Sourdough Pain au Chocolat

Sourdough pain au chocolat feature rich chocolate enclosed in a light and flaky pastry case.

This recipe for sourdough pain au chocolat is an adaption of one of my most popular posts on the blog - Sourdough Croissants. The laminated dough is naturally leavened with sourdough starter. 

Although these sourdough pastries are commonly referred to as sourdough chocolate croissants, they aren’t technically croissants. ‘Croissant’ means crescent and refers to the crescent shape that croissants commonly have.

A pain au chocolate is not a chocolate crescent. But shapes aside, it uses the same sourdough laminated dough base.

Sourdough Pain Au Chocolat Baker's Schedule

Before we begin, here is a run down of how long it takes to make these. There is the option of a 2 day and 3 day process.

Day 1

• Feed your sourdough starter
• Mix the dough
• Ferment the dough
• Refrigerate overnight

Day 2

• Make the butter packet
• Laminate
• Chill the dough - (Optional) refrigerate overnight
• Shape
• Proof
• Bake

Day 3 - if the dough was refrigerated overnight

• Shape
• Proof
• Bake

Laminated dough

Laminated dough is when butter has been rolled into dough, in layers. The butter stays cold in the layers as the dough is rolled out. This means the butter doesn’t melt into the dough, and when it is later baked it rises and creates the flaky layers we so love in pain au chocolat, croissants and other pastries. 

Pain au chocolat is best made in an environment where the room temperature is not too hot. The trick to flaky layers in the dough is to keep the butter cool as it is rolled into the dough. If it melts into the dough, it won’t be laminated correctly.

If your room temperature is above 25°C you will struggle to keep the dough and butter cool.

Sourdough Starter in The Dough

These are pain chocolat made with sourdough starter so the first thing you’ll need is an active sourdough starter. You’ll need 150 grams of fed and active sourdough starter at 100% hydration for these sourdough chocolate croissants. 

100% hydration means there are equal weights of flour and water used when feeding the starter.

To get great and consistent results it’s important that you use an active starter that has a low acid content.

If you refresh your starter regularly and use a small amount of seed starter each time, this can slow the acid build up.

Feeding The Sourdough Starter

I use a feeding ratio of 1:2:2, (1 part starter, 2 parts flour and 2 parts water measured in weight)I refresh my starter like this very often, in a clean jar. This brings a fairly small amount of seed starter into the new mix, with double the amount fresh flour and water.

Learn how to make and maintain a sourdough starter. 

For this dough it could be 35g starter, 70g flour and 70g water. This will make approximately 175g starter. 150g can be used for the dough and the remaining starter can be fed again 1:2:2 and stored for the next time you need it.

At a room temperature of between 20-23°C, a starter that’s ready will double, if not triple, easily within 6 hours at that ratio. Ensure that you use your starter before it passes its peak and starts to collapse.

If used after this point it will likely be too exhausted and acidic to give good results. A very acidic starter can make your dough sloppy and difficult to work with. 

The Sourdough Pastry Dough 

When the starter is ready to use, the rest of the dough ingredients are mixed together by hand to form a ball of dough.

Give it a knead for around 5 to 8 minutes to create a smooth and soft ball. Place it in a greased bowl. The dough needs to ferment now for 3 hours at a room temperature between 20-23°C. If your room is cooler than this it can be increased to 4 hours. Keep the dough covered with a damp tea towel to stop it drying out.

Afterwards, transfer it to the refrigerator overnight.

At this point, leave out 250 grams of butter for tomorrow’s step so it is at room temperature for when you need it.

Butter Packet

In the morning, take the butter that was left out overnight and mix it with a little flour to create a butter mixture that is nice and malleable.

Roll this butter mixture out between two sheets of baking paper into a rectangle of about 20 x 30cm.

Place the butter in the fridge to firm up a bit and cool. The butter needs to be properly cool but still pliable. If the butter is too cold and stiff, it’s going to shatter in the dough when it’s rolled out. The dough and the butter need to be similar consistencies. 

Gauging the exact temperature of the butter packet, so that it is a similar consistency to the dough is something that gets better with practice.

Lamination

On a floured bench, roll out the cold dough into a 20 x 60 cm rectangle. Check that the butter is cool, but still pliable, then place it on the bottom half of the dough. Pull the top half over the butter and tuck it in.

Turn the dough 90 degrees, and use a rolling pin to gently push on the dough to help disperse the butter.

Ensure that the butter doesn’t warm and soften too much. Cold butter is what will give the flaky layers in the pastries. If the butter melts into the dough, you'll end up with bread-like pain au chocolat.

Roll the dough out into a 20x60cm rectangle. Aim to lengthen the dough as opposed to making it wider, and don’t push down too hard. Just gentle rolling. Once rolled, fold the dough up like a pamphlet. 

Place the dough into a container with a lid to keep it from drying out. You can wrap it in clingfilm too, but use a compostable one if you can!

Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Remove the dough, turn it 90 degrees again from what it was and roll it out in front you and repeat the folding process. Place it back in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Repeat this step once more (so that's three times in total.)

Shaping the Pain au Chocolat

After the third time, chill the dough for 2 hours, or overnight. Then it’s time for rolling. I find it easiest to cut the dough in two, and roll half at a time. Keep the half you’re not using in the fridge. 

Roll half the dough into a 20 x 60cm rectangle. Cut the dough widthwise into six 10cm strips. 

Place ½ cm of chocolate at the end of a strip and fold it over once to enclose the chocolate. Add another ½ cm of chocolate and fold it over, then continue rolling it all the way up. Continue with the remaining dough strips, then repeat with the other dough half. 

Proofing the Pain au Chocolat

The pain au chocolat now needs to proof at room temperature. This is a very important step. Underproofed croissants and pain au chocolat will result in dense pastry, leaking butter and a ‘raw’ dough texture. 

Brush the shaped pastries with a thin layer of egg wash and leave them to proof until puffy. There is no exact time for this, it can take between 4-6 hours depending on room temperature. You can create a slightly humid spot to stop the pastry drying out by placing a bowl filled with just boiled water in a turned off oven, and placing the pain au chocolat in there too.

Baking the Pain au Chocolat

Once proofed, preheat the oven to 200°C/ 392°F/ Fan-bake or 220°/ /428°F degrees Celsius at regular bake.

Once the oven is at temperature, brush the pain au chocolat with another layer of egg wash.  

Bake them for approximately 18 minutes until deep brown. If they are browning too fast, turn the oven down slightly after the first 10 minutes.

Once baked, let them cool for 10 minutes and dust with icing sugar.

 Want more laminated dough? Try Sourdough Puff Pastry or Sourdough Danish pastries!