Easy Chocolate Croissants | The Cozy Apron

My easy chocolate croissants are the perfect quick-yet-gourmet treat when you’re craving something chocolatey that’s homemade, yet tastes like it’s from the bakery. Prepared with good quality puff pastry as a shortcut, this chocolate croissant recipe is utterly irresistible when freshly baked, and makes for a scrumptious breakfast, brunch or afternoon treat when paired with a hot cup of coffee!

Chocolate Croissants, the Quick and Easy Way

When a craving for something chocolatey, freshly baked and slightly gourmet comes around, nothing quite hits the spot like a soft, flaky and gently warmed chocolate croissant.

Ah, the delectable and delicate chocolate croissant, with its tender golden layers wrapped around good quality chocolate… there’s nothing like it when paired with a fresh, hot cup of coffee or a cappuccino!

Typically, my hubby and I will enjoy a chocolate croissant (or two!) when we head out to a local bakery, and just love to take our time, enjoying the pleasure found in each bite of this heavenly pastry.

And while this entire experience is absolutely blissful, I love the idea of being able to make chocolate croissants in the comfort of my own kitchen, whenever the craving hits.

The only issue is making the dough.

For homemade croissants, making the dough from scratch is notoriously time consuming, which kind of makes them impossible to make spur of the moment to quell that craving.

My solution to this sweet dilemma is my easy chocolate croissants recipe, made with good quality, all-butter puff pastry purchased at the market, which makes these a breeze to make.

These chocolate croissants are definitely a chocolatey, semi-homemade goody that I can get behind. And the best part is that they taste just like I bought them from a fancy French bakery, loaded with chocolate and all those tender and buttery flaky layers!

My Recipe for Easy Chocolate Croissants

The key to making easy chocolate croissants that taste amazing, and like they were freshly prepared at the bakery or pastry shop, is to use what the bakery or pastry shop would use, which is pastry made with real butter.

While you can certainly use puff pastry made with oil, all-butter puff pastry (which is now readily available at most markets) just tastes better, more authentic and gourmet.

So when you wrap that good quality puff pastry around some good quality chocolate, it makes for a heavenly chocolate croissant.

And speaking of chocolate…

Traditionally, chocolate “batons” are used when making chocolate croissants, and these are thin batons made of chocolate which look a little like sticks. While they can easily be ordered online, they are truly not necessary when making my easy chocolate croissants. After all, they’re meant to be easy!

I love to use high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips or small chunks of chopped dark chocolate bars, shaping them into a line or longer mound when folding the puff pastry over while creating the croissants.

You can also use squares of a dark chocolate bar or two, using about 2 squares of the bar per croissant.

Here’s a sneak peek at my easy chocolate croissants recipe: (or just jump to the full recipe…)

1. To get started, I gently roll one of my cold puff pastry sheets a teeny bit just to even it out, but not too much.
2. Then, I cut the pastry sheet into four equal strips vertically, and place some chocolate about an inch from the bottom of the strip, then wrap the pastry around it.
3. Next, I add one more layer of the chocolate after this first roll, and continue to roll upwards, brushing the top edge of the pastry with a little egg wash to help seal the croissants.
4. I repeat until all 4 chocolate croissants are done using the first puff pastry sheet, then repeat the process with the other puff pastry sheet to create another 4 chocolate croissants for a total of 8 chocolate croissants.
5. Once all the croissants are prepped, I lightly brush a little egg wash over each, then chill them for 20 minutes, while my oven heats.
6. I bake my easy chocolate croissants for about 26 to 27 minutes, until golden-brown, and allow them to slightly cool before dusting lightly with powdered sugar and enjoying.

Tips & Tidbits for my Easy Chocolate Croissants recipe:

• All-butter, store-bought puff pastry sheets: If possible, opt for all-butter puff pastry sheets for this recipe, because they definitely offer better texture and flavor. You can typically find all-butter puff pastry sheets in the frozen section of most markets now, next to the prepared frozen pie crusts and desserts.
• Chocolate chips, chocolate batons, or chocolate bar squares for filling: To keep the recipe easy to make, I’m using good quality, semi-sweet chocolate chips for convenience. But you can also use a couple of dark chocolate bars and roughly chop them up into small chunks, or even break them into squares, and use 2 to 3 of the squares for the filling. If you’d like to go a more traditional route, purchase chocolate batons (typically found online), and use 2 to 3 batons per croissant.
• Chill the chocolate croissants before baking: When working with puff pastry (or even homemade croissant dough), it’s very important to keep it cold. So once you have rolled up and created your croissants, egg wash them and place into the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes. This will help those buttery layers of pastry to puff up and become light and flaky, rather than melt too quickly and become greasy and heavy.
• How to store chocolate croissants: While croissants of any kind are best eaten fresh, the day they’re prepared, you can store any leftovers very lightly covered with a napkin on a plate, and gently reheat them in a toaster oven (about 325° to 350°) for a few minutes, just until warmed through. You can also freeze any leftover, and allow them to thaw in the fridge for a day or two before gently reheating as above.

Craving more cozy, chocolatey sweet treats? Check out my recipe for rich and creamy Chocolate Pudding, Chocolate Truffles, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate Bark, decadent Double Chocolate Chip Muffins, or my recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies!