Pain au chocolat means "chocolate bread" in French, and it is commonly known in the U.S. as a chocolate croissant. This pastry is amazing when made right, but it's often unsatisfying because there's not enough filling, leaving you with more flaky dough than soft, warm chocolate — this is how to make sure your own pastries are balanced.

Traditional French pain au chocolat uses thin, long sticks of dark or semi-sweet chocolate known as batons. Many bakers use a single chocolate baton, placed on the edge of the pastry dough and rolled into the center, or two baton sticks placed on each end of the dough and then rolled up, but three batons is actually superior.

Baker Haris Car of Car Artisan Chocolate in Los Angeles uses three batons in his pain au chocolat. While most bakers would roll the two baton-laden dough edges of the dough toward the center to create the ready-to-bake croissant, Car slips an extra baton in the center of the strip of dough before rolling the edges toward the center.

If you're a home chef without time to make your own pastry, you can try the same technique using pre-formed frozen croissant dough sheets. After defrosting but before rolling the flat pieces of dough into the croissant shape, place three chocolate batons on the two edges and center, then roll your way to flaky goodness.