Almond Croissants

I had a dream about an almond croissant the night before I decided to make these. I'm funny with almond flavours as I find things like amaretto and marzipan too strong for me but I love the subtle taste of almonds and almond meal, so almondy things walk a very fine line.

I have only had almond croissants from two places in all of my life, and I have been very lucky both times that the croissants were heavier on the sweetness than the almondness. In my dream, the almond croissant came from one of these places and when I woke up, I desperately wanted one. The problem with getting one was that the bakery I was dreaming about was in Cairns (a little way from where I live) and the last time I visited was perhaps 6 or so years ago.

Quite fortuitously, I stumbled across this semi-homemade almond croissant recipe on taste.com.au. It couldn't be easier, simply buy your croissants, make your almond paste, spread paste into croissants, cover with sliced almonds and (in my case) a sweet syrupy Danish glaze and bake in the oven.

I did find that my almond paste was a little too almondy, so I added a bit more sugar to taste. The glaze also helped offset the almondy flavour.

I was very proud of myself when they came out of the oven. I cut a corner off of one and enjoyed it immensley, but they are very very rich and very very sweet (my fault in trying to overcome the almond flavour with sugar) so I didn't eat any more after that.

I'm still proud of them though.

Almond Croissants
from taste.com.au

(This is the recipe as posted on taste.com.au. I halved this and added more sugar to taste but because I didn't keep track I couldn't tell you how much more it was)

150g butter, softened
1/2 cup (75g) icing sugar, sifted, plus extra to dust
4 tbs (1/3 cup) flour
2 cups almond meal
1 tsp almond essence
6 ready-made croissants
1/3 cup almonds (skin on), sliced

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Place butter, sugar, flour, almond meal and essence in a food processor. Whiz to combine. Split croissants in half. Place bases on a baking tray and spread with almond paste, reserving 1/4 of the mixture. Replace croissant tops, spread with remaining paste, scatter with almonds and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Danish Glaze
from Cooks Illustrated Magazine

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons milk
1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon juice


Whisk ingredients together in small bowl and drizzle over the croissants before baking.