pain au chocolate cravings

[cnspriggs]

Who is making the best pain au chocolate these days? I'm not a great fan of the ones with sugar sprinkled on the top but any suggestions are welcome.

Cheers!

[Nondoctor]

I connsumed TWO from Harbord Street Bakery this morning and they were exceptional.

Not exactly light... but damn tasty with a nice cup of tea.

BTW... this was a treat

[rgruby]

Clafouti on Queen W. - but then it's just around the corner.

I've heard people claim their croissants and pain au chocolate are as good as in Paris. I don't happen to share that opinion. But, I understand the place is run by expat Parisians, so there you go. (I also don't want to imply their stuff isn't good - it is - I'm just not sure it's up to par with the best I've eaten in Paris).

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[Jake]

I've been told Celestin's are good, but I haven't partaken...

[KevV]

Another vote for Clafouti. I'm not a 'pastry man' myself, but my wife thinks they're good.

Only problem with Clafouti, with the large condo crowd nearby, they seem to sell out of things fast.

[jmcnally]

I can vouch for Celestin's. Very very good. But not as good as the ones in Paris!

[Gul_Dekar]

Since I just finished my finals, I decided to treat myself and went to Pusateri's to buy the different croissants they sell there and have a taste test. Below are the croissants from Patachou, Rahier and Thuet Cuisine:

(Webcam pic, colour's not supposed to be so dark)

The cresent shaped ones are from Thuet and Patachou, with the Thuet one being the bigger (but also quite a bit pricier) and the other one's from Rahier which was priced in between P & T's.

Also got a Pain au Chocolat from Thuet as well which I ate on the way walking back. I didn't get the Clafouti ones because they seemed a bit limp. Maybe would be best to buy them fresh from the store itself? I'll probably go check it out a bit later. Didn't see any from Celestin (at least for the croissants).

Anyway, based solely on personal preference, I liked the Rahier croissant best because it was more crispy and the inside was REALLY REALLY soft, light and fluffy. The exterior was more caramelized too, which I enjoyed. The Thuet one was really good as well and flavour-wise I would put it on par with Rahier's. It's just that the inside was a bit chewier, exterior was slightly less flaky. The one from patachou was an outright 3rd because neither texture nor flavour could compare with the previous two. You could clearly taste the margarine.

edit to add: oops, this is a pain au chocolat thread...but I guess it's ok to put croissant stuff here too right?

Edited December 9, 2005 by Gul_Dekar (log)

[Explorer]

Forget about comparing to Paris- that won't happen: the butter isn't the same as there, so you will never be able to find the same as there. Butter in France is more fatty than here, and the few more % make a big difference, plus the way it's processed here (by most) takes away any remaining flavors.

Having said that, my favorites are both Celestin and Clafouti- ditto for their croissants.

[cnspriggs]

Forget about comparing to Paris- that won't happen: the butter isn't the same as there, so you will never be able to find the same as there. Butter in France is more fatty than here, and the few more % make a big difference, plus the way it's processed here (by most) takes away any remaining flavors.

Having said that, my favorites are both Celestin and Clafouti- ditto for their croissants.

←

My understanding is that there is butter made in Quebec (and they could always import French butter no?) with a higher % so really if they wanted to make top notch croissants it is possible isn't it?

[Explorer]

I believe it has to do with the pasteurization techniques which are more stringent here and take some of the flavors out.

Even imports have "some" restrictions; it would be very expensive to import butter to make croissants! Look at the price of imported French cheese.

Dunno much about Quebec, but I think it's a tad more fatty than here, but not quite like in Europe, but I am not sure. We should ask Lesley in Montreal forum!

[2010]

I used to work for Francois at Rahier (I made the dough for his croissants etc..) and I can tell you that his viennoisserie is outstanding. There is a reason that people line up outside his shop on a Sat to get their fix.

I'm currently live in England and I buy French butter on a regular basis (which is oh so cheap here, lucky me). I'm looking at a 250g container of President butter and it is 82% fat. I can honestly say that yes, the butter is different here. When I go home to Vancouver, I usually bring French butter home to give away to family because I know it's expensive to buy there, if you can find it at all.

From what I can remember, Francois used butter fom New Zealand in his croissant dough and chocolate batons from Barry/Callebeaut inside his pain au chocolat. Oh, I could almost taste them now.

[creativeingredients]

2010:

Did that butter contain sugar? Due to the high cost of milk products in Canada, many ice cream producers import butter oil/sugar blends to replace cream and bring their cost of goods down.

As an aside, if a higher fat content butter is preferable in croissant making, I wonder if this would work. Melt the butter, remove some of the protein solids that rise to the top, pour the melted butter into little moulds about the size of butter pats, refrigerate or freeze and use as needed. Sort of a modified ghee. For that matter I wonder how ghee would work. Again it would bring the cost of goods up because 20% by weight would be lost. Maybe less could be used. Or maybe the flavour just wouldn't be as good. Just thinking out loud here.

[Csaville]

Rahier.................. when we can get it.

[2010]

2010:

Did that butter contain sugar?  Due to the high cost of milk products in Canada, many ice cream producers import butter oil/sugar blends to replace cream and bring their cost of goods down. 

As an aside, if a higher fat content butter is preferable in croissant making, I wonder if this would work.  Melt the butter, remove some of the protein solids that rise to the top, pour the melted butter into little moulds about the size of butter pats, refrigerate or freeze and use as needed.  Sort of a modified ghee.  For that matter I wonder how ghee would work.  Again it would bring the cost of goods up because 20% by weight would be lost.  Maybe less could be used.  Or maybe the flavour just wouldn't be as good.  Just thinking out loud here.

←

I'm sure the butter (from New Zealand) was made purely from cream with no other additives. I've never heard of this butter oil/sugar blend replacing real butter. I mean, can you call that "butter"? Yuck.

As far as I know, you can't use solidified melted butter in place of solid butter to make croissant dough. Once butter is melted, you change it's state and it cannot be used as a substitute, in this case.

Edited January 3, 2006 by 2010 (log)