Pain au Chocolat

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 10 g fine salt
• 60 g caster sugar
• 20 g fresh yeast or 8 g dried yeast
• 140 ml cold whole milk
• 140 ml cold water
• 40 g soft unsalted butter, for the dough
• 250 g cold unsalted butter, in a block, for laminating
• 16 chocolate batons, or 160 g dark chocolate cut into fingers
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

Before you cook

• Whisk the flour, salt and sugar together in a mixer bowl, keeping the salt away from the yeast at first.
• Crumble the yeast into the cold milk and stir to disperse it.
• Pound the 250 g block of cold butter with a rolling pin between two sheets of baking paper until it forms a neat 18 cm square, then chill it.
• Cut the chocolate into batons about 8 cm long if you are not using ready-made ones.

Steps

1. Add the yeasted milk, the cold water and the 40 g soft butter to the flour and mix on low speed for six minutes, until you have a firm smooth dough.
2. Shape the dough into a rectangle, wrap it and chill it for at least two hours, or overnight.
3. Roll the cold dough to a rectangle 20 cm by 40 cm on a lightly floured surface.
4. Lay the butter square on one half and fold the other half over it, sealing the edges by pinching.
5. Roll the parcel out to 20 cm by 60 cm, keeping the edges straight and square.
6. Fold the top third down and the bottom third up like a letter, then wrap and chill for 45 minutes.
7. Roll and fold in exactly the same way a second time, then chill for another 45 minutes.
8. Roll and fold a third time, then chill for a final 45 minutes.
9. Roll the chilled dough to a rectangle 40 cm by 32 cm and about 4 mm thick.
10. Trim the edges square, then cut the sheet into eight rectangles measuring 8 cm by 20 cm.
11. Lay a chocolate baton across one short end of a rectangle and roll the dough over it once.
12. Place a second baton against the roll and continue rolling to the end, finishing seam-side down.
13. Repeat with the remaining rectangles and set them on two lined trays, well spaced.
14. Brush the tops lightly with the egg glaze.
15. Prove at 24 to 26C for 2 to 2 and a half hours, until they have almost doubled and jiggle when the tray is shaken.
16. Heat the oven to 190C fan.
17. Glaze the pastries a second time, brushing with the grain of the layers rather than across them.
18. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until deep mahogany brown and crisp at the edges.
19. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes so the chocolate firms slightly before eating.