Chocolate Stuffed Croissants Recipe

Fall is my favorite time of year. Halloween is my favorite holiday. Well, it used to be – back when I had trick or treaters. When I was in New Jersey living in my Victorian I would decorate that big wrap around porch and anticipate the knocks on the door. I loved all of the little costumed visitors and the excitement I would see in their eyes. Now I live in a very rural area and in the 6 years I have been here I have not had one little ghoul or goblin knock on my door. Now I celebrate Fall more personally. I bake. It is after all a time for it. It’s cooler and a person longs for cakes, pies and rich and buttery treats. It’s apple season so what is more evocative of the season than a classic apple pie with a cinnamon crumb topping? Or even better a moist pumpkin bundt cake? You see – this is why I love Fall! I can spend time in my kitchen and I don’t have to listen to the hubby complaining about how I heat up the house with my baking. Like chocolate stuffed croissants.

I had some Chocolate Oranges. The hubby loves these treats but I’d never thought to use them as filling for chocolate croissants before. Sometimes ideas just come into my head like that.

I love making croissants in the Fall and I often bake two batches at a time and pop them in the freezer so I have them available for lazy brunches. To me there is nothing more decadent than a chocolate filled croissant and the bit of pumpkin spice added a nice little bit of the season to my baking.

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pumpkin spiced chocolate croissants, making chocolate croissants, chocolate croissants

Table of Contents

Pumpkin Spiced Chocolate Stuffed Croissant

Makes about 45

3 packages active dry yeast (2 heaping TBS)
3 TBS sugar
4 1/2 TBS powdered milk
7 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 TBS salt
4 sticks less 2 TBS butter (I used unsalted to which I added 1 tsp salt)
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water with a pinch of salt for an egg wash

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2 Ovations® Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Orange
Powdered Sugar

TUTORIAL WITH PHOTOS ON HOW TO MAKE THE CROISSANTS

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached add the yeast to the warm water. Add the sugar, powdered milk, flour and salt.
Mix until it starts to come together and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Add the dough hook and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough will be sticky – don’t worry. More flour will be added later as you roll in the butter.
Cover the bottom of a large, heavy duty baking sheet with parchment paper. Flour the parchment. Take the dough out of the bowl and spread it evenly over the parchment in a rectangular shape. Cover with plastic or foil and refrigerate for 45 minutes.
Take the butter and toss it into the bowl of a stand mixer to break it up and make it spreadable. Alternatively, put it into a bowl and break it up with a large spoon. Place it between two pieces of wax paper and roll it out to about a 13″ x 12″ rectangle. Place the butter in the refrigerator until the dough has finished it’s time. The dough and the butter should be about the same consistency when you go the next stage which is called “rolling in.”
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and put in on a well floured surface. Flour is your friend with croissants. Roll the dough out to about 20 x 14″. Place the butter as shown in the top/left photo. Bring the right side over to center and then fold the left side over the top. Turn the dough longways and roll it out and repeat the steps minus the butter.
Take the dough out of the ‘fridge and repeat the rolling and folding process. Do this twice more with a 45 minute stay in the refrigerator between each rolling/folding turn. After the last one cover the dough and let it stay in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out to about 24 x 15″. Trim the dough to a rectangle. I have found that a pizza wheel is the best tool for cutting the dough. Cut the dough into thirds at 5″ intervals.Then cut the strips into 12 triangles. Save all trimmings for a later project. (Croissant Danish!)
Preheat the oven to 450°

Take one strip at a time and cut into about 15 triangles. Save the trimmings.

If you cannot see the video you can watch it on YouTube HERE

You can roll the croissants one of two ways; either use a whole slice of the chocolate orange like in the video above.

Or you can break the “orange” segment up and put that on the croissant dough and then roll it up. Either way works fine and I found that it really just depends on how you cut your triangles – if they are thinner breaking up the chocolate will work a little better. I did some of each and they all came out well.

Set the rolled croissants on parchment or silicone lined baking sheets to rise until puffy – about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450°

Brush the croissants with egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water and a pinch of salt.) Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then rotate the trays and bake for another 10 – 12 minutes.

Cool on a rack. Dust with powdered sugar.
You can use the trimmings to make Croissant Danish as shown in the original recipe.

How Were the Chocolate Stuffed Croissants?

These are best served warm. The chocolate is all melty and is just heavenly with the buttery pasty. They freeze just as well as the regular croissants; you can just warm them up in the oven for a few minutes. Do not microwave them or they will lose that lovely texture that is so important to a croissant.