Bread
Chocolate Wassants
June 13, 2020Wassants are one of my favourite bread. These little buns are perfect for snacking! Made these babies a while back. They were a hit when Provence bakery started selling them. Soon enough, these little pillows started surfacing in many bakeries here.
Every bakery has its own unique wassants. No wassants from two bakeries are the same even though they are essentially the "same" thing. The wassants from Four Leaves bakery are softer, less sweet and bigger than Breadtalk's. On the other hand, wassants sold in Breadtalk are more toasted (hence, less soft). Their chocolate layers are slightly sweeter and creamier than their counterparts too.
Do you like your wassants light and fluffy or softer but slightly more compact? Well, if you prefer the latter, omit the egg and replace with equal amount of liquid. If you are considering to give it a go, please check out the Victoria's post from Baking into the ether. She has very detailed instructions on the lamination process.
I would suggest to allocate ample time to chill your chocolate sheet in the fridge before layering them with the dough. My chocolate sheet was too soft. As a result, it got pretty messy while I was laminating the dough For my 2nd attempt, I made the chocolate sheet before I started working on the bread dough , giving sufficient time for the sheet to chill in the fridge.
At 170 degrees celcius for 10-11 mins
If you prefer a more toasted bread (like the ones at the background), you can bake them at 180 degrees celcius for about 13 mins instead.
Chocolate Sheet (Adapted from Baking into the ether)
50g Chocolate
50g Butter
20g Bread flour
10g Cocoa Powder
5g Corn Flour
60g Milk
20g Caster Sugar
1 egg white
1. Melt chocolate and butter separately.
2. Sift bread flour, cocoa powder and corn flour into a saucepan
3. Add milk and sugar to the flour mixture.
4. Add melted chocolate, butter and egg white.
5. Heat mixture over low heat until it becomes thick
6. Remove from stove and pour chocolate dough between two pieces of cling wrap. Roll chocolate sheet out into 18cmX18cm
7. Refrigerate for at least 30mins.
Bread dough:
Poolish
50g Water
50g Bread flour
1g Yeast
Main dough
200g Bread Flour
Yeast 2g
Sugar 30g
Water 35g
Egg 28g (if omit, replace same amount with water)
Heavy Cream 68g
Butter 15g (soft)
Salt 3g
1. Prepare poolish either the night before and leave it in the fridge or 4-5 hours and leave it at room temperature before you start preparing the main dough.
2. Mix poolish together with bread flour, yeast, sugar, water, egg (if using) and heavy cream. Knead till well combined
3. Add butter and salt to the dough. Bread dough may fall apart when you try to incorporate butter. It is alright. Continue to knead till window pane.
4. Rest dough for 20 mins.
5. Roll the dough to 28cm X 28 cm. Place the dough on a big piece of cling wrap - it makes it easier to fold the dough later.
6. Place the chocolate sheet in the middle of the square bread dough. Wrap the chocolate sheet by folding the four corners of the bread dough to the middle of the chocolate sheet. Seal the seams well.
6. Roll the dough to a rectangle - 41cm X 22 cm. Lightly mark out the rectangular dough into three sections along the length of the rectangle. Fold the two sides into the section in the center.
7. Chill for 15 mins in the fridge.
8. Roll the dough to 64 X 20 cm.
9. Cut the dough into triangles (base 5cm)
10. For each triangle, make a small slit at the middle of the base of the triangle. Start rolling the dough from the base to the tip of the triangle.
11. Proof until double in size (45 mins-1hour) and brush the mini pillows with some egg wash.
12. Bake at 170 degrees celcius for 10 mins.
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