Petit Pain au Chocolat (Chocolate-Filled Croissants)

Bookmark this recipe for your next brunch potluck – this recipe for Petit Pain au Chocolat couldn’t be easier and the results will score you huge points among your chocolate loving friends (at least it did with me). For this simplified version, you just wrap puff pastry around some good chocolate, brush on some egg wash to give it a nice golden color and bake.

It’s a culinary goal of mine to learn to make my own puff pastry, but until then I’m very glad there are such good-quality pre-made puff pastry options out there. After using Pepperidge Farm’s puff pastry for years with great results, I was intrigued to try out a new all-butter variety from La Boulange. They’re a San Francisco-based bakery that’s recently launched their product at Whole Foods. Bakers all have their opinion about going all-butter, all-shortening or a combination of both when it comes to pastry. For me the jury is still out, but I definitely enjoyed working with this puff pastry…and I loved these easy chocolate-filled croissants.

Couldn't be simpler - just wrap puff pastry around a little bit of chocolate
One notable difference I encountered with working with the all-butter puff pastry: it melts a lot more easily. The package advised thawing the pastry for 15 to 30 minutes. I was prepping breakfast for my kids, checking email, chopping chocolate and such for about 45 minutes before getting around to my thawed pastry. By that time, things had gotten a bit sticky on the bottom. I made a mental note to not let it sit out for quite so long next time.

I was really happy with how the pastries came out when I retrieved them from the oven. Everything came out puffed and golden as they should. Texture-wise they were very flaky and tender…so much so that I couldn’t get a good photo of the melty chocolate inside without crushing the pastry into a flaky pile. No, it’s best just to bite into these little guys, something I hope you have a chance to do very soon!

Petit Pain au Chocolat

Thanks to La Boulange Bakery for providing me with samples to try out their puff pastry. I did not receive any financial compensation and my opinions about the product are, as always, my own.

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10 Comments

  1. Amanda wrote:

    Be still my heart!!

    Posted 3.26.12 Reply
  2. What a great take on a classic! 🙂

    Posted 3.26.12 Reply
  3. Wow. These croissants look soo good! I am definitely a bit obsessed with chocolate so I have no doubt I will love these.

    Posted 3.26.12 Reply
  4. OMG wow! These look amazing

    Posted 3.27.12 Reply
  5. It scored points for me all the time too! so that’s how it is! haha… Very beautifully made!

    Posted 3.27.12 Reply
  6. Esi wrote:

    These are just too cute. I get my all butter puff pastry from Trader Joes. It’s inexpensive and so good. The only thing is that it can be hard to find in the summer because they kind of phase it out before and after the holidays

    Posted 3.28.12 Reply
  7. there is one, just one, very good and authentic french bakery here on the cape.
    they have this croissant that is exactly like those in france.

    Posted 3.31.12 Reply
  8. Gorgeous croissants! I was also contemplating making my own pastry dough, until I watched a bunch of instruction videos and decided to wait several years…. Your solutions sounds optimal to me :-).

    Posted 4.12.12 Reply
  9. kathy wrote:

    Just tried it using Trader Joe’s bought frozen dough. It worked well except that the shape was hard to control. The finished breads didn’t look like the store-bought ones… not sure why! But fresh pain au chocolat taste so good 🙂

    Posted 1.19.13 Reply
  10. These chocolate croissants look delicious! They remind me of the Chocolate Whirls I made awhile ago; I filled the puff pastry with a chocolate filling and it was mouth-wateringly good!

    Posted 8.25.13 Reply