Croissants are supposed to be light, flaky, and sophisticated, right? Well, Trader Joe’s took that memo, dunked it in chocolate, and set it on fire—in a good way. Enter the Double Chocolate Croissants, a pastry so unapologetically over-the-top it might as well come with a dentist’s number on the box. These aren’t your Parisian boulangerie vibes; these are croissants on a chocolate bender, and frankly, I’m here for the chaos. Let the fun begin!
I’m a little late to the party with this review. These hit the freezer section a couple of months ago and I bought them when they came out but you know about these Trader Joe’s croissants, you have to plan about 12 hours ahead of time to let them rise before you bake them. So, that didn’t happen for a while until I had time on a free weekend to think ahead and plan. I know, I know…
Every time I thought about them, it was the wrong time of the day or we were doing something that morning, or whatever there are a million excuses. This is the only bad thing about this product, it takes some forethought. But it’s well worth the wait…
Trader Joe’s released the regular self-rising chocolate croissants several years ago and they have been a constant hit for all that time. What’s not to love about them? (Unfortunately, I haven’t done a review of the regular ones, but rest assured they are excellent). The chocolate croissants only have a small piece of chocolate in the middle and the croissant dough is just the regular butter dough that most people consider normal croissant dough.
But in the Trader Joe’s Double Chocolate Croissants, they went one better and dialed it up to 11 on the chocolate scale and incorporated chocolate into the actual dough so there is chocolate dough and a piece of chocolate in the middle of the dough! Holy cow that’s a lot of chocolate! Trader Joe’s actually has a couple of croissant products.
They have had mini crescent dinner rolls in the egg section (which are probably made by Pillsbury) and sometimes they have croissants in the bakery section. But nothing stands up to these authentic croissants that you let rise on your counter and bake yourself. If you’ve ever had a warm croissant fresh from the oven, there is no comparison.
How to make Trader Joe’s Double Chocolate Croissants
This requires some planning because you need to let them rise overnight (or at least 8-12 hours). This is something you can’t rush.
The first thing you want to do is keep them frozen until you are ready to start. This is crucial.
When you are ready to start the process. You’ll need a baking sheet and some parchment paper or silpat to put under the frozen croissants.
Put the frozen croissants an equal distance apart, like four or five inches from each other and the sides of the baking sheet. They will rise quite a bit, it will be surprising to see.
Put it on the counter and wait overnight or if your kitchen is really cold, put them in an oven with the oven light on
They should triple in size overnight. If they haven’t done that, it’s probably too cold or your croissants are too old. Usually putting them in a warmer location for a couple of hours does the trick.
Warm up your oven to 350 degrees right before you want to bake them.
When the oven is ready, just pop them in for 25 minutes or until they are slightly crispy to the touch.
Take them out of the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes then Enjoy!
Taste and Texture
The first thing you notice when you pick up the croissants is how light they are.
The smell is absolutely wonderful when you are baking these. The chocolate smell permeated the kitchen. The kids were drooling over them waiting to come out of the oven.
I don’t normally do this except for reviewing products. I cut the croissant with a knife in half to show the interior so you can see how light and bubbly it is on the inside.
When you bite into one, the exterior is a crispy crunchy shell and the inside is soft and pillowy with a little bit of firmness where the chocolate is but it is melted quite nicely.
When you taste them, I think most of you are expecting them to be sweet but they aren’t really. Sure, there is some sweetness from the chocolate but unless you put powdered sugar on them like they suggested, they are just mildly sweet which I really like. There are 11 grams of sugar per croissant so there is sugar but it’s not overwhelming.
There is quite a bit of chocolate flavor here in both the dough and the two small bars of dark chocolate they insert into each croissant. It simply melts in your mouth. Just absolute perfection.
Final Verdict on Trader Joe’s Double Chocolate Croissants
First, these are $5.49 a box and 340 calories per croissant. 340 calories is a lot but we aren’t calorie counting here!
You know, I had to pull the trigger eventually. I have had many people ask me if I have ever given a perfect 10 Bells to a Trader Joe’s product and I am finally going to do it. If I was a bakery I would be very scared of these croissants taking away my business. They are that good. For the first time ever I am giving Trader Joe’s Double Chocolate Croissants a perfect score of 10 BELLS!
Buy them while you can, they might be seasonal! And they are Kosher.
Ingredients
UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID [DOUGH CONDITIONER], ENZYME), BUTTER (PASTEURIZED CREAM [MILK], NATURAL FLAVOR), WATER, SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE (SUGAR, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE, COCOA BUTTER, SOY LECITHIN [EMULSIFIER], VANILLA EXTRACT [WATER, ETHYL ALCOHOL, VANILLA BEAN EXTRACTIVES]), SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF COCOA POWDER PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, YEAST, DOUGH CONDITIONER (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED WHEAT FLOUR, ASCORBIC ACID, ENZYMES), SALT, WHEAT GLUTEN.
Thanks for this review. I think these are the best croissants that Trader Joe’s has ever made. So Chocolaty!
I agree these are the best thing at Trader Joe’s right now.