Pain au Chocolat

Most of France calls it pain au chocolat. In the south-west, around Bordeaux and Toulouse, it is a chocolatine, and people there defend the word with real feeling; in Toulouse you can buy T-shirts that say so. Where the second name came from is not settled.

Both names mean the same pastry. The textbook French shape is a rectangle of croissant dough rolled around one or two sticks of dark chocolate. Ours is rolled rounder, as the photo shows, with dark stripes running between the layers. Shapes vary from one bakery to the next.

• Layers you can count. Open it and you should see thin sheets and air pockets, not an even bready crumb. That honeycomb is the butter at work.
• Chocolate that softens and stays put. The center should be glossy and soft, holding its place rather than pooling on the plate.
• Bitterness in the background. Dark chocolate keeps the pastry from tasting like candy. The butter brings the richness; the chocolate brings the edge.
• A deep, even color. The crust should be brown and glossy all over. Pale patches usually mean it left the oven a little early.

In America both get sold as “chocolate croissant,” which is how people end up with the wrong one. If you want dark chocolate and layers, stay here. If you want something creamier and sweeter, our Croissant al Cioccolato is filled with Nutella. For pistachio and chocolate in the same bite, try the Pan Pistacchio e Cioccolato.

French bakeries wrap chocolate in dough instead of piping it into a croissant, and there is a reason for that. It comes down to how the dough is built, which our guide to cornetti and croissants explains.

Warm is the window. The chocolate is softest within a few hours of baking and sets firm again by evening. Some people prefer it that way, with a snap in the middle. If you are taking one home, a few minutes in a warm oven brings the center back.