Deliciously flakey, crispy, and soft. Nothing beats a fresh croissant, especially a chocolate croissant! Making your own puff pastry takes a lot of time and patience which isn’t always practical for your busy life. Luckily, I’m here to show you a super simple and quick way to make your chocolate croissants from scratch so you can have those fresh treats any day of the week!
For the croissants you’ll need:
- 250g All-Purpose Flour and extra for dusting the counter
- 250g Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 cup Ice Water
- 1 bar Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp 35% Whipping Cream
- Icing Sugar for dusting
- Food Processor
- Rolling Pin
- Bench Scraper
- Baking Sheet Pan
- Pastry Brush
- Small Bowl
- Fine Mesh Strainer
- Parchment Paper
- Begin by cutting the butter into small cubes to help them cut into the flour faster.
- Add the flour to the food processor with the standard blade attachment and add the diced butter on top of the flour.
- Using short pulses, blitz the butter into the flour until the butter and flour have mostly come together. There should still be small chunks of butter visible.
- Add the water a little at a time while continuing to pulse the food processor. This water must be ice cold to prevent it from warming up the butter too much. You may also need a little more or a little less water depending on the weather.
- The dough is done mixing when most of the flour has been moistened, but it should still be multiple small clumps.
- Dump the dough onto a floured countertop, and using your hands and a rolling pin, begin gently pushing the dough together into 1 block.
- Using a pressing motion, begin flattening the dough into a long rectangle.
- Carefully fold the top 1/3 of the dough down and then the bottom 1/3 of the dough up on top of where you folded the top portion. This will create 3 layers like a brochure, you can use a bench scraper to help lift the dough from the counter.
- Turn the dough 90° and again use the rolling pin to press the dough into a long rectangle.
- Repeat the folding process once more to create a total of 9 layers.
- Wrap your dough with plastic wrap and place it into the refrigerator to chill and rest for 30 minutes.
- After the dough has rested in the fridge, return to the counter, and repeat the pressing and folding twice more to give you 27 and 81 layers to finish.
- Once again, wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and allow it to rest in the fridge for another 30 minutes. The dough can also be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days at this point to have ready and save time making finished croissants later.
- While the dough is resting, cut the baking chocolate into sticks. You must use specifically baking chocolate since it has a higher percentage of cocoa solids to help it hold up to being baked.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out into a sheet about 1/3 inch thick and 10 inches wide.
- Cut the dough into 5-inch strips, you should get about 3 from a batch this size.
- Place 1 stick of baking chocolate 1 inch from the bottom of the strip of dough and roll the dough over to fully cover the chocolate.
- Add a second piece of chocolate next to the first on the other side of the dough and continue rolling the strip of dough into a tube with the two pieces of chocolate in the middle, separated by a small fold of dough.
- Do the same to the remaining strips of dough and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet with 2 inches between croissants to allow them to expand.
- Once more, put the shaped croissants back into the fridge for 45 minutes to ensure they are as cold as possible going into the oven.
- Preheat your oven to 425F and prepare an eggwash by separating the yolk from an egg and mixing in a small bowl with the 35% whipping cream.
- When the oven is fully preheated and the croissants are thoroughly chilled, brush the tops with the egg wash and put immediately into the oven.
- Bake the croissants for 15-18 minutes. Be sure to not open the oven door for the first 10 minutes to ensure the croissants rise correctly and do not collapse.
- If the croissants are getting too brown on top you can reduce the heat after 10 minutes to 400F and continue cooking until fully done.
- Remove the croissants from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before dusting with icing sugar using a fine mesh strainer. You can also leave them plain, or drizzle with chocolate sauce if you prefer!
This puff pastry is super versatile, you can also use it for plain croissants, tarts, and baked brie, or even add shredded cheese before doing the last set of folds to get a cheese-infused puff pastry!