Almond Croissants Recipe & Video

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If you've ever bought Almond Croissants (Croissants aux Amandes) at a bakery you know they taste absolutely divine. I think bakeries started making them as a way to use up day old croissants. And what a great idea it was. This pastry starts with a slightly stale croissant. First it's cut in half, moistened with a sugar syrup, and then it's filled with an almond cream. And if that wasn't enough, the almond cream is also spread on the top of the croissant along with a sprinkling of shaved almonds. The Almond Croissant is then baked until the almond cream has set and the ends of the croissants have become wonderfully crisp. I love how they look with their dusting of snowy white powdered sugar. If you're like me, you may find yourself baking croissants just so you can make these delicious twice-baked pastries. 

Almond Croissants are a welcome brunch dish. Not only because they taste fabulous but also because you can make the components (croissants, sugar syrup, and almond cream) ahead of time. Then all you need to do shortly before your guests arrive is to assemble the pastries and pop them into the oven.

You can use either homemade or store bought croissants. And as I said above you want the croissants to be a little stale, so they will soak up the flavorful sugar syrup. This syrup is so easy to make (just heat the ingredients to a boil) and it can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks. The almond cream, also known as frangipane, is a rich almond flavored cream made from ground almonds. You can take blanched almonds and simply process them in your food processor until finely ground or you can buy them. The almond cream can be made a few days ahead. Just cover and store it in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen. This recipe makes enough almond cream to fill six croissants. Of course, you can easily scale this recipe up or down. Almond Croissants are excellent warm, at room temperature, or even cold.