Nutmeg Free Pain au Chocolat

Total time16 hr 20 min

Prep time1 hr 30 min

Cook time20 min

4.6

(5)

Few baked goods inspire as much awe as a perfectly laminated pastry, with its shatteringly crisp exterior giving way to soft, buttery layers wrapped around melted dark chocolate. The process here is methodical but deeply satisfying — cold butter is folded into the dough through a series of careful turns, building those iconic honeycomb layers from scratch. What makes this recipe so clean and approachable is that every ingredient is straightforward: flour, butter, milk, yeast, sugar, salt, and good dark chocolate. There are no spice blends, no pre-mixed fillings, and no hidden seasonings to second-guess, which is a genuine relief when you need to know exactly what's going into your food. The chocolate batons get rolled right into each pastry, so every bite delivers that rich, slightly bitter contrast against the buttery dough. A double coat of egg wash before baking gives the finished pastries that deep amber gloss you'd expect from a proper French bakery window. Let them cool just long enough to handle, then tear one open and watch the layers pull apart — it's completely worth every fold.

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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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