Easy chocolate puff pastry croissants (rugelach) recipe (2024)

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Ingredients

You can find the full list at the bottom of the recipe card.

• Two sheets of puff pastry dough. You can use store-bought puff pastry sheets, easily found at your local grocery store in the frozen dessert aisle; most carry the Pepperidge Farms brand. A homemade puff pastry will also work well for this recipe.
• Nutella or other types of chocolate spread.
• Egg, for egg wash.

Other options

• Chocolate chips to sprinkle over the chocolate.
• Crushed nuts, like pecans, almonds, and walnuts. Sprinkle over the chocolate and the egg wash.

How to make this chocolate pastry recipe?

Start by bringing the frozen puff pastry to a temperature slightly above room temperature. Puff pastry contains a few layers of butter, so if too warm, the butter will melt, making it hard to work with the dough.

1. Layer one pastry sheet over your work surface; I like to do it over the baking pan lined with a piece of parchment paper. Use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate spread evenly.
2. Top with the second sheet of puff pastry dough.
3. Cut the dough into long triangles using a pizza roller or a sharp knife.
4. Roll the dough from the wide part of the triangles towards the point part until you have a crescent-shaped croissant pastryfilled with chocolate.
5. Place the chocolate-filled puff pastry over the prepared baking sheet (cookie sheet), use a pastry brush to brush all the sides of the pastry with an egg wash, and bake until puffed.

How To Know The chocolate puff is ready?

Because we are rolling the dough, it might be tricky to know if it is baked from the inside out. The first sign is to see if it is baked it to allow it to puff. During baking, the pastries, at first, will go a bit flat. Then they will puff.

The reason for that is that the butter melts at 90 degrees F (32C), and as it does, it spreads the pastries, but then, as the temperature rises, the water in the butter steams and puffs the chocolate puff pastry.

Once they are puffed, give them time to bake through. The time depends on the size of them. Mini croissants will bake faster and more thoroughly than larger ones.

Expert Tips

This is an easy recipe and a great fast sweet treat, but it can still become an epic fail if we overdo certain things. Please read the below notes before baking this recipe:

1. Preheat your oven and ensure it is at the right temperature when you place the pastries in it.
2. Check the pastries mi-baking; consider lowering the oven temperature if they look dark.
3. Make sure the sheet of the pastry dough is not more than 1/8-inch thick; if it is more, use a rolling pin to thin it. Roll it gently over the lightly floured surface (do not use too much flour) or between two pieces of parchment paper, and chill the dough before so.
4. Do not overspread with chocolate filling. Tempting, I know, but keep in mind that these chocolate puff pastries are baked at a high temperature, and the chocolate might melt and burn as it bakes.
5. Bigger is not better. The bigger the pastries are, the longer it will take them to bake through. I recommend that the width be about 1 1/2 inches and the length no more than 6-inches.
6. Brush the pastries with simple syrup (1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar cooked together until the sugar is dissolved)for extra flavor and to keep their freshens a bit longer.
7. Use egg yolk only for a deep golden brown color.
8. To make this recipe Gluten-free, use a gluten-free puff pastry such as Schar.
9. You can make your laminated dough from scratch, like in this Cornetti recipe and these Pain Aux Raisins.

Storing

This choco puff pastry recipe keeps its freshness between 1-2 days. Once completely cooled, place in an airtight container.

To make ahead, freeze the croissants unbaked. Use a Ziploc bag or a container but make sure not to pile them one on top of each other, and before baking, bring them to room temperature.

FAQ

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