Capsaicin Free Pain au Chocolat
Few baked goods hit quite like a perfectly laminated pastry fresh from the oven — shatteringly crisp on the outside, pillowy within, and hiding a molten ribbon of dark chocolate at the center. The entire recipe is built from straightforward ingredients: flour, butter, milk, water, yeast, sugar, salt, and good dark chocolate, with nothing that would trigger capsaicin sensitivity hiding in the mix. That matters more than it sounds, because store-bought versions and café pastries can occasionally include unexpected spice blends or flavored chocolate fillings that aren't always clearly labeled. Here, you control every component from start to finish. The technique is the real star — three careful turns of lamination fold cold butter into the dough to create dozens of distinct, flaky layers that puff dramatically in a hot oven. Yes, it takes patience across a couple of days of chilling and proofing, but each step is straightforward and the results are genuinely bakery-worthy. Pull them from the oven when they're a deep amber brown, let them cool just long enough not to burn your fingers, and enjoy the kind of breakfast pastry that makes the whole process feel completely worth it.
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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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