Cinnamon Free Pain au Chocolat
Few baked goods hit quite like a perfectly laminated pastry fresh from the oven — shatteringly crisp on the outside, pillowy and soft within, with pockets of melted dark chocolate tucked inside every roll. The entire flavor profile here comes from real, simple ingredients: cold butter, good flour, whole milk, and quality dark chocolate batons, with zero warming spices in sight. That makes this recipe a genuinely safe and satisfying choice for anyone who needs to avoid cinnamon, since so many bakery pastries and even store-bought croissant doughs sneak it in as a background note. The lamination process — folding cold butter into the dough across three careful turns — is what creates those gorgeous, flaky layers, and the instructions walk you through each step with enough detail that even a first-timer can follow along confidently. A double coat of egg wash gives the finished pastries that deep amber shine you'd expect from a proper French boulangerie. They're best eaten slightly warm, when the chocolate is still just barely molten and the layers pull apart in long, buttery ribbons.
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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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