Petit pain au chocolat are light, flaky, classic French pastries, filled with bittersweet chocolate. They are perfect for breakfast or an afternoon treat with tea or coffee.
The French really do breakfast quite differently from the British and Americans. While we tend to favor protein heavy breakfasts of eggs, sausage or bacon, and toast, Parisians are content with a strong cup of coffee and a simple croissant, or even better, a Petit Pain au Chocolat. Every once in a while, especially when one of the girls has a friend stay the night or weekend, I’ll make something a little more special that usual. I like to keep a roll of puff pastry in the freezer for last minute appetizers, desserts, or these simple chocolate filled breakfast pastries. The puff pastry is filled with a thin baton of chocolate, (chocolate stick). (affiliate link)
Batons au chocolat, or chocolaté sticks from Callebaut. These batons are what professional bakeries put in their petit pain.
While these batons are readily available online, or through commercial bakery suppliers, they are not readily available to the public as I found out the Saturday I had planned on making these. My friend Christina, from Christina’s Cucina, gave me a couple dozen chocolate batons. I had told her I was going to be making petit pain au chocolat, and so I wouldn’t have to buy a 3.5 lb. box of Callebaut chocolate batons, she gave me some. I wrapped them carefully and thought I’d hidden them well in my baking drawer. But when I went to use them a few weeks later, all but 3 were left.
My homemade chocolate batons next to the Callebaut baton, lower right.
My 14 year old, who had eaten most of them, apologized profusely. After calling several places, we realized the only option was to buy a huge box online. Then the offending 14 year old spoke some words of wisdom. “If they are that hard for you to find, why would anyone else want to do that?” Good point. So, here are two options. The first is to make your own batons, which is just melted chocolate, spread on a cookie sheet, slightly chilled and then cut into 3” by 1/2″ sticks, or cut your favorite chocolate bar into sticks.
Spread melted chocolate on a slip at or parchment paper. Chill until somewhat firm, but not hard. Cut into 3″ x 1/2″ sticks, or batons.
After I’d gone through the entire baton reconstruction, I found 100 calorie milk chocolate sticks at Trader Joe’s which worked perfectly well. Oh, well. We tried them with dark chocolate, bittersweet and milk chocolate, with everyone having a favorite. My husband preferred the less sweet, dark chocolate pain, while my daughter’s friend liked bittersweet, and Sophie the milk chocolate.
Petit Pain Au Chocolat
Ingredients
- One package puff pastry thawed, so that it's easy to work with, but not soft and doughy
- 24 batons of chocolate or your favorite chocolate bars cut into 3" x 1/2" sticks
- 1 egg slightly beaten
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Roll thawed puff pastry out slightly, the rolled out pastry should have natural creases, for 6 pastries per sheet.
- Place one stick of chocolate on each end and roll toward middle.
- Brush seam with beaten egg and place, seam-side down on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining pastry. Brush tops with beaten egg.
- Bake at 425 degrees F. for 13-15 minutes, or until pastries are deep golden brown.
- Cool. Serve warm or room temperature. Store leftover pain au chocolat in an airtight container.
Roll out the thawed puff pastry. It doesn’t take much, just a roll in either direction to smooth out any seams. The folds make natural divisions. Each sheet makes 6 pain.
Place the thawed puff pastry on a sheet of parchment or a silpat baking sheet. The folds make natural divisions.
Place a chocolate stick on each end of the puff pastry rectangle.
The batons should be about 3 inches in length. Cut a chocolate bar to fit the pastry.
After all that work to make little chocolate batons, I found 100 calorie chocolate sticks at Trader Joe’s. If you have odd sizes of chocolate, just piece them to make one longer stick. (left side of shot)
Place chocolate stick on each end of the dough.
Roll chocolate towards center, meeting in the middle. Seal seam with beaten egg.
Roll the chocolate sticks towards the center, meeting in the middle. Brush with beaten egg to seal.
Bake, seam side down at 425 degrees F. for 13-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Place pastries, seam side down on baking sheet.
Cool on wire baking rack.
Cool on wire rack.
Petit Pain au Chocolat are a delicious breakfast treat. Have them with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, and imagine you’re sitting in a Parisian cafe!
Petit pain au chocolat are a lovely breakfast treat.
A little chocolate peeking out the sides of the flaky pastry.
The chocolate should peek out the sides.
Christina @ Christina's Cucina says
I must be the meanest mother around, as my kids are too scared to eat something I have without asking! Glad you found an alternative, but Sophie got the best chocolate in the end! haha! You’ll have to come shopping with me next time! 🙂
S Allen says
Please don’t buy trader joes milk chocolate… calebaut is much better and if you get it to room temperature or slightly heated knife you can actually cut it quite nicely…milk anyway. The 3.5 pound batons you can use almost anywhere.. and there’s less in it that you think.
Cynthia says
I agree with you…If you read the post, I HAD Callebaut and was able to make some of them with it, until my daughter ate the remaining batons. Since I was pressed for time, I had to make do. I also wanted to give an option to those who might not want to order 3.5 pounds of batons online for one recipe.