Filled with almond frangipane and drizzled with creamy almond frosting, these Flaky Almond Croissant Twists are the perfect accompaniment to your morning cup of coffee.
Prep Time: 10 hrs 30 mins |Cook Time: 15 mins |Total Time: 10 hrs 45 mins
Ingredients
Croissant dough:
- 250 g strong white bread flour plus extra for rolling the dough
- 40 g golden caster sugar
- 5 g instant/easy yeast
- 5 g salt
- 150 ml water
- 150 g unsalted butter chilled
Frangipane:
- 60 g unsalted butter softened
- 50 g golden caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 35 g plain flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 60 g ground almonds
- ½ tsp almond extract
Also:
- 80 g Toasted almond slivers
- 1 small egg whisked
Almond Frosting:
- 140 g confectioners’ sugar sieved
- 4-5 tbsp. double/heavy cream
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Place the flour in your mixer bowl. Add the salt and caster sugar to one side of the bowl, and the instant yeast to the other side (yeast and salt don’t like to be in direct contact). Add the water and then mix for 3 minutes – on a slow speed in your mixer, using a dough hook. Increase the speed to medium and mix for a further 5 minutes. Gather up the dough, and roll into a ball on a floured surface. Wrap loosely in clingfilm and place in the fridge for an hour.
- After an hour, take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out a floured surface into a rectangle approx 25cmx20cm. Take the chilled block of butter, and bash it flat on a floured surface until you get a rectangle approx. 16cmx19cm. Place this butter covering the bottom 2/3rds of the dough, leaving a slight border (see picture).
- Then fold the top third of the dough over the butter. This will leave you with the bottom half of the butter showing. Score the butter lightly with a knife so that you can easily fold the bottom butter/dough layer up over your top fold. Be careful not to cut through to the dough.
- Fold the bottom dough/butter layer over the top. You should end up with a little parcel that is three layers of dough and two layers of butter. Gently seal the edges – so the butter isn’t showing, and then wrap the dough loosely in clingfilm and place in the fridge for an hour.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and place on a floured surface in front of you. Make sure the fold lines are at the sides and the ends you sealed are at the top and bottom. This means you will have turned the dough round by 90 degrees from the last time you rolled it. Now roll it out in front of you into a 25cmx20cm rectangle. Take the bottom third of the dough and fold it up, and the then take the top third and fold it down. Place in the fridge for another hour. Repeat the turning, rolling, folding and refrigerating two more times. For the final refrigeration, leave in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to allow it to rest and for the flavour to develop.
- The next day, start by making your frangipane. Beat the butter and sugar together for a few minutes until light and creamy (you can do this in a mixer or by hand). Add the egg and beat again for a minute. Add the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and almond extract and mix for 2 more minutes. Spoon the frangipane into a piping bag or a plastic sandwich bag and place in the fridge whilst you work on your dough.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and roll again into a 25cmx20cm rectangle on a floured surface. Using a pizza cutter, trim any uneven edges and then cut the dough into 14 strips.
- Place the strips onto two baking trays lined with baking parchment or a silicone baking mat, leaving a little room around each for the strips to rise and spread. Pipe a length of frangipane onto each strip, then sprinkle the frangipane with the almond slivers. Gently twist the strips.
- Place the baking trays into a large carrier bag, and leave the dough to rise for an hour. In the meantime preheat your oven to 190C (375F). Then give each of the twists an eggwash using the whisk egg, and place in the oven for 12-15 minutes until risen and golden.
- Whilst the twists are cooking, prepare your almond drizzle. Whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, 3tbsp cream, the vanilla extract and half the almond extract. You’re looking for a consistency that you can pipe. So it needs to be thick enough to hold its shape, but not so thick that you can’t get it through the piping nozzle. Add more cream if required until you get the right consistent. Taste and then add the remaining almond extract if you want a stronger almond taste. Put to one side.
- When the croissant twists are cooked, take out of the oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes and then carefully move to a cooling rack using a spatula or palette knife. Leave the twists to cool completely before piping on the almond frosting.