Rye Flour Pains au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissants)

I pretty much went to pastry school for the sole purpose of learning to make croissants. (That and because my mom was kind enough to spring for the tuition – thanks, Mom!) Previous attempts at the flaky French classic included a version made in a hundred-degree kitchen on a San Fernando Valley Summer’s day, and one “healthy” version made with spelt flour and yogurt. Both resulted in flat, malformed breads with few flakes. It was time to seek professional help.

Not only did my teacher Claire deliver with a perfectly flaky dough technique, I also got to intern with her at Cafe Cacao, where I had the privilege of learning even more of her croissant-making secrets.

I was relating all of this to Craig Lee, food photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, when he let me sit in on a shoot with him, and he asked if I would give him a croissant tutorial. He and Vijay Nathan of NoshOn.It watched the process and kindly took some shots in my kitchen the other day while I kneaded, folded and rolled.

My favorite croissant dough recipe comes from Baking Illustrated; it has a good ratio of salt, sugar, and butter to dough, and they streamline a few of the steps along the way, which means less hands-on time. At their essence, croissants are comprised of a yeasted dough enriched with a bit of milk and butter (called the detrempe) rolled up with a large block of butter. A series of rolls and folds, called lamination, creates dozens of thin sheets of butter between layers of dough. When the dough hits the heat of the oven, steam from the butter pushes up the layer of dough above it, causing the pastry to rise into a series of buttery flakes. This process is the same one that gives puff pastry and danish dough (and my ultra-flaky pie dough, and these biscuits) their many
layers.

Inspired by David Lebovitz’s post on whole wheat croissants, I decided to try these with rye and bread flours. They turned out just as puffy and flaky as regular croissants, but with deeper flavor and pretty flecks of grain and germ from the rye. Lacking rye flour, you can make these with all all-purpose flour, or with whole wheat bread flour in place of the rye. I like making pains au chocolat best – they’re easier to shape than
plain croissants, and, hey, they’re filled with chocolate, too. Plus, I like chocolate and rye together.

Croissant dough isn’t at all difficult to make once you understand the basic principles. Here are the steps, with photos, to making light, flaky pains au chocolat, with some extra tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way. (The full recipe’s down below.)

1) Make the detrempe

Heat some whole milk over a low flame until it is just warm to the touch, and pour it in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough
hook. Sprinkle some yeast over the milk and let stand 10 minutes to soften. Add rye flour, bread flour, sugar and salt to
the bowl. Mix the dough on medium-low speed for seven minutes, adding
more bread flour by the tablespoon until the dough comes away from the
sides of the bowl but still feels slightly sticky to the touch. Add some softened butter a little at a time and mix until completely
incorporated.

Photo Credit: Vijay Nathan | NoshOn.It

Note: If you don’t have a mixer, you can easily make the dough by hand in a
bowl with a wooden spoon. Stir in the flour slowly, then the butter. Turn the dough out
onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about 10 minutes.

Either way, place the dough in a medium bowl, cover tightly, and chill
for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Note: Longer chilling means more flavorful pastries. My teacher Claire would make the detrempe one day, laminate it the next, shape the croissants on the third day, and bake them off on the fourth day. They were the best I’ve ever had.

2) Make the butter block

by beating cold butter on medium-high speed in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until the butter is smooth and chunk-free. Form it into a thin square on a piece of plastic wrap, cover, and chill for 30 minutes. The butter should be cool, but pliable. Note: You can also make the butter block by beating the three sticks of butter with a rolling pin on a piece of parchment paper. This is loud, but it gets out your aggression and can be rather therapeutic. Note #2: I’m down with anything that has the word “butter block” in it.

3) Laminate the dough

I’ve seen many ways to get the butter into the dough; this is the method that I learned in pastry school, and the one that I use. Pat the dough into a square on a surface dusted lightly with rye flour. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out each corner of dough into a thin flap, leaving a thick diamond shape in the center of the dough.