Croissant and Pain au Chocolat

Front: croissant
Back: pain au chocolat

These were amazing! They weren't the perfect croissants, but they were better than probably 90% of the ones out there. They were light and airy, tender on the inside and flakey on the outside, and deliciously buttery. We made both plain and cheese (or ham and cheese) croissants. I made almost all of mine plain, but did make two with gruyere rolled up in them. Yum. Traditionally plain croissants are crescent shaped (hence the name) however filled croissants are usually left straight. I'm not sure exactly why, but presumably it's so that you can tell them apart. It's not too hard to do that with fillings like ham, but the cheese on its own (like other light fillings, such as almond paste) is harder to see.

The pains au chocolat, made with the same dough as the croissants, were even better; in addition to the excellent dough, they had good quality dark chocolate! We used two batons of chocolate instead of one, which is apparently how many places do it, so that was nice. The trick to making these look good, by the way, is to securely stick (with egg wash) the rolled up end under the center of the pain au chocolate. If it is off center, the whole thing will unroll as it puffs when you proof then bake it, making it look sloppy.