My not-so-great attempt at chocolate wassant.

A friend’s niece and nephew loves the mini chocolate wassant from La Petit Provence bakery. During our lunch break, we walked the short journey to JEM at Jurong East for lunch and to buy the mini chocolate wassants.

As she was queuing up to pay, I observed the staff behind the counter assembling the dough for the wassant. Intrigued, I googled and found many recipes.

I chose the recipe from Rumbling Tummy, who adapted it from a combination of Victoria Bakes and Do What I Like. I had to further adapt the main dough, since I did not read the part about using very strong bread flour until way too late.

Chocolate wassant (adapted from Rumbling Tummy)

Chocolate sheet

• 50 grams chocolate (I used 70%; ended up not sweet enough. suggest to use 50% and below)
• 20 grams unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 20 grams bread flour
• 10 grams cocoa powder
• 5 grams corn flour
• 60 grams milk
• 20 grams castor sugar (can increase if prefer slightly sweeter wassant)
• 30 grams egg white

Dough

• 250 grams very strong bread flour – 15 grams protein per 100 grams
• 40 grams sugar
• 1 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 100 grams milk
• 63 grams water
• 30 grams butter

Egg wash

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp milk

1. Melt chocolate and butter separately.
2. Sift flour, salt, cocoa powder and corn flour into a saucepan.
3. Add in milk and sugar.
4. Add in chocolate, butter and egg white.
5. Cook over low flame until a dough forms.
6. Let dough cool slightly before transferring to cling film. Spread dough out evenly to around 22 x 14 cm. Cover with another piece of cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
7. For the dough, add everything except butter into the mixing bowl.
8. Mix until a rough dough forms, add in butter and knead until windowpane stage.
9. Proof at room temperature until double in size.
10. Roll out dough to 31 x 22 cm.
11. Place chocolate sheet in the middle and fold the dough over the chocolate sheet. Seal all sides well.
12. Turn the dough 90 degrees. Roll the dough to 60 x 22 cm.
13. Fold the dough into 4 folds. This means to fold both ends inwards, towards the center, leaving a small gap. Then fold either side over 1 more time, creating a 4 layer fold.
14. For mini wassant, roll the dough to 48 x 22 cm. Cut the dough lengthwise at the 11 cm mark. Mark out 4 cm for the base of each mini wassant and cut into triangles.
15. Make about an inch cut at the base before rolling up. Lightly stretch the tip of the dough as you roll up. Place on parchment paper lined baking tray with the tip tucked below.
16. Proof for 50 minutes.
17. Preheat oven to 175 C.
18. Coat each wassant lightly with egg wash. Bake for 10 minutes.

Regarding the dough, I used normal bread flour from Prima and that was not strong enough to make the 85% hydration dough. I added another 50 grams bread flour before the dough was usable.

The chocolate wassant was not sweet enough, since I used 70% dark chocolate. The bread was soft on the first day and slightly harder on the next day. Overall, it was acceptable. My rolling and cutting still sucks. 😛