What is there not to love about this buttery & chocolaty pastry, when warm & served with coffee it is pure bliss. That said, if you keep buying this stuff all the time you will left broke & overweight but on the flip-side your baker’s bank stash will be ample. So it was for purely economic reasons that I had to figure out how to make this pastry for myself. I trawled the interwebs & my cookbooks for ideas, and adapted the recipe below from all the info I got. In the end, I saved some money, learnt that making a laminated dough is tedious work and satiated my sweet tooth.

“Quick” Recipe for Petit Pain au Chocolat

• 250 grams all purpose flour.
• 115 mls water.
• 125 grams unsalted butter.
• 25 grams caster sugar.
• 80 grams chocolate bar.
• 5 grams salt.
• 5 grams(1tsp) instant yeast.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt & yeast.
2. Add water to the dry ingredients, combine well to form a dough.
3. Cover the bowl & let in rise/ferment overnight in the fridge.
4. Next day, knock down the dough. Form into a ball.
5. Dust working surface with a little flour. Roll out four flaps, creating an envelope.
6. Flatten the cold butter by bashing it with a rolling pin, form the butter into a flat square.
7. Place the butter in the centre of dough envelope, close the flaps over the butter.
8. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to seal the flaps together.
9. Roll out the dough into a long rectangle.
10. Fold the dough into thirds as if you are folding a letter. This is the first turn, cover the dough with plastic wrap & refrigerate for one hour.
11. After an hour, roll out the dough into a long rectangle then fold into thirds as if you are folding an letter. This is your second turn. Roll out the dough again into another long rectangle, fold into thirds like a letter and complete the third turn. Refrigerate the dough for another hour.
12. After an hour, roll out the dough into long rectangle, turn the dough 90 degrees so that the long edge is parallel to you.
13. Cut 6 cm strips of the dough, you should yield about 11 strips.
14. Break chocolate bar into 11 small pieces.
15. Place chocolate piece at the bottom of each strip. Roll the strips tightly, place on baking tray seam side down.
16. Brush with egg wash, made from one beaten egg & a pinch of salt.
17. Proof in oven with pilot light on for 90 minutes.
18. Take out the pain au chocolat from oven, preheat oven for 10 minutes at 220 degree celsius.
19. After the 10 minutes, place baking tray in oven & bake the pain au chocolat for 15 minutes.
20. Take them out from oven & cool on wire rack for about 15 minutes.
21. Enjoy!!!!

Pithiviers are a speciality from the town of Pithiviers in the south of France. They are usually served as coffee cakes. The traditional filling is an almond cream mixture with a hint of rum.

This recipe is adapted from Liam Tomlin’s book “Season to Taste”. Liam Tomlin is current executive chef at Cape Grace,Cape Town and former head chef of famed but now closed sydney restaurant Banc. His proteges at Banc have become prominent Australian restauranteurs; Chui Lee Luke at Claude’s, Justin North at Becasse, Peter Sheppard at Caveau, Warren Turnbull at Assiette , Matthew Kemp at Restaurant Balzac.

To make this pithiviers you need the following.

Puff Pastry

I took the easy way out & bought frozen puff pastry from the supermarket.

2. Roll out the puff pastry
3. Use a 8 cm pastry cutter to cut round bases and tops for the pithiviers.
4. Place tops and bases in the fridge for 30 minutes for pastry to rest before assembling the pithiviers

Creme patissiere (Pastry Cream)

• 1 Egg yolk
• 125 mls milk
• 2 1/2 tbsps plain flour
• 35 grams caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

2. Combine milk and vanilla essence in sauce pan bring to boil, then set aside.
3. In a bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar then whisk it silly. It will take a while. What you want is a mixture very pale, double in volume, thick consistency. Mixture should come down like a ribbon off the whisk(hard to explain)
4. Fold flour into egg yolks sugar mixture.
5. Take 1/3 of milk mixture, combine into egg sugar mixture in bowl.
6. Add egg sugar mixture from bowl, add to saucepan contain milk mixture.
7. Place saucepan on medium heat, whisk slowly until it thickens to shiny thick custard. This takes about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Chocolate almond filling

• 100 grams dark chocolate
• 55 grams caster sugar
• 55 grams almond meal
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 egg

2. Melt chocolate over a bain-marie(bowl over simmering water)
3. Cream together butter & sugar. Then stir in the egg, almond meal and cocoa powder. Add the melted chocolate and mix until the chocolate is fully incorporated.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour until reasonably firm to mold into patties that about 6 cm in diameter. Freeze patties until ready to use.

Chocolate sauce

• 50 grams dark chocolate
• 75 mls cream
• 25 grams unsalted butter

2. Bring cream to boil.
3. Add chunks of chocolate into hot cream & incorporate it.
4. Finish it off with the butter & set aside

Assembly

• Place pastry base on floured surface, put a chocolate almond patty into the centre of the pastry bases. Brush the edge of base with egg wash.
• Place a pastry top over the chocolate patty and mould it around the patty removing any air pockets between patty & filling.
• Mark a pattern on pithivier with the tip of a knife
• Brush with egg wash then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Mark border with back of knife. Preheat oven to 220 degrees centigrade. Refrigerate again for 30 minutes.
• Bake pithiviers for about 15 minutes until crisp & golden

Serve with chocolate sauce & vanilla ice cream