Having watched Paul Hollywood make puff pastry earlier in the week I worried that shop bought puff pastry might not sweet enough. But I need not have worried. I am really pleased with the result, and more importantly so were the kids and Dad who had a few candles shoved in his. Even with dark chocolate, the taste was pleasingly sweet. And they crumbled and melted in the mouth in a most satisfying way.
This is so easy I would certainly get the kids to help next time. The trickiest bit is deciding whether you like your chocolate dotted around your croissant or in a rich oozy core. This dilemma is generally beyond children.
Homemade Pain au Chocolat
Makes 6
1 pack ready rolled puff pastry
1 pack/100g dark chocolate buttons or roughly chopped dark cooking chocolate
50g butter
Gently melt the butter in a microwave or on the cooker. Unroll the pastry and brush the melted butter all over the top. Either scatter the chocolate over the pastry or make as thin a line as possible 1cm in from the front edge running left to right if you want a central 'core' of chocolate. Roll the pastry and chocolate up fairly firmly, starting with the edge nearest you if you've gone for a chocolate core. Cut the rolled pastry into 6 equally sized pieces and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
At this stage you could freeze them if you are making a large batch. Otherwise bake for 15-20 minutes at 200C. Do watch carefully though as they seem to go from pale to brown all of a sudden near the end of the cooking time. These also cook from frozen in about 20 minutes at the same temperature.
Allow to cool for a few minutes as the molten chocolate can quite painful on the roof of your mouth, and then blink and they're gone.
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