This sweet comes from France, where it is known as "Pain au chocolat" in the north of the country, while in the south it is called "Chocolatine". In Spain it is known as Neapolitan.
If the French recipe is followed strictly, it is one of the most difficult sweets to make. It uses the type of puff pastry that is used for croissants and that is not exactly a puff pastry even if it looks like it. Said paste is complex because it must be made at a certain temperature, which must also be controlled at all times. Easy of course it is not.
On the other hand, it should be noted that it is generally eaten badly, since it is usually eaten when the product is already cold. The right thing is to eat the just made, of course, respecting a few minutes so as not to have to burn ourselves with the heat of the recent cooking. It also does not help to reheat the bun in the microwave or oven. In fact, it is counterproductive because it reduces the quality of the pasta.
Pains au chocolat can be filled with chocolat, pastry cream or applesauce, although there are now also savory versions with ham or cheese.
We are going to make pain au chocolat with chocolat ganache and covered with slivered almonds. We will also prepare croissant dough but in an easier way than the "official" one, with similar results.
INGREDIENTS :
For the croissant dough
- 400 grams (14 oz) of flour
- 150 grams (5.3 oz) of butter
- 250 ml (1 cup and 1/4) of milk
- 60 grams (2 oz) of sugar
- 4 grams (just under a teaspoon) of salt
- Baker's yeast (16 grams, a bit less than 1 tbsp, one sachet)
- 1 egg
For the filling
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) of chocolate in tablet (with sugar)
- 100 ml (half a cup) of liquid cream for cooking or for whipping
For decoration
- 50 grams (1.8 oz) of filleted almonds
In the first place we are going to fatten the yeast by dissolving it in the warm milk (a few seconds in the microwave) where we will have also dissolved the 60 grams (2 oz) of sugar before. Let stand in a warm, dark, draft-free place for 15 minutes.
Mix the salt with the flour (remember, less than a teaspoon of salt and 400 grams / 14 oz of flour).
We mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ones, that is, the mixture of milk and yeast with that of flour and salt. If you have a mixer-kneader, it is time to use it.
Once we have a homogeneous mass, let it rest for 2 hours or until it doubles in volume.
Once the volume has doubled, we divide the dough into 12 equal balls or 6, depending on whether you want large or medium-small pains au chocolat.
Let's imagine that you want them small.
With a rolling pin, flatten the 12 balls until you get more or less a circle of about 15 cm (6 inches) in diameter and no more than 2 mm (0.08 inches) thick.
We put the butter to the point of ointment and with it we paint the surface of each disk so that they are well covered. We close the disks on themselves to re-form the ball that we had at the beginning.
Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes so that the butter solidifies.
While the dough cools, we proceed to make the ganache. In a saucepan, pour the cream and heat it, preventing it from boiling. When it is warm, add the chocolat and melt until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Turn off the heat and set aside, letting it cool down.
Once the time has elapsed, we take out the balls again, remove the plastic film and flatten them with the roller until we get a rectangle, again with a thickness of about 2 mm / 0.08 inches.
On each rectangle we deposit a spoonful of ganache, distributing it evenly but leaving a margin of about 5 mm (0.2 inches) on the edges. Roll up the rectangle until you get a slightly flattened cylinder.
We leave half an hour for the pains au chocolate to rise a bit.
Paint each one with the beaten egg and place a few sliced almonds on top.
We preheat the oven to 200 degrees (390 F).
Bake the pains au chocolat for 10 minutes.
We reduce the temperature to 190 degrees (375 F) and continue baking another 10 minutes.
We extract, let cool (but not completely) and enjoy a pain au chocolate like you have never eaten before.
Some prefer to melt the chocolat that they like the most (with nuts, with orange, white, etc.) in a piece inside the Neapolitan, instead of the ganache. There is no problem doing it this way. In this case, the chocolate is taken, chopped and rolled inside the dough cylinder. The process is practically the same.