breakfast in bed is not something you get every morning, so to make Mother’s Day that little bit special, I baked some croissant aux amandes and served them with a frothy mug of Nespresso coffee…the perfect start to a pleasantly beautiful day.
Try your hand at croissants and make someone smile.
Use either ready-made puff pastry or find the real deal here.
Croissant Aux Amandes
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 medium free-range egg yolks,
- plus 1 egg, beaten
- 100g almonds, toasted and ground
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 tbsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 quantity puff pastry (home made or bought)
- 50g flaked almonds, for decorating
- 50g icing sugar
- 2 tsp milk
Method
- 1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- 2 With an electric whisk, beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale. Whisk in the egg yolks. Fold in the ground almonds, almond extract and flour. Stir until smooth, and chill.
- 3 To make croissants, cut a rectangle 20cm x 20cm x 18cm out of card to use as a template. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and using your template cut out triangles, until all the pastry is used up.
- 4 Have the triangles facing so that the point is away from you and the short side is nearest you. Spread the almond filling along the short side of the triangle, then roll away from you so the point rolls up last, then curve into a crescent shape.
- 5 Place the pastries on a lined baking sheet. Chill, covered in cling film, for 20 minutes. Brush each pastry with the beaten egg and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
- 6 Meanwhile, whisk the icing sugar and milk together in a bowl until it forms a thick but pourable icing and set aside.
- 7 Cool the pastries for 5-10 minutes, drizzle with the icing, scatter with flaked almonds (I toasted these too) and serve.
Nutritional info
Per serving (based on 8): 568kcals, 36.6g fat (16.3g saturated), 11.9g protein, 51.3g carbs, 22.5g sugar, 0.3g salt
Chef’s tip
To freeze, make up to the end of step 4, then open-freeze until solid. Place in a container and freeze for up to 3 months. Continue with the recipe and bake from frozen adding an extra few minutes to the cooking time.
Taken from Delicious Magazine online