Chocolate Croissants (Pain au Chocolat)

Oh. I can't even. There are no words. Just look.


Why can't Chocolate croissants have the health benefits of Brussels sprouts? Why can't I eat Pain au Chocolat every day, twice a day? It's a cruel world, this world. My condolences to my gluten-free friends who can't have these at all.

Just look.


This is Vegan Dad's recipe for Easy Vegan Croissants, but cut into rectangles instead of triangles and filled with semi-sweet chocolate chips to make Pain au Chocolat. The flakiness of the croissants is so BEAUTIFUL. Yes, all caps BEAUTIFUL! They are light and flaky and buttery and *sigh*. I made mine with half all purpose flour and half bread flour, as suggested by Vegan Dad, and my fat of choice was Earth Balance buttery spread. They really were very easy to put together and the actual time that it took to make the dough and shape the croissants wasn't much at all. It's just a whole lot of waiting for things to rise, as it usually is with yeast-based breads.

I intended to cut my finished, rolled out rectangular dough into eight little rectangles, but the corners of my rectangle were a bit too rounded and somewhat triangular, so I used the four corners to make more traditionally shaped croissants, as shown on Vegan Dad's post.


Then I was left with five rectangles. I used three rectangles to make my Pain au Chocolat. For each one, I placed about two tablespoons of semi-sweet chocolate chips on the bottom half of the rectangle and then rolled it up like a cinnamon roll log. The other two rectangles? I *plopped* some quince spread on the bottom half and rolled it up the same way. Now I realize I should have evenly spread the quince all over the dough instead, but I was in a hurry to finish them and eat'em and there was no stopping to think things through. As soon as all my croissants came out of the oven they were brushed with a little bit of warm agave to give them a nice glossy finish.



I drizzled some melted chocolate chips over the baked Pain au Chocolat and then topped them with slivered almonds.


If you're a novice baker and you think that this will be too difficult - I say give it a go! As long as you carefully follow the recipe and keep your work surface properly floured to keep your dough from sticking, it will work! Thanks, Vegan Dad, for such a perfect recipe!

Now as if I hadn't hogged all your bandwidth with all my photos, let's share one more and let's see how many different types of birds you can spot!