Artificial Flavors Free Pain au Chocolat
Few things in the pastry world feel as luxurious as biting through shatteringly crisp, buttery layers to reach a pocket of melted dark chocolate — and this from-scratch version delivers exactly that. Every component here is straightforward and real: flour, cold butter, whole milk, sugar, salt, yeast, and good dark chocolate. There are no artificial flavors hiding in a store-bought dough or a flavored chocolate compound, just honest ingredients doing honest work. The lamination process — folding cold butter into the dough across three careful turns — is what creates those impossibly flaky, honeycomb layers that make a proper pain au chocolat so satisfying. It takes patience and a few rounds of chilling, but none of the steps are technically out of reach for a home baker willing to follow the process. The payoff is a pastry that smells like a Parisian boulangerie and tastes even better, with no mystery additives to second-guess. Serve them warm off the rack and watch them disappear.
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Learn more →Ingredients
8 servings
For the dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp fine salt
- ¾ cup whole milk, cold
- ¼ cup water, cold
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
For the butter block
- 1 cup (2 sticks / 225g) unsalted butter, cold
For the filling
- 16 dark chocolate batons (or 4 oz dark chocolate, cut into 16 short sticks)
For the egg wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
- 1
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt. Add the cold milk and cold water, then mix on low speed until a shaggy dough forms, about 2 minutes. Add the 2 tbsp softened butter and increase to medium speed, mixing until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. The dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky.
- 2
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, shape it into a flat rectangle roughly 6×8 inches, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
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