Pain au Chocolat #BreadBakers

This month Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm is hosting the Bread Bakers. She wrote: "February is the month we celebrate LOVE and Paris is the City of Love. Let's celebrate with French breads."

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the Bread Bakers home page. 

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

As I mentioned, Wendy is hosting this month with a French breads theme. Here's our line-up...

• Brioche by A Day in the Life on the Farm

• Cheater Pain aux Raisins by Food Lust People Love

• Fougasse by The Wimpy Vegetarian

• La Couronne Lyonaise by Karen's Kitchen Stories:

• Pain au Chocolat by Culinary Cam (you're here)

• Pain Brié by A Messy Kitchen

• Pain de campagne by Zesty South Indian Kitchen

• Sourdough French Bread by Sneha's Recipe

Pain au Chocolat

Ingredients

makes 10 to 12, depending on the size of your triangles

• 1 cup water, warmed slightly (so that it's comfortable to touch, but not steaming)

• 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

• 1 egg

• 2-3/4 cup flour, divided plus more for sprinkling and rolling

• 1 teaspoon sea salt

• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold salted butter

• chopped dark chocolate for filling plus more for sprinkling on top

• Also needed: parchment paper, rolling pin

Procedure

Combine the water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes for the yeast to bloom. Whisk in egg. Add 2-1/2 cup flour, keeping 1/4 cup for later, and the salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms.

Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough rise until doubled in size, approximately one hour.

Once the dough has doubled, place it in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or as long as overnight. Pound each stick of butter into rectangle. Some people use a ruler and make it very precise. I am less-precise. Wrap the pounded butter in parchment and chill with the dough.

When you're ready, sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with flour and place dough on top. Roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 12"x 20". Remember, I'm less than precise, but it was around that size.

Remove one rectangle of butter from the fridge and lay it in the middle of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough in to form an envelope.

Using the rolling pin, roll it out to 12" x 20" again. Place the second rectangle of butter on the dough and make another envelope. Then roll it out to the 12" x 20" rectangle, but this time, fold one third of the dough over the other third, like folding a letter.

Now you have to turn the dough. Turning the dough, by rolling and folding, creates very thin layers of butter and dough. This recipe needs to be turned 4 times. If the butter pushes through a layer of dough, rub it with a little flour. If the butter seems to be melting, chill the dough between each turn. Keep the parchment, the rolling pin, and the surface of the pastry well-floured.

To turn: Rotate the package of dough and butter so that the narrower, open end is facing you, like the pages of a book. Roll the dough out to a rectangle and fold the top third down and the bottom third up, again like a letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees so that the open end is again facing you. Repeat. Roll the dough out to a rectangle and fold the top third down and the bottom third up. That's 2 turns.

Repeat two more times. Place the dough in the fridge and let rest for 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to approximately 1/4 to 1/2" thick. Then cut a zigzag pattern to create ten to twelve thin triangles.

Add a few shards of chopped chocolate to the widest part of the triangle, then, starting at the base, roll all the way up and place on a baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Sprinkle the tops with chocolate pieces and let rise for 30 minutes while the oven preheats.

Place the Pain au Chocolat in the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. The pastries are finished when the tops are deep golden.

Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the sheet but be sure remove them after that. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Or serve them hot. No one will complain, I promise!

That's a wrap on my French bread offering. I will be hosting the group next month with a rye vs. pumpernickel event. Stay tuned!