As a child, I was
fascinated with the boxes or marzipan fruits that tended only to be available
to buy around Christmas time. These were little sweets made out of marzipan and
fashioned to look like miniature fruit – I absolutely adored them and regularly
pestered my mother and grandmother to buy them for me.
I discovered almond
croissants at a relatively late stage when I was in my twenties, but when I did I was
hooked. My friends and family know that I am like a woman obsessed at the
moment, trying to make my own homemade croissants. I have been folding butter
and dough by the kilo and have yet to produce a croissant that I am perfectly
happy with; one that is flaky and airy with a buttery flavour. My attempts have
been more than passable but the croissants have not been quite at the standard
that I wish. However, I will not be thwarted! I am determined to master them.
The great thing about
these almond croissants is that you do not have to bake your own croissants in
order to make them but can instead use store-bought ones. Do try to get
all-butter croissants as the finished results will be far superior and will
have that lovely flavour and texture that you can only get from butter. The key
thing when making the almond croissants is to use stale croissants, that
normally would be too dry and a little on the hard side… I promise you that the
finished product will be worth it! If you use croissants that are too fresh,
everything just collapses into an almond flavoured mush, albeit a very tasty
almond flavoured mush!
If, like me, you are a
fan of almonds, you will love the taste of these croissants. They are
incredibly easy to make and the perfect sweet treat to have for an indulgent
breakfast or lazy brunch!
There are a number of
recipes on the old interweb thingy for similar almond croissants, but after a
few trials, this is the version that I came up with. You will note that I have
soaked the stale croissants in a syrup made from Amaretto prior to then filling
them with the almond cream/frangipane, which believe me, makes these croissants
really special, bursting with a lovely almond flavour.
Ingredients:
Amaretto syrup:200ml water
25ml Amaretto
25g caster sugar
Almond cream:
115g butter, softened
115g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly
beaten
115g ground almonds
To finish:
6 x 3-day-old plain
croissants
150g flaked almonds
Icing sugar for dusting
Method:
Amaretto syrup:
1. Put all the ingredients
into a small saucepan and place over a moderate heat. Heat the mixture until
the sugar has dissolved and then increase the heat and allow to bubble for 1
minute before removing from the heat. Allow to cool completely.
Almond cream:
2. Place the butter and
caster sugar into a medium-sized mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric
mixer, cream together until light and fluffy. Gradually mix in the eggs until
they are fully incorporated and finally add the ground almonds, making sure
that they are thoroughly mixed in. Set aside.
To make the almond
croissants:
3. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan
Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking parchment
and set aside.
4. Pour the cooled Amaretto
syrup into a shallow dish and soak each of the croissants for 4-5 minutes,
before removing and slicing horizontally through the middle.
5. Divide half of the almond
cream equally between the bases of the 6 croissants and replace their tops.
Spread the remaining almond cream over the tops of the 6 croissants, dividing
it equally and sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
6. Bake in the preheated
oven for 15-17 minutes until the almond cream on top of the croissants has
turned a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before
serving dusted with a small amount of icing sugar.
Makes 6.
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