Homemade Chocolate Croissant Recipe
A flaky, buttery chocolate croissant is easier to make than you think. Biting into a warm, tender pastry filled with rich, gooey chocolate will make your morning so much more delicious. Now this is something worth waking up for!
Servings: 20 croissants
Equipment
- Pizza Wheel
Ingredients
Poolish
- 100 g all-purpose flour ¾ cup
- 100 g warm water ½ cup
- A pinch of active dry yeast
Dough
- 500 g all-purpose flour 3 ½ cup + 2 tablespoon
- 75 g granulated sugar ¼ cup + 2 tablespoon + 1 ½ teaspoon
- 15 g kosher salt 2 ½ teaspoon
- 100 g unsalted butter about 3.5 oz
- 10 g active dry yeast 1 tablespoon
- 200 g water about 1 cup
For Lamination
- 330 g unsalted butter in one block about 11.6 oz
Egg wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of water
Chocolate Filling
- 5 oz of chocolate chips or melting wafers
Instructions
Day 1 - Make the poolish
- Mix 100 g of AP flour with a pinch of active dry yeast and 100 g of warm water in a small bowl, cover and let ferment at room temperature over night, for at least 15 hours and preferable longer.
Day 2 - Make the dough
- Cube 100 g of unsalted butter and allow to soften at room temperature before mixing into the dough.
- Also let the big block of butter to be used for lamination soften at room temperature.
- Measure out all ingredients in separate bowls to ensure a smooth process.
- Warm the water to about 100°F and add it to the stand mixer bowl.
- Stir in 2 teaspoons of sugar and the yeast and let bloom for at least 15 minutes. Use sugar from the amount specified in the ingredient list and not in excess.
- When the yeast mixture is puffy, add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl including the poolish, flour, remaining sugar, salt and soften butter.
- Knead with the dough hook for 20 minutes.
- Grease a large glass bowl with oil.
- Turn the dough out from the mixing bowl onto a lightly floured board or counter. Flatten with your hand and stretch into a small rectangle, fold it like a letter. Repeat once more.
- Place the dough into the oiled bowl and let rise for 1 ½ hours.
- Place the big block of butter on top of a piece of parchment paper, place another piece of parchment paper on top of the butter and flatten it with a rolling pin into a rectangle about 6.5” x 7.5”. Wrap it up in parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.
- When the dough in the bowl has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter and flatten by hand into a rectangle about 10” x 7.5”, place on a parchment line baking sheet, wrap with plastic and place in freezer for 20 mins.
- Meanwhile, take the piece of butter you prepared early out of the refrigerator to allow it to soften a bit.
- Take the dough out of the freezer and roll out into a rectangle about 16” x 7.5”.
- Place the cold but slightly soft flattened butter rectangle in to the middle and fold the dough over it. Pinch the two ends to encase the butter.
- Dough lamination turn 1: turn the dough so the short end/open end faces you and roll out to a rectangle about 22”x9”. Fold into third like a letter. Place the folded rectangle on the baking sheet and freeze for 15-20 minutes until the dough is cold but still pliable.
- Dough lamination turn 2: take the dough out of the freezer and place the short end facing you again with the opening to the right, roll out to a rectangle about 22”x9”, fluffing, flipping and turning the dough as you go. Fold into third like a letter. Place the folded rectangle on the baking sheet and freeze for 15-20 minutes until the dough is cold but still pliable.
- Dough lamination turn 3: repeat everything in dough lamination turn 2.
- End of lamination: take the dough out of the freezer and place the short end facing you again with the opening to the right, roll out to a rectangle about 24”x9”, fluffing, flipping and turning the dough as you go. This time, cut the dough in half crosswise into two 12”x9” rectangle. Place parchment paper between the two pieces. At this point, to continue working, freeze the dough for 15-20 minutes. Or if you want to continue the next day, wrap well and refrigerate overnight.
Day 3 (or day 2 continuation) - Form the croissants
- Beat one egg with 1 tablespoon of water to make egg wash.
- Take the dough out of the freezer (or fridge), work with one piece at a time while the other one rest in the refrigerator. Place the dough with the short end facing you and roll out to about 18”x10”. The ends are not going to be perfectly straight. That’s okay, we will trim them off.
- Trim the dough into a perfect rectangle about 17”x9”. Cut into half length wise and cut each half into 5 pieces, each about 4 ½” x 3 ⅜”. This will give you 10 rectangles.
- For each piece of dough, use 4 chocolate wafers - broken up, or about ¼ oz of chocolate chips. Place half of the chocolate along the shorter edge of the dough, about ½” away from the edge, and the other half right about the middle. Brush the opposite edge with egg wash. Roll it up. Place the formed croissant on a parchment line baking sheet.
- Repeat the previous steps with the rest of the cut up rectangles. Place croissant at least 2” apart from each other on the baking sheet.
- Then repeat all previous step with the second piece of dough that has been resting in the refrigerator.
- Sprinkle plastic wrap with some flour and cover the baking sheet. Let proof at room temperature for 4-5 hours.
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Brush egg wash lightly all over each croissant.
- Bake one tray at a time for 35-40 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack before serving.
Notes
- Work as quickly as you can during the dough lamination steps. At any time during these steps, if you feel that the dough is getting too warm or too elastic. Pop it back into the freezer for 5 minutes to keep it cold so the butter doesn’t melt into the dough, and to relax the gluten.
- Use only as much flour as needed while rolling to keep dough from sticking. This dough should be very easy to handle and should not require a lot of extra flour, except for perhaps at the very end.
- Save the dough scraps in a container and refrigerate or freeze, use later to make Cinnamon Twists.
Nutrition
Serving: 82g | Calories: 321kcal
