Chocolate Croissants

This afternoon I'm heading off to Chicago to visit Ben.  And being the good girlfriend that I am, I am bringing baked goods.  This time around, it was Chocolate Croissants, the basic recipe I gleaned from a lazy Saturday of watching Food Network all day.  The best chocolate croissants I ever had were in Germany (but maybe that's because I never had them in France...) and they were deliciously flaky with chocolate all the way through.  These were good, but they lacked that flaky action, which is basically key in a croissant.  So maybe a better title for what I made last night would be chocolate pastries; but that doesn't sound as good.   They did have chocolate all throughout, and when they are warm it's oozy and delicious.  I haven't tried them cold/room temperature yet, but I have high hopes.

I made these up Wednesday night, making some quick work of a frozen puff pastry sheet and some Belgian dark chocolate I bought from Trader Joe's (I feel like I'm almost running an advertising campaign for them.  What can I say?  They have some hidden, cheap treasures in that store)  My triangles were a little lopsided, giving the resulting croissants that rustic, homemade off-kilter sort of look.  I put them in the fridge until yesterday, when I threw them in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes.  There was an egg wash and light sprinkle of sugar somewhere in there too. 

They came out warm and gooey, as melted chocolate and puff pastry can be expected to do.  Make sure to learn from my mistake, a wait a little while before trying to eat one.  Also, don't skip the light dusting of sugar on the top.  About half I decided to try without, and they just didn't come out as pretty.  Again, these were good, but probably because I didn't have too high of expectations for them.  They did make me want to go back to Germany for the real deal, but what doesn't make me want to go back to Germany these days?  Just wait till I whip out my German potato salad recipe for the upcoming summer months!

Anyways, the recipe is below.  Sorry about the lack of pictures, I was busy packing and going to baseball games last night.  (The Drive won 12-6!  Woohoo!)

Chocolate Croissants

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed

Flour, for dusting

1 bar of dark chocolate

1 large egg, beaten

Sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Flour a clean working surface and lay out one sheet of thawed puff pastry dough.  Using a small, sharp knife, cut dough in half, widthwise.  For small croissants, divide each half into 6 equal sized triangles. 

Break chocolate bar up into small rectangular pieces.  Using one dough triangle, place a chocolate piece at the wide edge and roll up towards the tip to form a croissant.  Place seam side down on baking sheet.  Continue with remaining dough triangles.  When finished, cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge to firm up the dough (refrigerate up to one day).

When dough is firm, remove from fridge and brush croissants with the beaten egg.  Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar. 

Bake until croissants are golden brown, about 15 minutes.