.
• Keeping the parchment paper on the butter, use a rolling pin to roll the butter into a 7-inch (18 cm) square, ½-inch (1 cm) thick. If necessary, use a knife to trim the edges and place the trimmings back on top of the butter and continue to roll into a square.
• Transfer the butter layer to the refrigerator.
• To roll out the dough, lightly flour the counter. Place the dough on the counter, and push the rolling pin once vertically into the dough and once horizontally to form four quadrants.
• Roll out each corner and form a 10-inch (25 cm) square.
• Place the butter layer on top of the dough and fold the sides of the dough over the butter, enclosing it completely.
• Roll the dough with a rolling pin to seal the seams, making sure to lengthen the dough, rather than widening it.
• Transfer the dough to a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it's 8x24 inches (20x61 cm).
• Fold the top half down to the middle, and brush off any excess flour.
• Fold the bottom half over the top and turn the dough clockwise to the left. This completes the first turn.
• Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
• Roll out the dough again two more times, completing three turns in total and refrigerating for 1 hour in between each turn. If at anytime the dough or butter begins to soften, stop and transfer back to the fridge.
• After the final turn, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• To form the croissants, cut the dough in half. Place one half in the refrigerator.
• Flour the surface and roll out the dough into a long narrow strip, about 8x40 inches (20x101 cm).
• With a knife, trim the edges of the dough.
• Cut the dough into 4 rectangles.
• Place the chocolate on the edge of the dough and roll tightly enclosing it in the dough.
• Place the croissants on a baking sheet, seam side down.
• Repeat with the other half of the dough.
• Brush the croissants with the beaten egg. Save the rest of the egg wash in the fridge for later.
• Place the croissants in a warm place to rise for 1-2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
• Once the croissants have proofed, brush them with one more layer of egg wash.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Serve warm.
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Arrange racks in the upper third and lower thirds of the oven. Bring a skillet of water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Transfer the skillet to the floor of the oven and close the door. (The steam released inside the oven will create an ideal proofing environment for the pains au chocolat.) Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
• Remove the slab of dough from the refrigerator and let sit for 5 minutes at room temperature. Unwrap (save the plastic for proofing) and place on a very lightly floured surface. If the dough has shrunk during chilling, roll it out again to a slab that's 16 inches long and 15 inches wide. Dust off any excess flour with a pastry brush.
• Use a wheel cutter to trim 1/2 inch of dough from all four sides, straightening and squaring them off, creating a slab that's 15 inches long by 14 inches wide. Using a ruler, cut the slab lengthwise into 5 equal strips each measuring 3 inches wide. Cut each strip in half crosswise, creating 10 rectangles.
• Working one rectangle at a time, place a stick of chocolate along one of the shorter sides, leaving about a 1-inch border. Fold the pastry over the chocolate until it's wrapped around one time, then tuck another bar of chocolate into the fold. Wrap the pastry around the second bar of chocolate and continue to roll until you have a snug spiral. Transfer the pain au chocolat to a prepared baking sheet, resting it on the seam. Repeat with the remaining dough and chocolate, dividing between the baking sheets and spacing evenly. Very loosely cover with plastic wrap so the pastries have some room to expand.
• Open the oven and stick your hand inside - it should be humid but not hot, as the water in the skillet will have cooled. You want the pains au chocolat to proof at 70 to 75 degrees. (Any hotter and the butter will melt, leading to a denser pastry.) Gently place the baking sheets inside the oven and let the pastries proof until they're doubled in size, extremely puffy, and jiggle delicately on the baking sheet, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Remove the baking sheets from the oven and carefully uncover them. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes while you heat the oven. Remove the skillet from the oven and heat to 375 degrees.
• In a small bowl, stir the yolk and heavy cream until streak-free. Remove the baking sheets from the refrigerator and use a pastry brush to gently brush each pain au chocolat with the yolk mixture. Transfer the sheets to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets and switch racks, and continue to bake until the pains au chocolat are deeply browned, another 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheets.

Steps:

• Roll out and cut dough:
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary, into an 18- by 10-inch rectangle. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush and trim edges with a pizza wheel or sharp knife. Cut dough vertically into fourths, then horizontally into fourths to make 16 rectangles.
• Form pains au chocolat:
• Place 2 batons, flat sides together, along a short side of 1 rectangle about 3/4 inch from edge, letting batons extend over sides. Fold bottom edge of dough over batons and roll up dough around chocolate. Place, seam side down, on a parchment-lined large baking sheet.
• Make more pastries in same manner, arranging them 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
• Let pains au chocolat rise:
• Slide each baking sheet into a garbage bag, propping up top of bag with inverted glasses to keep it from touching pastries, and tuck open end under baking sheet.
• Let pastries rise until slightly puffy and spongy to the touch, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Bake pains au chocolat:
• Adjust oven racks to upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 425°F. Remove baking sheets from bags. Spritz inside oven generously with spray bottle and close door. Put pastries in oven, then spritz again before closing door. Reduce temperature to 400°F and bake 10 minutes without opening door.
• Switch position of sheets in oven and rotate sheets 180°, then reduce temperature to 375°F and bake until pastries are deep golden, about 10 minutes more.

Steps:

• Sift together the flour and salt, then stir in the dry yeast.
• Rub the shortening into this mix with your fingertips. This is just like it sounds-rub it between your fingers, the flour will coat it, and it will break up into little bits-similar to cutting with a pastry cutter.
• Stir in the beaten egg and the water, forming a very soft dough.
• Knead for about three minutes, until the dough is just barely elastic (this means it pulls back to it's prior shape after you squeeze it.).
• Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle about 14 inches wide by 8 inches high, and a quarter inch thick. Cover the left two thirds of this rectangle with 1/4 c of the butter, then fold the right third (the part without butter) over the middle, then the left third over that, so there are now three layers of dough, with butter in between each layer. Roll the dough out again to 14x8, fold again, without butter, and roll out a third time.
• Wrap this rectangle and chill in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.
• Repeat steps five and six twice more, so you use all the butter.
• This time, when you pull it out, just fold and roll twice without adding butter then chill for another thirty minutes. At this point you can chill the dough up to overnight, or you can freeze for later use.
• When you pull it out, roll out the dough to about 20 inches wide by 10 inches tall, and then cut it into six strips wide. Cut each of these strips on the bias- into triangles.
• Brush each triangle with beaten egg, then place a chunk of chocolate at the wide end of each triangle, and then roll it up like a croissant.
• Place each croissant point-side down onto a greased baking sheet, cover and let proof (rise) in a warm place for about an hour.
• Heat oven to 425.
• Uncover, brush surfaces with beaten egg, and bake for 20 minutes, until that beautiful golden brown color.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Unfold the puff pastry sheets on a lightly floured surface. Cut each one into thirds along the fold lines. Roll each strip of dough out to about 16 inches long, and cut strips into thirds.
• Spread some of the hazelnut spread onto one half of each rectangle to within 1/2 inch of the edge. Spread about 1/2 teaspoon of the raspberry jam over the hazelnut spread. Brush the edges with egg, and fold over the other side to enclose the filling. Press the edges firmly to seal. Repeat with the remaining rectangles. Use a sharp knife to cut 5 slits across the top of each pastry, and place them on baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.
• Bake for 18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool on racks. Dust with confectioners' sugar when cooled if desired.