Pain au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissants)
Light, airy, and buttery all over, croissants are one of my favorite pastries. Add chocolate, and you have the most decadent treat. I’ve tested out 2 different croissant recipes and I’m letting you know which one is my favorite so maybe you can whip up a special treat for your Valentine this year! Nothing says “I love you” quite like bread with butter and chocolate.
A lot of people steer clear of making croissants at home because the process seems daunting, but it’s actually fairly simple, just a little more time consuming.
The first recipe I tested is from Nicole at Bake Toujours. Nicole is a pastry chef who specializes in French pastry and has even worked at a few bakeries in France! She has great tutorials on her Instagram and YouTube. Her croissant recipe calls for more specific ingredients, mainly whole milk and European butter. She also combines two types of flour: bread flour and AP flour. The ingredients for her croissants are measured out in grams, making this a much more precise recipe.
In Nicole’s butter croissant video, she mentions that this is a three day process (she freezes her shaped croissants overnight before baking them). In the comments, she does mention that the freezing can be skipped and the croissants can be baked the same day, they will just take a little less time to proof before baking. As I am impatient and wanted croissants as soon as possible, I skipped freezing them and opted to bake the same day. Freezing your dough is a great way to slow down the fermentation process of the yeast and allows you to proof and bake your croissants at your convenience. In her video specifically for pain au chocolate, she mentions down in the comments that the yeast will begin to lose it’s potency after 3 days in the freezer, so if you are planning on freezing yours, make sure to bake them within 3 days. (I highly recommend watching both videos through at least once, and scrolling through the comments for helpful tips and tricks before making these.)
After I cut and rolled my croissants, I did pop them in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill, as the butter was starting to melt. After chilling them, I applied the first coat of egg wash, covered them with plastic wrap and put them in my oven (turned off!) with the light on and let them proof for 2 hours. After 2 hours, I pulled them out and preheated my oven and applied the second coat of egg wash. Your bake time will rely largely on your oven. Keep an eye on them and don’t let them get too brown on top. Nicole double stacks her sheet pans halfway through to prevent burning the bottoms, so I recommend you do that as well. I do not have nesting sheet pans, so I unfortunately wasn’t able to do this, but as long as you keep an eye on them, they shouldn’t get too toasty.
The second recipe I tried is from none other than Tasty. It’s fairly straightforward and uses common ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen and utilizes standard measurements. I used 2% milk and regular butter from Costco. This recipe also takes 2 days, however, it’s slightly reversed. They have you make and roll out your dough all in the first day, rest it overnight, and then shape and form the croissants the second day.
So I actually made this recipe a few years ago and I remember them being not so great. They were dense and not quite fully cooked in the middle. I wanted to see if I could do better now that I’ve been baking more consistently. And…as you can tell from the picture, it did not get better. Right off the bat, the dough was way too dry; I couldn’t even get it to all come together. A lot of the comments mentioned having to add extra liquid to get theirs to the right consistency. I feel like it’s not necessarily user error if so many people are having the same issues.
I think we have a clear winner here! Nicole’s recipe blows the Tasty recipe out of the water. Is the Tasty recipe a recipe I’ll try again? Probably not. From the two experiences I have had with it recipe, I think I’ll stick with Nicole’s. She’s so thorough and provides a lot of tips and tricks to help you make successful bakes on the very first try. I had no problems at all making beautiful pastries by following her instructions. Make sure to follow her on Instagram and YouTube if you want to take your French pastry baking to the next level!