Treat the special women in your family to a beautiful breakfast in bed! These Easy Pain au Chocolat are simple to make using sheets of puff pastry and chocolate bars. Make them look pretty using food coloring and foam stamps.
Most families use a ping pong table just to play, well, ping pong. Not ours. My mom is an artist, so we spent more time creating crafts, drawing pictures, and painting canvases at our table than actually paddling a little ball back and forth.
So, it's not surprising that I enjoy making crafty food, especially for Mother's Day. This year, I decided to make homemade breakfast pastries and I wanted them to look pretty so I stamped a food coloring design on top.
I thought this was a perfect project for young kids. It's so easy! You just fill puff pastry sheets with chocolate bars and use some rubber stamps and food coloring to add your design.
Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed - Make Easy Pain au Chocolat
Ingredients
Makes 3 pastries
1 sheet Pepperidge Farm puff pastry
(boxes come with 2 sheets, either freeze the other sheet or make 6 pastries)
3 bars of chocolate (1-2 ounce size)
food coloring (the grocery store variety - primary colors and neon)
egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon water)
Supplies
foam stamps (available at craft stores - be sure to wash stamps in hot soapy water before using)
small paint brushes (use new or food-only brushes)
pizza cutter or knife and a fork
non-stick aluminum foil-lined baking sheet
pastry brush
Instructions
Thaw the puff pastry sheet according to package instructions. Unfold the thawed sheet. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the sheet into 6 rectangles.
Squeeze small amounts of food coloring into individual bowls (or use a paper plate.)
Gather your paintbrushes and stamps.
Stamp the puff pastry.
Paint food coloring directly onto the raised part of the foam stamp. Try not to over-saturate the stamp with the food coloring. If you do, blot it dry with a paper towel. You can use several different colors to create your designs.
Once the entire stamp is painted, place it upside down onto a cut piece of puff pastry.
Very gently press the stamp into the dough. If you press too hard, the food coloring will smear.
Remove the stamp and you should have a nicely printed image on your pastry.
Continue to paint your stamps and press them onto the pastry, using several or just one stamp to make all three pastries.
Just a note: Once baked, anything that has been painted yellow will be very faint.
My first butterfly, as shown above, is painted yellow with some orange spots. It looked O.K. once baked, but not good enough to take a nice photo, so I made another butterfly and painted it orange (yellow mixed with a bit of red) and added some red spots.
So just be aware that all of the colors showed up beautifully except the yellow.
Fill the puff pastry with chocolate bars.
I would recommend that you place the three plain pieces of pastry onto a non-stick foil-lined baking pan before proceeding.
Place one candy bar on each of the plain pieces of pastry, leaving at least ¼" all around the edge of the bar. You may have to break the candy bar in order to get it to fit. I used homemade bars and had to break off ¼th of each bar.
Use a pastry brush to brush egg wash onto the exposed dough all around the candy bar. Top each with a decorated piece of pastry.
Press the edges to seal. Use a fork to press the edges of the pastry together and to give each pastry a nice fluted edge.
Refrigerate the pastries for at least 30 minutes. When you put the pastries in the refrigerator, heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bake the pastries.
Bake chilled pastries for 17-20 minutes, turning the pan 180 degrees halfway through the baking cycle, until the pastries turn a deep golden brown.
In France, the pastries would be baked until dark brown, but the painted images won't be as vibrant if the pastry gets too browned. You just want to be sure the pastries are baked all the way through.
These pastries are best served warm so that you can enjoy a nicely melted chocolate center. They don't keep well more than one day, but who could possibly keep them around any longer than that anyway?
Related Recipes
You might also like these other festive breakfast pastry recipes.
Recipe
Delicious and pretty chocolate-filled puff pastry are stamped with food coloring with pretty designs for Mother's Day.
- 1 sheet Pepperidge Farm puff pastry
- 3 bars of chocolate (1-2 ounce size)
- liquid food coloring
- egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon water)
-
Thaw the puff pastry sheet according to package instructions. Unfold the thawed sheet. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the sheet into 6 rectangles.
-
Squeeze small amounts of food coloring into individual bowls (or use a paper plate.)
-
Paint food coloring directly onto the raised part of the foam stamp. Blot with paper towel if too wet.
-
Stamp 3 of the pastry rectangles using the painted foam stamps.
-
Place one candy bar on each of the plain pieces of pastry, leaving at least ¼" all around the edge of the bar.
-
Use a pastry brush to brush egg wash onto the exposed dough all around the candy bar.
-
Top each with a decorated piece of pastry.
-
Press the edges to seal. Use a fork to press the edges of the pastry together and to give each pastry a nice fluted edge.
-
Refrigerate the pastries for at least 30 minutes. When you put the pastries in the refrigerator, heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
Bake the chilled pastries for 17-20 minutes, turning the pan 180 degrees halfway through the baking cycle, until the pastries turn a deep golden brown.
-
Serve and enjoy.
These pastries are best eaten the day they are made.
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nell says
So cute! I'm going to have to try this. Thanks =D
Jenn Erickson says
So beautiful and delicious! Another bit of creative yummery! So glad I found you!
Lorie says
Beautiful and delicious! I am your newest follower and quickly becoming your biggest fan!
Lorie says
Beautiful and delicious! I am your newest follower and quickly becoming your biggest fan!!
DieselMonkey says
I love making "pop tarts" for my family with interesting insides. I've used colored sugar to decorate. I'll have to try stamping with little foam letters. Ultimate personalization!