I live with two people for whom both bread and chocolate hold special and exalted places in their palates and in their diets. That is to say, neither of them ever gets tired of these goodies. I thought, why not combine the two? Especially right now, everyone is showing off their COVID bread, and here we are, all sad and gluten-free. I figured it was time to kick it up a notch. Enter, the pain au chocolat, or what we could call the best of both worlds.
I decided to take a fairly typical but soft gluten free bread dough, sweeten it a little extra with coconut sugar, roll it out flat, sprinkle it with goodies, cut it into long triangles, and roll them individually.
I wanted these buns to be more like bread than pastry, but next time I may enrich them with coconut milk, coconut butter, or some avocado oil just to see what happens. People who enjoy butter on their bread may enjoy more richness in their bread. Still, they were very well received, and make a satisfying Sunday morning nosh with a cup of tea.
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| roll your dough out into a nice big rectangle! I roll it out on a jumbo silicone mat, but I also use plenty of flour underneath and on top to keep it from sticking to the mat, and to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin |
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| brush the rolled out dough with coconut nectar -- about 1/4 cup. No coconut nectar? No problem. What do you have in the way of liquid sweeteners? Rice syrup? |
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| sprinkled the dough 'evenly' with your mixture of date sugar, kinako, and salt |
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| fair trade, organic chocolate. Only have chunks? no problem. |
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| grab a big knife and chop your chunks up! |
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| evenly distribute the chopped up chocolate over the whole surface |
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| roll the dough triangles starting at the wide end, and finishing at the narrow end, so the inside part is the widest part |
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| put the rolls with the end face down on your silicone mat-lined tray. No silicone mat? No problem! You can use baking parchment. No parchment? Please use plenty of coconut oil and flour on that pan so your buns don't stick. |
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| let 'em rise |
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| rise for a couple hours, maybe |
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| fresh out of the oven. Can you smell them? So good. |
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| hello I'm a super cute chocolate roll. Won't you be tempted by me? |
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| how about now??? |
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| mmmmm .... |
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| full of chocolate goodness |
equipment needed:
whisk
mixing spoon
measuring cups
measuring spoons
mixing bowls
kettle or other way to heat up water
oven
baking sheet
baking mat or parchment
dull edged tool for cutting dough into long triangles (like a pastry cutter or a plastic spatula)
large counter surface for rolling out dough
large silicone mat for rolling dough on (optional)
spoon for sprinkling ingredients
brush for brushing coconut nectar
timer
rolling pin
ingredients:
A)
1 1/2 cups warm water (or plant based milk for extra richness)
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1 tsp vanilla
(1/4 cup coconut butter -- optional)
B)
1 tsp himalayan salt
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp tonka bean powder (optional)
(1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar)
C)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup soy milk powder
1/2 cup cassava flour (or tapioca starch if you don't have cassava flour)
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup oat flour
D)
1/4 cup coconut nectar (or other liquid sweetener of your choice)
E)
1/4 cup date sugar
1-3 tbsp kinako (roasted soybean powder) (optional)
1/16th - 1/8th tsp salt
F)
1 cup chocolate (I use fair-trade, organic dark chocolate chunks, and chop them into bits with a big knife). You can also use chocolate chips if you like!)
directions:
1) combine A, and set aside to proof
2) in a large bowl, combine B and C. I like to use a whisk (gently) to make sure these dry ingredients are all perfectly combine
3) once the yeast mixture has foamed, pour it into the bowl of dry ingredients, and mix well
4) once out your dough has successfully formed, turn it out onto a well floured surface (I use a large silicone mat on my kitchen counter, but that's not necessary)
5) roll out the dough (with enough flour to keep the rolling pin from sticking!) Try to make a nice big rectangular shape.
6) brush the dough with your coconut nectar
7) combine the ingredients from E and sprinkle all of it on the dough
8) chop your chocolate if necessary, and distribute evenly on the dough
9) cut the dough into long triangles. I got 9 (That was entirely random. If you cut rectangle in half half length wise, you can make smaller roll ups -- approximately 20)
10) starting at the wide end of each triangle, roll the pieces of dough up (try to roll tightly, but handle them with care), and put them with the end face down on a lined baking sheet (I like silicone mats for lining my trays, but some people prefer parchment)
11) let them rise!
12) be patient
13) bake at 345 for around 40 minutes, depending on how big they are. (for little ones, bake for 30)
14) cool for at least 10 minutes before serving
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| ready to bake |
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| baked for about 40 minutes |
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| a cute pain au chocolat |
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| imperfection is perfection |
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