Description
The dough holds many thin sheets of cold butter between sheets of yeast-leavened dough. In the oven the water inside the butter turns to steam at 100 degrees Celsius and pushes the sheets apart into distinct flaky layers.
Cultural Background
August Zang, an Austrian officer, opened the Boulangerie Viennoise bakery on rue Richelieu in Paris in 1838. He sold a chocolate-filled crescent-shaped pastry called the schokoladencroissant made from a soft yeast dough. French bakers later replaced that soft dough with a laminated dough of many butter layers and renamed the pastry pain au chocolat after the old custom of giving children bread with a piece of chocolate inside. The new name spread across most of France while some southern regions kept the older word chocolatine. The key chemistry is lamination. Strong flour mixed with water forms gluten, long elastic protein chains that give the dough strength and stretch. A block of cold butter is wrapped inside the dough and the whole mass is rolled thin then folded in thirds three times with rests in between. Each fold triples the number of butter sheets. During proof the yeast eats sugars and releases carbon dioxide gas that inflates the dough slightly. In the oven the butter melts between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius while the water trapped between the layers flashes into steam at 100 degrees Celsius. The steam cannot escape through the fat so it forces the gluten sheets apart. The craft that decides success is keeping every butter sheet intact and cold until baking. If the butter warms and smears into the dough the layers fuse and the pastry turns dense instead of flaky. A single surprising fact is that the modern rectangular shape with two chocolate sticks appeared only after French bakers switched from the original crescent form in the late nineteenth century.
Recipe Info
PREP TIME: 45 minutes active plus rests
COOK TIME: 18 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 5 hours including rests
SERVINGS: 8
DIFFICULTY: Medium
Ingredients
- 250 g strong white bread flour
- 5 g fine salt
- 25 g granulated sugar
- 125 g whole milk cold
- 60 g water cold
- 5 g fresh yeast or 2 g instant dry yeast
- 25 g unsalted butter softened for dough
- 125 g unsalted European-style butter cold for lamination at least 82 percent fat
- 16 dark chocolate batons each about 10 g
Instructions
- Mix the flour, salt, sugar, cold milk, cold water, yeast and 25 g softened butter until a smooth dough forms then cover and chill 30 minutes.
- Shape the 125 g cold butter into an even 15 cm square between parchment sheets and chill.
- Roll the chilled dough into a 30 cm square place the butter square in the center and fold the dough edges over to enclose the butter completely.
- Adult: Roll the packet into a 20 by 40 cm rectangle then fold in thirds like a letter chill 30 minutes.
- Repeat the roll and letter fold twice more with 30 minute chills after each fold.
- Adult: Roll the rested dough to 20 by 40 cm and cut into eight 10 by 10 cm squares.
- Place two chocolate batons along one edge of each square roll the dough around them to form a cylinder and place seam side down on a parchment-lined tray.
- Cover and proof at 24 to 26 degrees Celsius until doubled about 2 hours.
- Adult: Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius brush the pastries with beaten egg and bake 15 to 18 minutes until deep golden.
Tips
- Butter that melts during rolling shows as greasy streaks and fused layers check dough temperature often and chill immediately if it warms.
- Use good quality dark chocolate sticks or break a bar into thin rods if batons are unavailable.
- Next time rest the shaped pastries in the refrigerator overnight before the final proof for cleaner layers and deeper flavor.
Nutrition
Calories: 320
Protein: 6 g
Carbs: 32 g
Fat: 19 g