chocolatines

I’ve been enjoying the new kitchen so much and I decided to make another laminated pastry. I also made the mistake of buying a 3 kilogram box of chocolate bars recently, so if I have any hope of actually using them before they bloom, there’s no time like the present! This is my old standby recipe which I learned to make at the San Francisco Baking Institute, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in improving their baking skills. The weekend intensive course isn’t cheap, but you learn so much and I now have the confidence to make laminated pastries whenever I want (kouigns amann, croissants, chocolatines, morning buns, etc.). These aren’t quite as good as the best pastries I can buy in San Francisco, but they’re far better than the pastries I’ve been able to get in almost any other city I’ve lived in (except the obvious). These chocolatines are flaky and buttery, and I’ve been baking them a bit harder than before since I think the fat in them helps keep them moist despite a hard bake.

The joy of this recipe is that you can make them the day before, roll them out and shape them, egg-wash them, and then keep them in the fridge overnight (or over-two-night-s!) and then bake them the next morning after a 90 minute rise in the proofer. So it’s easy to have fresh chocolatines in the morning for a late breakfast or right on time for brunch. Here’s to widespread vaccinations so we can have people over for brunch again!