Croissants, Pain au Chocolat, Pain Raisin and Danish

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I made the croissants and the pain au chocolat... delicious! My husband and I went to Europe earlier this month and I've been craving real crossants ever since. These is definately worth the time to make! I couldn't get fresh yeast in my area, but found a conversion online to use half as much of the dry yeast and it worked great.

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The Pain au Chocolat worked out pretty well, but the croissants were *terrible*. It says to cook them for 10 minutes, but mine have been in the oven for 30 minutes so far, and they are still coming out dough-ey in the middle - nine hours, just to throw it all in the garbage ... not impressed whatsoever.

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These are time consuming but truly worth it! I did the first & final refrigerations overnight so it took me a couple of days.

After making Pain au Chocolat as written, there wasn't enough chocolate for me. But when I increased it, it didn't melt all the way thru before the dough was done. So I tried chocolate genache -chocolate, heavy cream & a bit of butter. I piped a wide stripe down the middle & left 1/2" at each end so the filling didn't melt out but still melts & fills the inside of the pastry.

These freeze beautifully for a few weeks & make great gifts. I place the frozen pastries on a silpat/parchmt covered sheet pan, very loosely covered w/ wrap so there's lots of room to rise. Then defrost & rise OVERNIGHT in a draft-free place as drafts will keep them from rising. The next morning they'll be ready for baking & eating & enjoying without waiting 2 more hours for them to rise.

Thanks Jacques Torres & food network! Yum!

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Wonderful! My sweetheart is French, and VERY particular about his food. When he said it tasted "just like home" I knew it was GOOD!

For those who were saying that it got denser in the center with the chocolate, if you just put a baking dish with an inch or so of water on the bottom rack in the oven, it makes extra steam and makes the croissant flaky all the way into the center.

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really this was the best croissant ever
i went to Paris many many times and I've tasted this croissant et pain au chocolat reminds me of Paris
I'll do them again " je vous remerci beaucoup c'est tres delicieux "

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Wow, this recipe had quite a bit of work, but it was so worth it. I made 10 croissants and 10 pain au chocolat and they were all delicious. I substituted the fresh yeast for 6 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast since i couldn't find fresh yeast where i live, and they were still excellent.Definitely making them again...soon.

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My friend and I worked together to make the plain croissants, but I will eventually do the pain au chocolat because I love chocolate.

The directions for making the dough worked well and I didn't have to make any modifications.

Make sure to read through the entire recipe because it took us about 9 hours to make, proof and bake these croissants. Not 6.

I'm not quite sure about how to stretch the croissant triangles. It seems like it would be more appropriate to stretch starting around the middle and do a light drag-stretching outwards, rather than just stretching the tip. My friend did hers by just the tip while I tried from the center. They seemed to come out about the same.

My friend found her croissants to be a little yeasty in flavor. Probably due to the fact that we used active dry yeast, rather than fresh yeast. After seeing that, the proportions are probably going to be different, but I'll have to do some more research. Active dry yeast works, but I think next time I'll use a bit less to minimize the yeasty flavor. I baked my croissants longer than 10 minutes to get them more golden brown. Perhaps this helped to minimize yeasty flavor?

I think this recipe calls for too much butter. When I try this again, I think I'm going to limit myself to only 2 cups for the entire thing, so that will be 3 tbsp. for the dough and spread the other 13 tbsp. on the rolled out dough. Also I think the sugar should be upped to perhaps 1/3 of a cup instead of 1/4. I found the croissants to be lying in the savory/salty sector rather than slightly into the sweet sector of taste.

I also had the idea of making a cheesy croissant and I think this recipe would would very well. So I'd keep the sugar at 1/4, decrease the butter and add in a half cup of grated parmesan or asiago or whatever cheeses I would like to try. Maybe even some chopped fresh rosemary. Might have to play around with milk/water/flour to get the dough to the right consistency.

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The best croissant I've never had in united states. Delicieux.

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With croissants and filling, it will always be denser than a plain croissant, simply because the filling weighs down the layers, preventing steam from occurring (steam makes the layers seperate.

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This recipe was easy to follow and turned out wayyy better than my only previous attempt at making pain au chocolat. The outside layers were light and flaky but the centres were a bit dense -- if anyone has tips on how to fix this, please post. I love that you can freeze them and bake just a few at a time. Note: this recipe takes more than 6 hours (closer to 8 if you let the dough rise fully as per directions. I substituted dry yeast (activated with water and sugar and 1/2 bread flour, 1/2 cake & pastry flour.