Chocolate Raspberry Puff Squares

 

Ok.  Yes.  Yes yes yes.  Essentially three ingredients, lightning fast, and you are all in for elegance at its finest with a lovely indulgence:  Chocolate Raspberry Puff Squares.

Essentially too, everything here is store-bought; you merely assemble.  Easy easy easy easy. 

And no one will know you barely lifted a finger.

This is along the lines of those Dulce de Leche Puff Pastry Cookies and we all know how crazy easy that recipe is.

It's also really not too far away from a pain au chocolat, if I may be so bold, if you dropped out the raspberry which you absolutely can do since the raspberry was my addition. 

Obviously it is not pain au chocolat but if you shut your eyes, take a bite, you'll be mildly hard-pressed to decipher.

As such, the extended title to this Chocolate Raspberry Puff Squares recipe is now Cheater's Pain au Chocolat, with raspberry jam.

When I bumbled across this recipe, it went right to the top of my To Bake list and the reasons should be pretty obvious.  Chocolate.  Raspberry.  Puff Pastry.

Back when I was that teenager scooping ice cream at the ol' Ben & Jerry's scoop shop, they had a Chocolate Raspberry Swirl ice cream. 

It was my mom's favorite.  Understandably so.  Chocolate and raspberry are meant for each other, like yin and yang.  Like a Becky and Mike.  awwww, haha that was gratuitous and awkward.

Luscious, rich chocolate ice cream with a swirl of raspberry?  Yeah baby.

My only issue with it were the raspberry seeds.  I am just not a seed-in-my-jam kinda' girl, what can I say.

Ok, let's discuss our ingredients for a moment.

Now, I had hunks of leftover homemade puff pastry in my freezer which was part of my purpose in throwing this recipe to the top of that To Bake list, wanting to use it before it gets freezer burnt.  And to make room for more.

It worked well, very well, very very, and it was delicious so if you're feeling extra, go ahead and make your own puff pastry dough ahead of time.  I swear it is not as complicated and terrifying as you might imagine.  I swear!  Truly.

If you're pressed for time or not feeling extra, absolutely no worries because your local grocer surely has some in their freezer case.  Sometimes too you can find the all-butter kind at Trader Joe's.

Here's the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry.

To be completely honest, I did buy some from TJ's last year and I was not wow'ed.  To me, it had a weird, off, metallic aftertaste that I can't explain.  But!  To each their own.  Use whatever puff pastry you like.

Onto the chocolate.  Use a chocolate that you love to eat.  Do dark, IMO.  It balances the pastry.

I happened to run into some Hershey's milk and special dark on sale so I used that to test this recipe.  Both were actually *mwah.* 

I want you to use whatever chocolate makes you happy though.  If you want to use chips, try some chips.  White chocolate would work too (look for the kind that's actual white chocolate).  Use squares that have some tastiness in them.  Be happy.

Various chocolates here including Ghirardelli squares with raspberry.

The raspberry portion of this Chocolate Raspberry Puff Squares, as I mentioned, was my addition.  This recipe is sublimely perfect without it.  Or use another type of jam you like.  Mike suggests cherry.  Several times now in fact, haha!

I did strain the seeds with a fine mesh strainer* of course.  Bleeh, seeds.

This recipe is clearly going to be more of a guide than exact, there's flexibility here, but I'm going to set you up for success and clarity as the original recipe left me with a slew of questions despite its simplicity.

Time to roll!  Ah ha, roll, pun.

Defrost your puff pastry or use your freshly made, either way, and lightly dust your work surface.

Roll* out one sheet of that pastry out a bit to oh, about 12x14 or so.

Break up or slice up your chocolate into smaller squares, or if you're going with the flavored squares, leave them be.

Lay the chocolate on there leaving a space of generally an inch or so between each.

If you're going with raspberry jam, any jam, dollop little blobs on top of the chocolate and give it a slight spread about.

Roll that next sheet of puff pastry only slightly larger than the first sheet and lay it across the top.  Now, you can egg wash between each pile of chocolate to ensure a nice seal and cut down on melting chocolate leaking or you can rest the sheet on there.

Here I egg washed half and left the other half unwashed.

Next, slice between each with a very sharp knife* or a pizza cutter,* spread out some parchment* on a baking sheet,* place those squares of heaven on there, and pop the whole sheet in the fridge.  Or the freezer, I like the freezer.

At this point, you can also freeze the tray of goodies and toss the frozen ones in a bag to portion out as you wish.  You can bake straight from frozen too, adding a few extra minutes of bake time as necessary.

A little egg wash,* definitely sprinkle some demerara* or sugar in the raw* on top, and bake!

Oh man.  Oh man.  I am telling you.  So close to pain au chocolat (if you go sans raspberry) these little Chocolate Raspberry Puff Squares, so glorious, goodness.

For reference:  top left two, chocolate with jam and sealed; top right two, Ghirardelli squares and sealed, some leak; bottom left, just chocolate and unsealed; second from left, with jam and unsealed; bottom right, chocolate and unsealed; second from right, Ghirardelli, unsealed, and leaks.

If you happened to not eat them all in one go, good luck, it'll be a challenge, you can toss these in the toaster oven for a little crisp-up reheat.  Still just as tasty.

 Yum.  Chocolate Raspberry Puff Squares.  Yum and swoon.

Happy baking my friends!

*The fine mesh strainers, rolling pins, sharp knives, pizza cutters, parchment, baking sheets, pastry brushes, demerara, and sugar in the raw are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.