LONDON'S BEST PAIN AU CHOC

You know you’re doing the right job when a legitimate day of work consists of cycling around London to buy, taste and rate a selection of pain au chocolat. Last week I got to do just that. I get asked all the time for bakery recommendations and where I think the best croissant can be found and I have always had my favourites, but my cousin Jake and I decided to settle it once and for all.

Now you might ask, why did we choose the pain au chocolat, why not a plain croissant? And to that, my answer would be, I never buy a plain croissant, except on the very rare occasions when I am taking it home to make it into a sandwich. We went with the pain au choc because it’s the pastry I most often buy, it has more to debate, with the addition of chocolate, and frankly because I feel it’s just more delicious.

I have only ever attempted to make my own croissant dough once, I was seventeen, studying for my A levels and operating at a level of procrastination far higher than I have achieved since. I slavishly hand laminated my dough, achieving a few layers, but shoddy ones at that. I’ve since worked in bakeries that churn out perfect croissants daily and watched the pastry chefs in awe, deftly using a roller machine to achieve the perfectly equal layers of dough and butter, a skill that requires practice and patience. There are many factors that play into the final result of a croissant: the flour used, percentage of salt, quantity of yeast, fat content of the butter, the weather (!), the equipment and of course, the experience and knowledge of the baker. The range of colour, sized and texture of the six pastries we bought, really illustrated just how many factors can affect the finished result of the same pastry.

Given that we only had a morning to procure and taste all the pastries, we chose to tackle seven bakeries. One of them (Jolene) had already sold out of PAC by the time we got there, so we ended up tasting just six. We also only had time and Lime Bike minutes to explore the local area, so we went to North and East London bakeries only. I’m vividly aware there are many more incredible options further afield, but they will have to wait for another day.

The categories

We thought long and hard about this but ultimately judged each pastry on five qualities:

1. Looks & appearance

2. The bake

3. Flavour

4. Chocolate

5. Value for money

The contestants

1. Finks - 70 Mountgrove Rd, Finsbury Park, London N5 2LT

2. The Dusty Knuckle - Abbot St, London E8 3DP

3. Pophams - 197 Richmond Rd, London E8 3NJ

4. e5 Bakehouse - 396 Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3PH

5. Forno - 322 Andrews Rd, London E8 4RP

6. Pavilion - Victoria Park, Old Ford Rd., London E9 7DE

Now, you can (and should) watch the full episode to get a blow by blow of how everyone scored, to understand the reasoning and nuance of the scoring, and then find out who was crowned the winner, but if you’re just here for the cold hard numbers, I’ve popped them into a handy chart for you below…