As if Grainy Mustard and Beer Loaf wasn't enough I today came up with my second recipe for week 2 of the Great Bloggers Bake Off – this time Pain Au Chocolat. Again the original recipe came from Bread Machine by Jennie Shapter, but this required much, much more work!
This is what you need:
- 125ml water
- 250g strong white bread flour
- 2 tbsp skimmed milk powder
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 140g soft butter
- 1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
- 225 plain chocolate, broken into pieces
You'll also require 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp milk for the glaze.
To start with you put the water, flour, milk powder, caster sugar, salt and 25g of the butter in your breadmaker, again following all the strange rules about putting things in different corners to prevent something strange and chemical happening.
Make a well in the middle and add the yeast before putting the breadmaker on on its dough setting. On my machine this took about 90 minutes.
Meanwhile take the rest of the soft butter and form it into an oblong shaped block, approximately 2cm thick.
Once the dough cycle has finished you're supposed to place it on a floured surface and knock it back, before shaping it into a ball. You're then told to use a knife to cut a cross halfway through the top of the dough. Roll out around the cross you've cut out, but leaving it as a raised bit in the middle. Then put the rest of the butter in the centre and fold up the rolled out dough over it, sealing the edges.
This is where I came a bit unstuck as my butter just seemed to want to start oozing out! The next step is to roll to a 2cm thick rectangle, twice as long as it is wide. Again butter just seemed to find its way out through the rest of the dough. Fold the top and bottom parts of the rectangle in and seal the edges. Oil some cling film and then wrap the dough in it. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Repeat this folding and chilling twice more. Then chill again for 30 minutes more.
By this stage I'm guessing that the butter is supposed to be nicely distributed through the dough. Mine was still just oozing everywhere!
The instructions then tell you to roll the dough into a large rectangle from which you should be able to cut nine 18 x 10cm rectangles which will form the nine pain au chocolat. I really struggled at this stage and instead ended up with just 7 rectangles and as the dough was so sticky and hard to work, many of them were of different thicknesses.
The chocolate was then divided between all the rectangles and placed at one end so that you could roll the dough around it, much like if you were making a swiss roll.
Once you've rolled your rolls you should then cover them again with oiled cling film and let them rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until they have doubled in size.
Once this has happened, brush them with a glaze and bake them at 200 C for 15 minutes, or until golden in colour.
I was delighted to take these out of the oven and find that they actually looked like pain au chocolat that you might buy!
We had one each for tea and whilst mine was delicious Mr C said that his just tasted strange and he couldn't finish it. Not one to ever waste food with chocolate in it I went to polish it off, but he was right. For some strange reason his tasted really strange – slightly salty and also weirdly a bit soapy! I have absolutely no idea why this was. Maybe it's something to do with the butter not being evenly distributed? Or the fact that I used salted butter? I'm just confused as to why mine tasted absolutely fine.
We've not tried the rest yet, but I am a bit wary of playing pain au chocolat roulette with them!
I'm joining in with the Great Bloggers Bake Off that is being hosted by Helen Hollywood a
nd
(possibly not their real names…) Each week the aim is to blog your recipe to fit in with that week's Great British Bake Off theme and Berry and Hollywood (again possibly not the real ones…) will choose a star baker. It's not a title I'm expecting to win, but you never know!
If you want to see what everyone else has been baking then check out the Great Bloggers Bake Off pinterest board.
these look great – like bought ones! i am so impressed you made pan au chocolates – i enjoy them as a treat every now and then! i cannot understand why one tasted so odd compared to the one you had though – weird?! BUT I am loving thre idea of you and your family sat around playing pan au chocolate roulette lol!
thank you for linking up for a 2nd time x x
These look a-mazing!! I wish i could eat them but alas, i’m intolerant and don’t think i’d have the patience to make this oe free from x
when I made these a while ago I had the same problems as you as I was too impatient to keep chilling it but they turned out great in the end just like yours – better than any bakery! well done on making these AND your beer bread!