pains au chocolat

i may owe you an apology

this week 

is going to have a lot of sweets in it

particularly chocolate

i will sneak in something savory

for tuesday night supper club

but beyond that

i can't make any promises

i've 20lbs of chocolate

to play with

the other day

i tried my hand at croissant dough

it is a 2 day process

appropriate to its name (pain)

i hadn't made it in years

and to be honest

it is obvious

not my best effort

which only means

i will be doing this again

and possibly

again and again

until i can give myself a passing grade

good news is

hubster and the neighbors

aren't as critical as i

actually,

 i think i may have caught them 

praying for mistakes

pain au chocolat
(printable recipe)

(recipe from le cordon bleu professional baking)

225 gr milk--scalded and cooled to room temp

15gr fresh yeast

15 gr sugar

8 gr kosher salt

40 gr unsalted butter--softened

400 gr bread flour

225 gr unsalted butter--room temperature

chocolate batons or good quality chocolate chips

egg wash

dissolve yeast in cooled milk.  add sugar, salt, 40 gr butter and bread flour.  do not add 225gr unsalted butter. mix into a smooth dough, being careful not to develop gluten.  cover and let sit for an hour in a warm draft-free place.  punch down and spread out onto a sheet pan.  place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

remove from refrigerator and roll out to a rectangle about 1/4" thick.  smear the softened butter over 2/3rds of the dough.  leave a margin around the edges.  fold the unbuttered 1/3 of the dough over the center (i think i messed this part up). fold the remaining 1/3 on top.  rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll into a long rectangle.  place the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to relax the gluten.  do this process 2 more times, for a total of 3 turns (or folds).  after the final turn, roll the dough out to 1/4", wrap in plastic wrap and place on a sheet pan in the refrigerator overnight.

to assemble:

roll dough out to a rectangle 1/8" thick.  cut into rectangles 6"x4" or 3"x2" for minis.  place 2 chocolate batons or a row of chocolate chips along the short end, leaving about an inch border.  egg wash the opposite end of each rectangle so that the roll will seal. roll up tightly. proof uncovered in a warm draft free place.  brush with egg wash and bake at 400.

hmm...now that i look at it

it sure seems tedious

i think i need to go back to the drawing board with this...maybe a vlog?