Almond croissants (and a chocolate version, too)

A few months back, my husband mentioned to me that he had a really good almond croissant from a patisserie near his workplace.  That got my attention.  So not long after that, when I spotted a recipe for "perfect almond croissants" from Chocolate and Zucchini, I quickly pinned it.

Making almond croissants involves: day-old croissants, almond cream filling, sugar syrup, and sliced almonds (chocolate version optional)

I have a pinterest account that I use mainly to pin recipes I spot online that I'd like to try.  I've actually managed to make quite a number of those recipes that I've pinned! In this case, I've been constantly reminded of this particular almond croissant recipe because I get a few email alerts daily saying someone has re-pinned or liked it.  

So the constant reminder became a call to action and I made a few almond croissants for breakfast over this past weekend!  I sometimes make a mock version of them using almond paste but actual almond croissants from a bakery start with day-old croissants.  These slightly dried out croissants are brushed with sugar syrup and filled with an almond cream filling.  The croissants are topped with a bit more almond cream and sliced almonds, then baked until the filling sets and the top and ends are crusty and golden. 

The best part?  Well, there's the essential reward of ending up with rich croissants encased with almond flavor for all us almond-lovers out there (texturally, the crusty edges are especially tempting).  Aside from that, these are a great day-ahead make-ahead.  Buy croissants and prep both the sugar syrup and almond filling the day before.  In the morning, slice the croissants, brush them with the syrup, fill them with the almond filling, and bake...you have fresh almond croissants for your weekend breakfast or brunch!

Now, when a chocolate option presents itself, I'm almost always inclined to go there. Just add some cocoa powder to the filling and tuck a tablespoon of chocolate chips inside for chocolate-almond croissants!

You can try both, like I did, and decide which version you prefer for yourself.  For me, I actually liked the traditional, or pure almond, one more.  It's rare that chocolate doesn't win out for me but once in a while, it can happen.

This was easy to put together and I'm certainly happy I tried it!

Easy chocolate-almond croissants

I'm sure you've seen many recipes for making shortcut croissant or pain au chocolat using store-bought puff pastry.  So while this is hardly earth-shattering, I'm actually pretty psyched about it because this almond version has a baton of almond paste tucked into it that makes it a world better (in my opinion, anyway) than those without.  Admittedly, I'm biased because almond paste is one of my favorite baking ingredients.  Hopefully, you enjoy it too...

This was really just an exercise on my part to use up ingredients.  I have puff pastry in the freezer after my last experiment and thought I'd use some of it to make a simple breakfast.  Not surprisingly, my son enjoys pain au chocolat so I thought I'd make a few.  To make things a little more interesting, I went with this chocolate-almond version.  They're filled with dark chocolate and a baton of almond paste (just almond paste rolled into a baton or log shape).  It's convenient that I often have leftover almond paste in the refrigerator so this all came together very easily.

Dark chocolate and almond paste filling

The almond paste warms but stays intact after baking and in a bite, the fragrant, sweet almond flavor plays really well with the dark chocolate.  It also adds a touch of chewiness against the crisp, flaky texture of the croissant.  There's certainly nothing wrong with a regular pain au chocolat - in fact, I made an extra, plain one for my son - but the almond paste inside and the sliced almonds on top add another layer of flavor that we really, really liked.

A plain pain au chocolat on the left

Since I have no faith in my ability to produce that croissant shape, I went with the simple fold/roll-up method that's the signature shape of pains au chocolat anyway.  I've attempted the croissant shape before, with embarrassingly unattractive results.  I never can seem to get the hang of twisting the dough correctly so that it comes out looking like a croissant rather than a twisted crab.  I'll be sticking with this simple method from now on.

I literally made just 3 of these babies for our breakfast.  If you're using a sheet of puff pastry, you can make 6, cutting the dough downward along the folds into three pieces first, then slicing again crosswise to make a total of 6 rectangles.  I assembled them the night before and covered them snugly with plastic wrap before storing in the refrigerator.  In the morning, I topped them off with a little egg wash and sliced almonds before baking.

I believe that traditional, or "true", almond or chocolate-almond croissants are made with day-old croissants that are split in half and filled with almond cream and topped with almond slices before baking again.  To me, using almond paste and store-bought puff pastry is a good shortcut.  No doubt, these chocolate-almond croissants would be markedly better made with homemade puff pastry.  If you've done that yourself, I applaud you.  But since making puff pastry is not on my to-do list, this is the kind of recipe for me.