Like their carb cousins the brioche and Danish pastry, croissants belong to a family of baked goods collectively referred to as viennoiseries, baked goods made with yeast-leavened, laminated dough that’s enriched with eggs, butter, or milk. They first arrived in France by way of Austria in the late 1800’s, and are now ubiquitous in French bakery culture, their glossy, flaky crust and tender crumb a mainstay of breakfast and snacktime. While flavor variations run the gamut from sweet to savory, the pain au chocolat, or chocolate croissant, is the preferred variation of many a pastry connoisseur—this is just one of the many reasons why Trader Joe’s Chocolate Croissants have become a mainstay of our frozen cases. Made with creamy butter and filled with rich, semisweet Belgian chocolate, Trader Joe’s Chocolate Croissants bring high-end bakery quality to your home kitchen with minimal effort. Remove them from the package and let them proof overnight (just as a French bakery would); in the morning you’ll find the Croissants have nearly tripled in size! Brush with an egg wash, then bake 20-25 minutes until the Croissants are a deep golden brown. Let them rest for 10 minutes (distract yourself by brewing a pot of coffee), and then prepare to delight in the gooey melted Chocolate and warm, flaky Croissant dough. Yummmmm. Each 12-ounce box contains four ready-to-proof-and-bake Chocolate Croissants, so you can bake a bunch for brunch, or savor them one by one as a weekday breakfast or snack.