At the start of the new school year, pains au chocolat are top of the class

• Cheval Blanc, Maxime Frédéric and head baker Pierre-Emmanuel Vargas, Paris

A palatial pain au chocolat made with a blend of pure T45 wheat flour and traditional flour for the sourdough-fermented croissant dough. The distinctive taste is also achieved by using panela sugar and depleted vanilla beans mixed with rhododendron honey. "We make a second piece of dough, colored with cocoa powder, which we cut with a ham slicer before rolling the pain au chocolat in this thin sheet of dough for texture, taste and visual appeal. We also make our own chocolate bars with Nicolas Berger's pure Peruvian dark chocolate."You'll be seduced by this little jewel, crisp, perfectly honeycombed and ultra-melting, enhanced by exceptional chocolate.

8, quai du Louvre, 75001 Paris

www.chev alblanc.com

• Maison Bourdillat, Romain Bourdillat, in Chamonix

Following the Maison Bourdillat croissants voted "best croissant in Haute-Savoie 2021" in a competition organized by the Fédération des artisans boulangers et boulangers-pâtissiers des pays de Savoie, 19-year-old baker Romain Bourdillat is now launching gourmet pains au chocolat made in small cake moulds. "I wanted a pain au chocolat that was out of the ordinary. I make a croissant dough with Montaigu PDO butter, into which I slip a dark chocolate bar and a praline bar. I place it in a mold, then cover it with croissant dough made with two double turns for a beautiful visual when it comes out of the oven."You'll be surprised by this ultra-crisp, competition-quality chocolate croissant.

424, rue Joseph-Vallot, 74400 Chamonix

www.mais onbourdillat.com

• Les Copains d'Abord, Mickaël Chesnouard, in Trélazé

Meilleur ouvrier de France boulanger, Mickaël Chesnouard opens his bakery in March 2020. His goal is to create a croissant dough made with the finest wheat: a strong T45 flour from reasoned and controlled cultivation, with no additives or improvers. "The choice of flour is very important: it holds the dough together, retains fat and plays a role in fermentation. As forwhole milk, it adds length in the mouth, helping the butter's aromas to diffuse."We love this lightly crisp, melt-in-the-mouth chocolate bread.

12, rue des Perreyeux, 49800 Trélazé

• Boulangerie Lagrue, Sébastien Lagrue, Argelès-Gazost

A third-generation pastry chef and baker, Sébastien Lagrue's pain au chocolat was named the world's best pain au chocolat in 2019! To make it, he uses a blend of T45 Label rouge and T55 flour, Lescure PDO butter for its nutty buttery taste, and the baker's know-how. "In baking, I like to say that we essentially work with three senses: hearing, smell and taste. After that, it's a question of the feeling between the dough and the person working on it; you have to feel it evolve. To make a good pain au chocolat, you have to find the right balance between strong flour and a softer flour to combine crispness and melt-in-the-mouth texture, and not have an elastic dough after baking."We love this 25-sheet pain au chocolat that's as tasty as it is beautiful!

2, place du Foirail, 65400 Argelès-Gazost

www.boul angerie-lagrue.com

• Pierre Hermé, in Paris

As emblematic as his "Ispahan" croissant, the pistachio pain au chocolat is an invitation to other delicacies. "I particularly like this combination. I had the idea of applying it to the pain au chocolat based on the "Ispahan" croissant. The almond paste adds a very soft texture to the whole. The slight bitterness of the almond enhances the subtle flavours of the pistachio. Thestrength of the chocolate, meanwhile, leaves a very chocolaty note on the finish."Impossible not to succumb to this exceptional pain au chocolat imagined by the world's best pastry chef.

72, rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris

www.pier reherme.com

• Boulangerie Michalak, Paris

Christophe Michalak imagines the pain au chocolat of his dreams. A very crispy dough and, above all, 40 g of homemade chocolate! "What I love about pain au chocolat is the chocolate, but there's often too little of it for my taste. So I came up with a homemade chocolate blend with 80% dark chocolate and 20% milk chocolate. We then make small 40 g bars. As for the dough, it's made over three days and folded so that you can see the leaves on one side, then covered with cocoa nibs to add texture. My pleasure is to dip it in hot chocolate for even more indulgence."An interpretation that makes us fall in love with the taste as much as the visual. A "Chok' bread" in the wind!

60, rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, 75010 Paris

www.boul angerie-michalak.com

• Maison Lenôtre, Paris

At Lenôtre, the watchword for pains au chocolat is generosity. Golden and perfectly honeycombed, the pain au chocolat is ultra-melting. We love its delicate buttery taste and rich chocolate content, which is more melting than crunchy. A totally regressive example. The icing on the cake: the new Lenôtre school in Rungis and its chef trainer Gauthier Denis offer two- or three-day workshops to perfect your knowledge of pain au chocolat and viennoiseries in general. Get your hands dirty!

44, rue d'Auteuil, 75016 Paris

www.leno tre.com

• Du Pain et des Idées, Christophe Vasseur, in Paris

An absolute must, these chocolatines leave no one indifferent. Flour, eggs, chocolate and milk are organic, the butter comes from the Échiré dairy, and the manufacturing process lasts thirty hours, because taking your time is crucial to the aromatic development of this exceptional chocolatine. "We leave our flaky brioche dough to ferment in a cool place for 24 hours, then take 10 hours to turn. This time is necessary for all the aromas to develop. Baking then takes place in a stone oven."We'd love to discover this artisanal chocolatine -"because the name is pretty" - made according to the rules of the art. We also discover the choco-banana version, very crunchy on top and melt-in-the-mouth in the middle, which visiting gourmets snatch up early in the morning.

34, rue Yves-Toudic, 75010 Paris

www.dupa inetdesidees.com

• Atelier P1, Julien Cantenot in Paris

In full view of the customers, the bakers knead, the touriers shape, letting the tantalizing smells of warm bread waft into the street. Batch after batch of bread is baked throughout the day, guaranteeing the freshness of each creation. "I use a special oatmeal flour for pastry-making and a traditional flour for an airy texture after baking; I replace white sugar with rapadura, which enhances the taste of butter. To garnish the chocolate bread, I use two large bars of organic dark chocolate, each weighing 8g. After kneading, the dough is left to rest overnight, before being turned and baked the following day," confides tourière Nazila Farhi. In the pain au chocolat family, you can try the classic version, often still warm, and be seduced by the choco-raspberry version, full of pep, or the praline version, ultra-gourmand.

157, rue Marcadet, 75018 Paris

www.atel ierp1.fr

• Pâtisserie Colbert, Frédéric Comyn, Sceaux

A croissant crowned best croissant in the city of Paris and a pain au chocolat in the same vein. "I like my dough to be lightly aerated to retain the taste of butter, with a melt-in-the-mouth texture. The dough is kneaded the day before, then left to chill overnight to allow the milk aromas to develop. The next day, I add the butter, then put it in a mould at 24°C for about 1h30. I chill it again to 4°C before baking, so that the butter sets and stays in the dough."We give in to the call of this chocolate bun, very rich in chocolate - almost 18 g! The patissier is also working on the development of even more melt-in-the-mouth homemade chocolate bars, something to keep an eye on...

49, rue Houdan, 92330 Sceaux, France

www.pati sseriecolbert.fr