These croissant-based pastries are nutty, sticky and delicious.
The combination of crisp, buttery pastry and soft, almost cake-like almond filling – not to mention the contrast between sweetness and sharpness – is sublime.
This recipe uses my standard croissant dough (recipe here) and a simple almond paste filling, frangipane-style. I make a simple glaze using honey and yuzu and finish off the pastries with a drizzle of yuzu icing and dried cranberries.
However, for a super-quick version, you can use a bought puff pastry instead of making the croissant dough and use thinly rolled out commercial marzipan instead of the frangipane.
I pop the spirals of dough inside metal rings which gives a neater, sharper finish but you can simply place them on baking trays without rings.
I am partial to using frangipane as it gives a bit more body to the filling. This version of frangipane doesn’t contain flour, but it doesn’t need it: as the pastries bake, the egg in the filling sets gently and holds everything in place.
Delicously nutty!
I like to use a mixture of almonds and whatever other nuts I have in the cupboards that need using up. I particularly love walnuts, pecans, pistachios or cashews – or a selection of these! However, using just almonds still gives delicious results.
If you can bear to toast the nuts, please do so as you get an even better flavour: you simply put them in a frying pan with no oil, and place over a lowish heat for about 5 minutes or so, stirring or gently shaking the pan from time to time. Don’t take this too far, though, or the nuts will burn and go bitter.
Croissant dough
The beauty of the croissant dough is that once made it will freeze beautifully, so you can either make up these rolls and freeze them before proving or else freeze them once baked but left unglazed and uniced:
- if freezing the unproved rolls: defrost overnight at room temperature, covered, and bake in the morning
- if freezing the baked rolls: defrost and warm up slightly to eat
Different versions
– Instead of making croissant dough, use bought puff pastry. As soon as they have been rolled up, bake them at the same temperature and for the same time as in the recipe.
– Rather than the frangipane filling in the recipe, you can use chocolate spread, perhaps embellished with some crushed almonds and/or pistachios.
– Instead of the frangipane, roll out commercial marzipan very thinly and place on top of the dough, before cutting into strips and rolling up into spirals.
– Instead of rolling up individual strips of dough, you can simply roll up the covered dough like a Swiss Roll and then cut this “log” into 2cm or so wide discs and place on greaseproof-lined trays to prove and bake as they are.
– For the glaze, you could use lemon curd, marmalade or maple syrup, although if using lemon curd or marmalade it is worth mixing it with a tablespoon or so of boiling water to make it less thick.
– Instead of the yuzu icing, use lemon, orange or lime juice. Or even go for melted chocolate of choice.
Recipe: flaky almond, yuzu & cranberry whirls- makes 10
- 1 batch of croissant dough (recipe here, made up to and including stage 13) or use about 500g commercial puff pastry
Frangipane filling:
- 80g unsalted butter, softened
- 60g icing sugar
- 80g ground almonds
- 60g other nuts of choice, either roughly crushed or ground
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 medium egg, beaten
Yuzu glaze:
- 2 tablespoons runny honey
- 1 tablespoon yuzu
Yuzu icing:
- 60g fondant icing sugar
- yuzu juice to mix
To finish:
- a few dried cranberries or dried cherries, finely chopped
You will also need large circular rings (buttered) for the pastries to prove and bake – I use 10cm diameter crumpet rings – and baking trays lined with greaseproof for them to stand on. Alternatively, use smaller rings or even deep muffin tins, but you will just need smaller strips of dough (see recipe)
(1) Once the croissant dough has been fully laminated and rested (stage 13 of the recipe linked above), make the frangipane filling by mixing all the ingredients together to give a soft, spreadable paste.
(2) Roll it the pastry to a rectangle around 45cm long by 16-17cm wide. Spread the filling over evenly, going right to the edges.
(3) Cut into 10 strips about 1.5cm wide by 45cm if using large rings . If using small rings or muffin tins, cut these strips in half or even thirds, depending on the size of the tin: they will just need to fit comfortably inside the tin, with a gap between the dough and the sides to allow for expansion as the dough proves.
(4) Take a pastry strip and lightly stretch it a few centimetres. Roll up loosely to give a spiral and place in the centre of a ring: it really does not need to come to the edges. Repeat for the rest of the dough.
NB: you can do this in batches if you don’t have enough rings, chilling or freezing the remaining coiled-up dough until needed.
(5) Cover and leave to prove until the dough is well risen and puffy and has almost filled the rings.
(6) When they are nearly proved enough, preheat the oven to 170°C (fan). Place the risen pastries in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until deep golden, rotating the pan after about 10 minutes to ensure even cooking.
(7) While the pastries bake, mix the honey with the yuzu to give a simple glaze.
(8) Remove the pastries from the oven and carefully remove from the rings or muffin tins and place on a wire rack. Immediately brush generously with the glaze and leave to cool.
(9) For the icing, put the icing sugar in a small bowl or cup and, using a flat-bladed knife, stir in enough yuzu to give a smooth, thick icing. Drizzle over the cool pastries and then finish with a scattering of the chopped cranberries. Leave to set.
