chocolate croissants

Fact: I'm just a simple person who likes simple recipes that don't require elaborate techniques and use too many ingredients.

Ergo: I really L-O-V-E Nigella's show, Nigella Express (If I haven't made that so obvious already!). Her recipes from this show are yummy, easy to recreate and so unexpectedly creative!

I was intrigued by her mini chocolate croissants. You can have them for a quick breakfast in the morning or a snack in the afternoon, I did the latter.

But, the first time I made it, it was so burnt to the point of being inedible! Gah!! Please adjust your oven temperature to suit. I trusted Nigella's instruction to my own peril.

(PS: I think youtube might have a video of this episode, go check it out)

Tips & tricks:

1. Put the croissants in the middle/lower rack of your oven. I made the mistake of putting them on the oven's top rack, right below the heating element. By the time I realised my mistake, the croissants were burnt to crisps. I had to chip away the charred surface to eat them, though they were still good considering. Puff pastries are delicate creatures, do treat them with care.
2. As puff pastries are delicate, do work with them on a cool surface or you might melt the butter and the croissant layering effect might be ruined. Put a baking pan in the freezer. And when they are cool enough, you can lay the pastries on top of the pan as you are cutting them into triangles.

Chocolate Croissants

by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

• 1 of 375g packet ready-rolled butter puff pastry
• 1 of 100g dark chocolate bar (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Unfurl the sheet of pastry and then cut it into six squares.
2. Cut each square diagonally to give 2 triangles (they will appear quite small). Put the triangle with the wider part facing you, and the point away from you.
3. Break off small pieces of chocolate (approx. 1cm) to place on the pastry triangles, about 2cm up from the wide end nearest you.
4. Then carefully roll from that chocolate-loaded end towards the point of the triangle.
5. You should now have something resembling a straight croissant. Seal it slightly with your fingertips and curl it around into a crescent.
6. Place the 12 chocolate croissants on a lined but not buttered baking tray and paint with the beaten egg. Bake for 15 minutes until they are golden and puffy and exuberantly, if miniaturely, croissant-like.