Nigella Lawson’s Recipe – Chocolate Croissants

Yep, I have just realised that I have an unopened pack of 10 puff pastries sheets sitting at the bottom of my freezer. Obviously, I have forgotten completely about them. Counting down to the second last day until the big move, I am kinda freaking out at the moment. How the hell am I going to finish 10 sheets of puff pastries in 2 days?

Okay, I have 3 options: (1) I can throw the unused ones away – but that’s would a complete waste! Definitely not my style. (2) Give to a friend – My only close friend here was away and couldn’t give her the stuff in time. Also I think it’s odd to give your acquaintances a packet of puff pastries as a gift, no? Or (3) Bake the crab crap out of them with little time I have left.

Obviously my choice was number 3 which I think it’s a smart one, hehe! While I was comtemplating what I should with the puff pastries without too much hassle, I thought of the chocolate croissants recipes adapted from Nigella Express. Honestly it’s so easy that I was not going to type out the “method” section of the recipe out of laziness, sorry! But then a recipe isn’t complete without specifying the methods. So  I relented.

There are two parts to the method section: (1) A clip from the show, Nigella Express, which I think it’s fun to watch than reading; (2) A written section.

Chocolate Croissants

(adapted from Nigella Express)

1 standard ready-made puff pastry makes 8 croissonts

Ingredients:

• 1 ready-made butter puff pastry
• 8 pieces of chocolate, broken from a bar (or you can use chocolate chips)
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Lay out a thawed puff pastry on a chopping board (please keep the plastic which came with it between the chopping board and the puff pastry to avoid sticking).
• Using a sharp knife, slice the sheet into 8 parts like the photo below.

• You can watch the following clip from her show Nigella Express on how she wrapped the chocolate in the pastry …

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• Follow these instructions: Put the triangle with the wider part facing you and the point away from you.  Break off small pieces of chocolate (approx.1cm/half inch) to place about 2cm/3/4-inch up from the wide end nearest you. Then carefully roll from that chocolate loaded end towards the point of the triangle. You should now have something resembling a straight croissant, seal it slightly with your fingertips and curl it around into a crescent. (Emily:  It’s a personal thing but if you find the tips are too long, you can slightly overlap the two tips together like the photo below, likened to an angry crab folding its  claws, hehe! I think the croissants look better this way.)
• Place the chocolate croissants on a lined baking tray and paint with the beaten egg.

• Bake for 15 minutes until golden and puffy.