Sesame Free Pain au Chocolat
Few pastries inspire as much awe as a properly laminated chocolate croissant, with its shatteringly crisp exterior giving way to soft, buttery layers wrapped around pools of melted dark chocolate. The entire process comes down to a handful of clean, straightforward ingredients — flour, butter, milk, yeast, sugar, salt, and good dark chocolate — which means there is nothing hidden in the recipe to worry about. For anyone navigating sesame allergies or sensitivities, store-bought versions can be a genuine minefield, since many bakeries use shared equipment or finish pastries with seed-based toppings. Making these at home puts you fully in control of every ingredient from the butter block to the egg wash. The technique does ask for patience — three lamination turns and a long chill — but each step is manageable, and the payoff is a pastry that rivals anything behind a bakery counter. That deep amber crust, the honeycomb of flaky layers, and the bittersweet chocolate tucked inside make every hour of resting time completely worth it. Serve them still slightly warm from the rack and watch them disappear.
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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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