Layer upon layer of light, buttery flaky pastry filled with rich chocolate and drizzled with more chocolate, these made from scratch chocolate croissants are simply mind-blowing! No butter folding or chilling the dough several times needed!
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup lukewarm milk
- 1 envelope (7 grams) active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup (45 grams) butter, melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar
- 1 pound (450 grams) baking chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 egg, lightly beaten (optional, to brush the croissants for a shiny crust)
- 2 oz (55 grams) chocolate, melted (optional to drizzle over the croissants once baked)
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the flour. Make a well in the middle and pour the lukewarm milk. Sprinkle the dry yeast over the milk, give it a little stir with a fork and let the yeast proof. Soon bubbles will appear and the yeast will foam and double in size.
- Fit your stand mixer with the dough hook. Turn it on to the lower speed.
- Add the melted butter, sugar and with the dough hook on, knead the dough until it cleans itself from the sides of the bowl.
- Place the dough in a buttered dish, cover with a tea towel or a plastic wrap and let sit until doubled in size. This should take about 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 12 (almost) equal pieces.
- Fit your pasta sheet roller to the stand mixer and set it to #1 setting. Flatten one piece of dough, flour it lightly and shape it into a rectangle.
- Turn on the mixer to the lowest speed. (speed #2 or stir depending on your type of mixer).
- Pass the dough through the pasta sheet roller. Flour and fold the dough in half. Pass it again through the pasta attachment, still on setting #1 (I only did this at my 3rd attempt and the dough turned out more evenly). For best results, fold the dough and pass it through the pasta attachment for a total of 2 times.
- Change the setting to your pasta roller to #2. Pass the dough sheet 2 times through it.
- Change the pasta roller setting to #3. Pass the dough sheet 1 time.
- If needed lightly flour the pastry sheet.
- Change the pasta roller setting to #4. Pass the pastry sheet 1 time.
- Do the same with setting #5, #6 and for the flakiest croissants #7 and #8.
- Lightly flour the pastry sheet if needed as you thin it out.
- Once the pastry sheet is rolled out, brush it with softened butter. For me it was easier to spread a thin layer of butter using a small spatula vs using a pastry brush.
- Place chopped chocolate at one end, and with your fingers roll the pastry sheet. Place the rolled chocolate croissant in the fridge, on a baking sheet until all croissants are done.
- At this point, you can place the croissants in the freezer and take them out when needed (make sure they are in a freezer safe bag or container) or, you can bake them all at once like I did.
- Take the rolled croissants out of the fridge and leave them at room temperature for a couple of hours until almost double in size. Like I said, I have made this recipe 3 times so far and noticed that if I let them rise in the afternoon, it takes about 3 to 4 hours.
- Alternately, you can leave the croissants rest overnight on the counter. At night, my kitchen is not as hot as in the afternoon, so the croissants needed 7 to 8 hours to double in size.
- It’s totally up to you and how pressed you’re with time. If you have frozen croissants, you may have to leave them longer to rest on the counter, maybe 9-10 hours.
- Just before baking, brush the croissants with a beaten egg. This step is optional, but I love the shiny brown crust it gives to the croissants.
- Heat the oven to 400F.
- Bake the croissants in the hot oven for about 25 minutes or until brown (at golden brown the croissants are not fully baked).
- Drizzle some melted chocolate over the warm croissants and serve warm, preferably.
