Nigella Eats Everything

What are the first three foods that come to mind when you think of France? Take your time, I will wait. Ready? Let’s see – I assume baguettes are up there? Baguettes seem to grow like grass here. What about delicate pastries like eclairs? Or their 1600 cheeses? Basically, anything involving butter? France is pretty obvious when it comes to food, isn’t it? As the country which maintains its position near the top of the food ladder (I will not give them the satisfaction to declare them at the actual top), the cuisine has almost become a caricature of itself, like the traditional stereotype of a Frenchman – moustachioed, riding his bicycle with a string of onions or garlic hanging around his neck. And of course, we mustn’t forget those snails and frogs legs, foods to disgust and amaze children, when they’re actually mere regional delicacies for tourists. If we were speculating on the foods the French truly love, I think that would be viennoiserie – croissants and pain au chocolat.

Have you heard of the word viennoiserie? A clue is in its name: these are pastries that originated in Vienna – yes, it’s true, a beloved ‘French’ treat isn’t even French!

Yet, somehow the French have claimed it, and the treasured pain au chocolat – or should I say chocolatine in the south of France – is known worldwide by nothing other than the French term. A ‘chocolate bread’ they are not.

And, after sampling many here in Toulouse, I have – for some unexplained reason – made my own.

Homemade pain au chocolat

In January 2022, I wrote a food bucket list for the year (if you’re curious to know what else is on the list, check it out here). These were 10 dishes that for far too long I’d longed to make so just make them already woman, and on that list are pain au chocolat.

As you can see, I delayed making them for 11 months. I put them on the list with the confidence of a procrastinator, and now here we are, it’s Gaylord’s birthday and one of the few things he requested were the homemade pain au chocolat I had promised.

This is coming from a Frenchman who, without the moustache, bike and string of onions, is a French stereotype nevertheless. He’s a gourmand, he’s a romantic, his greatest love in life is a crusty, beautifully baked baguette, and if you need lessons in joie de vivre, he’s your guy. He also has a weakness for pain au chocolat.

Every Sunday, he’ll disappear off to the boulangerie and come back with a brown paper bag of pain au chocolat… and a mischievous expression because there’ll be a treat too. It’s enough to make anyone weak at the knees. What can I say, I’m exploring French cuisine. This is the guy who scoffs at the word ‘chocolatine’ because he is Parisian to his bones and I’ve known him to throw away freshly-bought pastries that don’t live up to his standard!

So, when he told me that my homemade pain au chocolat were delicious and ended up eating three in one day, I knew he wasn’t just sparing my feelings. I had the French seal of approval!

So, how do you make them?

Well, I found this recipe in a round-about way – so please excuse this tangent. A few years ago, I worked as a chef at a little bakery in south-west London. I stood in my corner of the bakery – a little cubby-hole of a kitchen – while the bakers crashed around me, shovelling bread out of ovens and shaping the exquisite croissants and pain au chocolat. Honestly, these were the best pain au chocolat I’ve ever had in my life and I now live in France. We’re talking good. Even my friend Sam would take two days off a week from her veganism to be able to eat them.

So, last week, I got in touch with one of my ex-colleagues, now a baker in Norway with a fancy cookbook, for his pain au chocolat recipe recommendation. He steered me towards a recipe by Adam Pagor, head baker at the bakery Grain & Hearth. During Covid, Adam had very kindly uploaded videos as he made croissants for a little bake-along on Instagram. These videos are fantastic and rather than being technical and overwhelming, the recipe is incredibly easy to achieve especially as it’s entirely visual. If your croissant dough looks like his, then you know you’re on the right path.

First of all – making homemade pain au chocolate is not as difficult as it first seems! In total, there are less than 10 ingredients needed. The long rests and proofs lessen the challenge’s pressure; it feels achievable in its bite-sized tasks.

Second – of course – keep the butter and dough cold. If the butter starts to smear while rolling and folding, wrap it up and chill. During the proofing, the dough becomes soft and jiggly, looking like perfect miniature pillows. If any butter leaks, quickly brush in egg wash and bake straight away.

My pain au chocolat were all different sizes, a bit scruffy and misshapen, but who cares, they don’t need to be boulangerie perfection and will still get a delighted thumbs up from your token Frenchman.