Chocolate Puff Pastries

About The Ingredients

Puff Pastry: We use chilled ready rolled puff pastry that is in rectangular shape. So we can use it straightaway. If you use frozen puff pastry, you need to thaw it first.

Chocolate: We use dark chocolate because we love it more. You can use milk chocolate if you want your dessert sweeter. We simply melt the chocolate before using it.

Egg yolk: To brush the puff pastry rolls before baking so that they have that nice golden color.

Powdered sugar: To sift over the rolls after they are baked. This is completely optional. You might want it if you use dark chocolate as we do. Alternatively, you can sprinkle a little coarse sugar on each after egg wash. It will give a little more sweetness and texture to the rolls. 

Chocolate Filling

To make today’s chocolate filled puff pastry, we are using melted dark chocolate as the filling. You can also use Nutella for chocolate filling for pastry if you prefer.

To melt the chocolate: Chop the chocolate in pieces and put them in a glass bowl. Put some water (1-2 cups) in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer. Place the glass bowl with chocolate over the saucepan. Make sure its bottom doesn't touch the water. Let the chocolate melt, stirring occasionally. 

Another alternative is chocolate chips when making puff pastry desserts with chocolate like this. 

Besides these options, you can even wrap a bar of chocolate bar in the cut puff pastry. Make sure the chocolate bar is smaller than the puff pastry. It works best when shaping it like pain au chocolat as the size of the cut puff pastry is larger.

Instructions For Easy Chocolate Croissant

This chocolate croissant recipe with puff pastry is extremely easy to make. They have an incredibly flaky, tender texture, and most importantly, have a rich creamy buttery, and chocolaty flavor. Take a look at how you can make virtually any chocolate pastry using our technique!

1. Prepare the puff pastry sheets. Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface. Put a sheet of puff pastry on it.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut the sheet vertically right down the middle. Then, divide each half into four rectangles by making 3 horizontal slices. This gives you a total of 8 rectangular pastry pieces.
3. Next, cut each of these into two triangles. In total, you should end up having 16 triangles to make croissant-shaped chocolate puff pastry rolls.
4. Fill the sheets with chocolate. Spread the melted dark chocolate over each triangular sheet. Leave a tiny edge uncovered. Brush those parts with egg wash, oil or melted butter.

5. Roll and brush with egg wash. Once you’ve added the chocolate, you can brush a little bit of egg wash on the uncovered edges. Then, start from the thick end of the sheet and roll it up into a croissant shape.
6. Use your fingers to gently seal the edges. Place the prepared chocolate-filled pastry rolls on a prepared baking sheet (lined with parchment paper). 
7. Bake your puff pastry chocolate croissant. Brush all sides of the pastry with more egg wash with a pastry brush. You can also sprinkle them with some sanding sugar (coarse sugar). Then, bake the chocolate-filled puff pastry treats for roughly 12-15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
8. You can dust them with powdered sugar if you want.

Tip: We use one pastry sheet in this recipe. Alternatively, you can make it with two sheets of puff pastry dough. For this, place one of the sheets on the floured surface, spread chocolate on it. Then carefully place the second sheet of puff pastry on it so that they overlap. Then follow the remaining steps as they are described above.

Shape Variations

Make Pain Au Chocolat

If you would like to make puff pastry pain au chocolat instead of croissants, use the following shaping technique.

Cut the sheet into 8 rectangles as you did above. Do not cut them into triangles!

Add some chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips over the rectangular sheet of puff pastry. Then, start at the short end and roll up the rectangles. This will trap the chopped chocolate inside, creating layers of pastry and chocolate.

When you place them on the baking sheet, make sure that the seam side is facing downwards. Bake the chocolate and puff pastry dough for 12-15 minutes or until they are cooked and golden.

Make Mini Chocolate Puff Pastry Rolls

To shape this puff pastry dessert in rolls, put a puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Cut it vertically into 5 strips. Spread the chocolate filling or put chocolate chips on each evenly, leaving the ends of each strip without chocolate or chocolate chips.

Make Chocolate Puff Pastry Twists

You can make twists with two sheets of puff pastry dough. For this, place one of the sheets on the floured surface, spread chocolate on it. Then carefully place the second sheet of puff pastry on it. Seal the edges by pressing on them gently. Cut it into strips. Twist the strips in opposite direction, place on the baking sheet, brush with egg wash and bake. You can find the step pictures in this chocolate puff pastry twists recipe.

Make Them Savory

Are you looking for an easy savory puff pastry recipe? No worries. You can turn this recipe to a savory one by changing the filling. Instead of a chocolate filling, use cream cheese and herbs and follow the steps as described in the recipe. 

Why Is My Puff Pastry Not Cooking From The Inside?

There are a few reasons these puff pastries filled with chocolate aren’t baking on the inside.

The first is because your oven's temperature is too low. Puff pastry needs to be baked at a high temperature so it can puff up before cooking on the inside. If the temperature is too low, it will just stay dense and take incredibly long to bake.

The second reason is that you didn’t bake them for long enough. This chocolate puff pastry treat only needs to be baked for 12-15 minutes. But if they aren't golden brown yet, leave them in for a little longer. And remember, the larger the pieces, the longer they will take to bake.

Another reason might be that you didn't roll it out well. Frozen puff pastries should be thawed and rolled. If you don't roll them thin, the inside of the pastries won't cook well. That's why we mostly prefer buying ready rolled puff pastry, which doesn't require rolling.

Tips

If you are using frozen puff pastry, you have to properly thaw it before using it in recipes. You don't need to thaw it if you use chilled puff pastry. Always have a look at the manufacturer’s instructions on the package!

That being said, also don’t leave it out for too long. If it heats up too much, it becomes difficult to work with. Place it in the freezer for a few minutes if it is too warm to work with.

Don't forget to preheat the oven before baking your chocolate puff pastries. Hot oven is crucial for them to rise and have perfectly baked layers.

Use egg wash to seal the very end of the dough. 

Storage

As with almost any puff pastry and chocolate recipe, they are best served on the day you made them. They will have the optimum crispiness and the best chocolaty and buttery flavor.

If you have to store them, keep them inside an airtight container just like you store cookies. They can be stored at room temperature for two days. Just keep them away from heat and direct sunlight.

FAQs

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