Barley Free Pain au Chocolat
Flaky, buttery, and hiding a molten ribbon of dark chocolate at the center — this is the kind of pastry that makes a weekend morning feel genuinely special. The laminated dough is built from all-purpose flour, cold butter, whole milk, and a handful of pantry staples, so every ingredient is straightforward and easy to verify as grain-safe. For anyone navigating a barley sensitivity, the concern with classic pastries often comes down to malt-based additives or ambiguous flour blends — here, the dough is built entirely on plain all-purpose flour with no hidden grains to worry about. The technique is the star: three careful turns of folding cold butter into chilled dough create those impossibly thin, shatteringly crisp layers that puff dramatically in a hot oven. Two dark chocolate batons rolled into each rectangle melt just enough during baking to give you that signature gooey pull when you tear one open. The double egg wash is a small but important step that delivers the deep amber gloss you see in a proper French boulangerie window. These take patience and a few rounds of refrigeration, but the result is a from-scratch pastry you can feel completely confident about.
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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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