Is there anything better than a warm buttery croissant? Well actually, there is. Meet the Chocolatine (also called Pain au chocolat). Traditionally made in a shape that’s more cylindrical than crescent/crab-like, these delights are what got me through many a rough library night back in Uni. Scrambling to finish cramming a whole semester’s worth of notes in one night, and craving that cure-all reward for your efforts..I think we’ve all been there. My said reward was almost always in the form of a warm chocolatine from a bakery right across the library I used to go to. Coupled with a hot mug of cinnamon hot chocolate. Bliss.

I knew instantly that I wanted my chocolatines to be replicas of these. I’d set the bar too high for myself on this one. I am a complete novice when it comes to bread-making, so you might think it absurd to be attempting to make croissants of all things for a start! However, I’ve used store-bought puff pastry sheets for this one – a cheat’s version, and one that I’m very proud of. Don’t get me wrong though, I’d love to try my hand at making these bad boys from scratch at some point, but ‘knead’less to say, I’m pretty stoked at how this turned out, and at how I managed to make this a yeast-meets-west story.. I’m on a roll here!

INGREDIENTS:

Puff pastry sheets – 8” X 4” rectangles, thawed

A handful of dark chocolate chips

1 egg

METHOD:

Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F)

Beat the egg along with 1 tablespoon of water, and set aside.

Lightly flour your pastry sheets, and roll them out to make 8” X 4” triangles. Now, cut each rectangle diagonally to make 2 triangles out of each.

Place about 2 teaspoons of chocolate chips in the center of each triangle; starting at the wider end, roll each triangle up. Make sure the ends of each croissant are tucked underneath so as to hold each piece in place. Bend in the edges, creating a crab-like shape and place on a baking tray.

Lightly brush tops of the croissants with the egg wash, and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until they are golden brown.

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