Why 'Batons' Are The Go-To Type Of Chocolate For Pain Au Chocolat
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One of the hallmarks of a great bakery is a perfect croissant. A shatteringly crisp, golden brown exterior holding hundreds of layers of rich, buttery pastry. In the case of a chocolate croissant, also known as pain au chocolat, add in a contrasting layer of complex, toothsome chocolate. Like so much great food, it's simple ingredients paired with solid technique gained through practice.
All croissants are made with laminated dough. In this process, butter is placed in two layers of dough. That gets rolled thin, folded up, rolled, folded, and so on. Laminated dough is labor intensive and the process can take hours, if not days. If the butter punctures the dough, the layers won't be distinct or rise properly. So, the dough needs a long time to rest, and relax between rounds of rolling and folding.
That doesn't mean it isn't a worthy endeavor for ambitious bakers at home. Once you've tackled laminated dough, a massive world of pastries is within reach. Puff pastry uses the same technique and can be turned into all manners of danish and turnovers. And the folding technique can be adapted to other recipes, like super flaky biscuits. The best use of laminated croissant dough is probably pain au chocolat. As French Canadian chef and TV host, Luc Jean explains his favorite meal of all time, he credits these chocolate-filled, upgraded croissants for changing his life. Even if you know this pastry as the less exotic chocolate croissant, it is pretty life-changing.
Batons are built for pain au chocolat
Any recipe for croissant dough can be turned into pain au chocolat. But, you can't just throw any old chocolate onto the dough before rolling the croissant. For example, the difference between baking chocolate and chocolate chips matters. Chocolate chips contain stabilizers that let them maintain their morsel shape throughout baking. That can work in pain au chocolat, but individual nuggets of chocolate aren't as ideal, or as traditional, as long, even strips of chocolate through the heart of this croissant.
For that, bakeries opt for chocolate batons. These long, thin strips of chocolate are perfectly designed for pain au chocolat. The round shape, the length, and the cacao butter percentage are dialed in for pastry making. Cacao Barry Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Sticks are a common commercial bakery option that can be had from Amazon. However, that's a 300-count box of three-inch batons. They're good for any baking task and melt evenly. So, that over three-pound box might not be as ridiculous as it sounds. Still, it might be better to seek out a specialty market to find a smaller package. Look for markets that bake their own pain au chocolat, they might have batons for sale. If not, it's worth asking for a few dozen on the side of your bakery order.
Can't find chocolate batons?
If you can't find batons and aren't willing to splurge on a massive three-pound box, don't despair. You can cut chocolate bars into batons. Callebaut is a maker of many chocolate batons professional bakeries use. Their batons are available in a few percentages, but they're all in the range of about 44%. Just cut them into long strips. If the chocolate bar wants to crack into sharp shards instead of being cut, just keep chopping until the pieces are no bigger than a chocolate chip. Otherwise, those large chocolate shards can make rolling the croissant difficult. These can be sprinkled, in a line, across the dough, like the baton, before rolling.
If you don't want to deal with cutting chocolate, a smear of Nutella is a subtle change from pain au chocolat. For a more traditional croissant variation, an almond croissant subs almond paste for a similarly substantial filling as pain au chocolat.
Beyond that, there's really no shortage of foods you can stuff inside a croissant. Consider foods that will provide a concentrated dose of flavor and some contrast to the flaky pastry. Ham and cheese croissants are classic, just wrap a baton of cheese with ham. Feta and spinach will make a spanakopita croissant. For some next-level pigs in a blanket, use some hot dogs as a filling. Get creative, but don't forget the simplicity of a baton-filled pain au chocolat.