Almond Croissants

I've been experimenting with puff pastry this week. On the whole it went really well. I made salmon en croute and it was delicious, but I'm not completely sold on the recipe. I used a recipe that used half bread flour, and the pastry was almost too crisp, it was hard to cut through the base. 

So I'm not going to give you that recipe. Instead I'm going to give you this awesome recipe I learnt at the weekend. It's not strictly baking, but it does involve baked goods. 

As most of you will probably know, it was Gay Pride in London this weekend. My flatmate had some friends to stay and after a late night on Friday, I woke up early feeling like something had died in my mouth, which is inevitable when beer and I get together. I naturally decided that what I needed to take the taste away before we headed out to watch the parade was an almond croissant and some good strong coffee and that I might as well make enough for everyone.

A few minutes and a quick Google on my phone later I had a recipe for the baked treats and let me tell you, they were so easy to make, I couldn't believe they tasted so good.

This recipe takes  very little time at all and the results are impressive. Brew some coffee, whip up these almond croissants and you can serve up an awesome breakfast and look like a domestic god/goddess with very little effort.

One of the best things about this recipe is it uses stale croissants. Come on! You bought too many croissants? No problem. Almond those bad boys up. Instant awesome.

You will need:

8 one or two day-old croissants (croissants that have previously been frozen also good)

3 tbsp flaked almonds

icing sugar, for dusting

2 large eggs

250g ground almonds

115g butter

120g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix together the ground almonds and sugar in a bowl. Beat in the butter and then the eggs and whisk until fully incorporated.

2. Slice the croissants in half horizontally and spread a good 2 tbsp of the almond paste on each bottom half. Put the top half back on and spread a 1 tbsp on top.

3. Sprinkle the almonds over the croissants and bake for 15 minutes. Dust liberally with icing sugar and serve.

That is it. Can you believe you just made something that looks so good so easily? Go you. 

In other news, Pride 2015 was really fun and we all looked fabulous. Here's a picture of me sporting the rainbow flag on my cheek and pouting, because I'm like that.

Stay fabulous,

Ellie

xxx