I do most of my grocery shopping online (the “big” shop), so I don’t even remember how I found them, but JUS-ROL have started making pain au chocolat in a can*.  They give you the pastry and the mini chocolate sticks and you take all the glory of hot pastries, straight from the oven.

This was the second time I’ve made them (and I made two batches at once as we had some friends round).

I’ve never seen anything quite like it – the pastry starts bursting from the can as soon as you start pulling the tab, and it’s pre-perforated, so you don’t even need to cut it.  You just tear along the dotted line and pop it on a baking tray.  You then place the mini chocolate sticks at either end of the rectangle of pastry and roll in (it tells you all this on the box, obviously).

Twelve minutes in the oven, and golden, hot pastry is ready to impress your guests on a Saturday morning.  In my opinion, you could tell by the taste they’re not quite homemade, but they’re as close as you’ll get in about 15 minutes all in.  They really are easy, and look pretty impressive.

Here are the steps in the process…

*Ive been reliably informed that this is not a new thing, they’ve been going for 30 years or more. Clearly, this has escaped me!