Easy Almond Croissants

Nothing is better than fresh croissants. My top breakfast is Easy Almond Croissants, inspired by my favourite Petite France Bakery. I used to buy them almost every week at a farm in Prague. So large, fluffy and delicious.
I present you the combination of heaven: my homemade marzipan accompanied by a lovely marmalade. I am so happy I finally did master the marzipan. Let me share it with all you. Incredible!

Some day, when my baby grows up a bit, I will make the best homemade puff pastry. For now, I recommend you “All Butter Puff Pastry” from The Marks and Spencer.

For more impressive shapes, try out my new addition of Valentine’s Hearts.

Total Time: 45 minutes

Shopping list

The Croissants:
500g of butter puff pastry, rolled out into a rectangle
plain flour to dust
1 yolk to brush

My Homemade Marzipan:
100g of peeled almonds (unpeeled if you prefer), sifted
100g of icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
A pinch of lemon zest
1 whole egg, separated

Almonds flakes to decorate
Homemade marmalade to serve

Instructions

First, defreeze the pastry and bring it to a room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

My Homemade Marzipan

In a blender place the almonds, sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Mix.

Stir in the egg yolk and lightly whisked egg white, a bit at a time. Perhaps you won’t even need the whole one, depends on the size of the egg. Save it for brushing, later on. Blend and blend until you get a perfect texture. In the result, you should get one sticky bowl of the best marzipan. Taste and set aside.

The Croissants

Dust your working surface with the flour and divide the pastry into 2 equal halves.

Roll out each of them into a rectangular shape with a roller and divide with a knife into squares, then half squares, so you get triangles.

At a base of each triangle, place a tablespoon of The Marzipan, at the widest part. Start rolling them down. Continue with all of them and place them on a baking tray lined with some baking paper. Make sure that the endings of croissants are in the bottom, so they won’t come open.

Brush with the egg yolk and sprinkle with almond flakes.

The Valentine’s Hearts

These pieces of heaven resemble ravioli.
Divide the dough pastry into 2 parts. Roll out each of them between 2 sheets of cling foil.
Next, wet a heart cookie cutter and cut out the hearts. Continue the same way with the second part of the dough pastry.

Put half of the amount onto a large baking tray lined with some baking paper.

Then, place a generous piece of My Homemade Marzipan in the middle of each of them. Cover with the second half of the hearts. Gently press the endings with your fingerprints.

Brush with the rest of the egg. I used egg yolk mixed with egg white, so I kind of glued them together. Done.

Presentation

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until they are nicely puffed and lightly golden from the outside (the time depends on their size). Take them out and let them rest for a while.

Serve them warm with a lovely marmalade and cup of coffee. Check out my tips for my homemade marmalades. Yummy!

Makes 12 croissants or 20 hearts.