Tested Recipe: Chocolate Croissants

Source: Created from multiple recipes
Difficulty: advanced-very time consuming.
Satisfaction: words cannot do justice...simply addictive!
 
After watching the movie "It's Complicated" I fell in love with the bakery in the movie and all of the delicious looking pastries all around. But the thing that caught my eye (or tummy) the most was the beautiful chocolate croissants that she and Steve Martin made together. Rich, flakey buttery dough with thick semi-sweet chocolate sandwich'd between...what could be better on this rainy day we are having in Los Angeles. I only wish the process of making croissants was a quick one because my mouth is watering and as I write this, I still have a number of hours until they will be done.

*Since this recipe is a combination of different recipes I read, my suggestions and notes are incorporated instead of at the end like my previous posts.
Yields 14-16 croissants

chocolate croissants:

• 1/3 cup warm water (approx. 110 degrees)
• 1 pkg dry-active yeast
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 1/3 c. warm milk
• 3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 3 1/2 sticks (14 ounces) chilled unsalted butter
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1-1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chocolate of your choice)

In one glass measuring cup, combine warm water, 1 tsp. sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 mins. In another glass measuring cup, combine warm milk, 2 tsp. sugar and salt. Place flour in large bowl and stir around to break up any clumps, make a well in the middle. Pour the oil, milk and yeast mixtures into the well and stir to combine, making sure to incorporate all of the flour off the sides of the bowl. This mixture will be very sticky (see picture), scoop it out onto well floured surface and let sit for 3-4 minutes. 

At this point, scrape (I used a large metal off-set spatula) the bottom of the dough off of the work surface and fold it over and on to the top of the dough (I will refer to this as folding from here on out). Fold the dough a number of times for approx 5 mins or until you feel the dough is becoming a smooth ball of dough and no longer sticky. Be careful not to fold the dough as it will get tough and very difficult to work with. Place dough ball in a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap or clean kitchen towel. Let sit for 90 mins in a warm spot. If your house is chilly, you can turn your oven on a low setting and sit the bowl next to your oven to get more warmth. The dough should double in size by 90 mins.

Take dough out of bowl and onto floured surface, punch dough to release air (this is the fun part). Stretch, pull and push the dough into a rectangle roughly 12"x10" or there about. Fold the dough rectangle into thirds and place on a floured baking sheet and cover with wrap and let sit 45-60 mins, again until it doubles in size.  Note, if you are running out of time, you can leave the dough in the fridge overnight at this point. Remove from fridge, Punch down, re-wrap and place back in fridge for 20 mins. 

Remove butter from refrigerator, on floured surface, remove wrappers and knead butter until spreadable. Remove dough and place on floured surface. Roll out to 18"x10" rectangle and spread the butter over the top two thirds of the rectangle (butter area should be about 18"x6.5"). Again fold dough into thirds, fold unbuttered bottom portion up first then the top. Again roll out to roughly 18"x10." Refrigerate 60 mins.

Remove from fridge, pound out with rolling pin. Let rest a couple of minutes, and then roll out to a rectangle again, repeat the folding in thirds (from above step) two cycles through. Note butter will start to leak out of dough at this point. After each folding, roll out to rectangular shape. Finally Take folded up dough, place back on floured baking sheet and place in fridge for 2 hrs. At this point I must take a break from this recipe and let mine rest overnight :) To avoid too much rise, I placed my heavy thick cutting board on top. I will resume the remainder in the AM! 

Wakie Wakie on to my croissants...Remove dough from refrigerator, flour work surface and rolling pin, roll out into a large rectangle, roughly 24"x12." This step may be a little challenging, the dough is pretty stiff and you will need to roll quite a bit to get it that size. For me pulling and pushing helped a lot. Once you have it to size, slice in half (lengthwise) with a pizza cutter. Place half back in fridge while you work with the other half. 

Cut dough into triangles, with roughly 5" base. You should get 6-8 triangles out of each half of dough. Take each individual triangle and roll it out to make it thinner. Make sure you are keeping your surface well floured. Place about 1-2 tbsp. of chocolate chips toward base of triangle and start to roll base toward tip, hold tension in the dough to keep the dough from shrinking up. Roll to end, place on parchment lined (or silicone mat) baking sheet with tip side coming out of bottom and draw two ends together making a crescent shape. Make sure your crescent shape is tight (two ends should touch) otherwise it will come out of shape while resting. Finish remainder of dough and allow to rest for 60-90 mins until size has increased by 2 and feels soft and pillow-y.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk egg yolk and cream together, and brush tops of croissants. 

When oven temp is reached, spray entire inner oven with water (from squirt bottle) to make it a nice steamy environment. Shut door, wait a few seconds, place croissants in oven, spray bottom of oven again with water. Bake for roughly 8-10 mins, remove pan and turn to ensure even baking, decrease temp to 400 degrees and bake for additional 5 mins. Let cool before sinking your teeth into these amazing, flakey, chocolate filled masterpieces. I know its hard to wait, but you don't want to burn your mouth on the oozing chocolate!

Happy baking...happier eating!