Mustard Free Pain au Chocolat
Few baked goods inspire as much awe as a perfectly laminated pastry, and this one delivers those shatteringly crisp, buttery layers wrapped around pockets of melted dark chocolate. The ingredient list is refreshingly straightforward — flour, butter, milk, yeast, sugar, salt, and good chocolate — which means there's nothing hidden to worry about for anyone avoiding mustard or mustard-derived ingredients. That simplicity is actually part of what makes this recipe so satisfying: every component earns its place. The lamination process, where cold butter is folded into the dough through a series of turns and rests, is what creates those dramatic, honeycomb-like layers that pull apart so beautifully. It takes patience and a bit of planning across a day or two, but none of the steps are beyond a home baker willing to follow the process carefully. The reward is a pastry that looks and tastes like it came from a proper French boulangerie, still warm from your own oven with chocolate just barely set inside. Serve them the morning after an overnight proof and you'll understand immediately why people make these again and again.
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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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