Everybody loves a delicious pain au chocolat (or two) for breakfast. These delightful pastry treats are the perfect start to the day. They are even better if you make them at home! But, is there a way to store them en masse?
Can You Freeze Pain Au Chocolat?
Yes, you can freeze pain au chocolat for up to 4 months. You need to freeze them after making the dough and shaping them. Do not try and freeze the pain au chocolat once they have been baked.
Do Do Pain Au Chocolat freeze well? Sometimes
Can you refreeze Pain Au Chocolat? No
How to Freeze Pain Au Chocolat
Freezing pain au chocolat is not straightforward. Unfortunately, you cannot grab a packet at the supermarket and freeze them. They do not freeze well.
Instead, the only approach to take is to bake them at home yourself so you can freeze them at the proving stage:
- Make Pain Au Chocolat: The hardest part of freezing your pain au chocolat is making them in the first place! It’s a tricky process, so grab your favourite recipe and take your time. Follow the recipe up to the point it suggests you either prove or rise.
- Spread Onto a Baking Tray: When you get to the point where you have made the dough and shaped the pain au chocolat you need to pop them onto a baking tray. Make sure the pain au chocolat are all individual and none are touching.
- Freeze: Put the baking tray into the freezer for about an hour.
- Wrap: Once the pain au chocolat pastries are solid, take them out of the freezer. And wrap each one individually in cling film. Add a second layer of cling film for extra protection.
- Bag Up: Pop the wrapped pain au chocolat into a freezer bag.
- Final Freeze: Seal the bag, label it with the date and contents, and then put the pain au chocolat pastries into the freezer.
2 Tips for Freezing Pain Au Chocolat
Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 2 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing pain au chocolat to have the best results:
Wrap Well
You do need to ensure that your pain au chocolat are wrapped well. This is the secret to keeping them tasting as delicious as possible. As well as double wrapping each one individually in cling film you can always add a layer of tin foil too. This adds a little extra insulation and ensures the pain au chocolat are kept airtight.
Be Gentle
When keeping your pain au chocolat in the freezer be careful that they don’t get too damaged and bashed about. The pastry is delicate, even when frozen and you don’t want squashed and broken pain au chocolat.
How Long Can You Freeze Pain Au Chocolat?
Pain au chocolat should keep well in the freezer for up to 4 months.
After this, you may find that the taste can change and the pastries deteriorate a little. It shouldn’t be too hard to eat them within 4 months! It might be harder to try and avoid eating them daily!
When wrapped in cling film, pain au chocolat can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week before they begin to dry out and deteriorate.
How Do You Defrost Pain Au Chocolat?
Thawing and baking your pain au chocolat is easy to do. You just need to pull out the number of pain au chocolat you want from the freezer, unwrap them and put them onto a prepared baking tray with parchment paper.
Keep the pain au chocolat a few inches apart and pop them onto the kitchen side. Cover with a tea towel and leave for about two hours.
After this, they should defrost, rise, and be ready to bake as you usually would.
Can You Refreeze Pain Au Chocolat?
Unfortunately, once your pain au chocolat have been defrosted they will have changed.
You will either have baked them or the pastries will have risen and they are not suitable for freezing in either of these states. It can ruin your pain au chocolat.
Your cooked and cooled pain au chocolat can technically be frozen but it changes the texture and taste considerably and will ruin the delicate flakey pastry.
Do Pain Au Chocolat Freeze Well?
If you are trying to freeze baked pain au chocolat leftovers, then unfortunately, you are in for a disappointment. Pain au chocolat like this does not freeze well at all.
However, homemade pain au chocolat that has not been allowed to rise or bake can be frozen and they freeze very well.
Any changes to the texture won’t be noticed by the time you have baked them and they will taste just as delicious as freshly made and baked pain au chocolate.
So make up a batch of tasty treats and pop them in the freezer for whenever you need a delicious breakfast treat.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing pain au chocolat or croissants in general, then these may help:
Jus Rol packets of ready-to-go pain au chocolat dough tend to have a reasonable date, so we advise keeping them in the fridge until you need to use them. Once baked, they will not freeze well.
Like most pastries, pain aux raisin can be frozen for 3 months or so, but they will freeze best unbaked.
