Easiest Homemade Almond Croissants

These just have to be the easiest homemade almond croissants for when you have the longing for a delicious French pastry but can’t get out to a cafe or shops to buy one.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• These homemade almond croissants are so quick and easy to make, you can run them up in less than half an hour start to finish.
• The taste, that creamy delicious Frangipane (almond paste) going right through the croissant gives so much flavour and as they are topped with it too things get even better!
• Nothing beats a good almond croissant with your morning coffee and these will help to make your day that much better.
• Economy – my homemade cheats almond croissants are super cheap to make, unlike buying them in a bakery.

Okay so these don’t have the rich buttery flakiness of your authentic French almond croissants but as an easy homemade treat they are a damn good substitute.

My cheat’s pain au chocolate recipe has been so popular I thought I should share another pastry recipe – these cheat’s almond croissants.

Ingredients for cheats almond croissants

These homemade almond croissants don’t have many ingredients, in fact they are probably lurking around your kitchen already.

Pastry – croissants need pastry and I’m using ready rolled puff pastry to make my homemade almond croissants. You can buy this in any supermarket and it stores really well in the freezer so you can have it to hand to make these at any time.

For the frangipane filling

Ground almonds – if you don’t have ground almonds you can always use regular blanched almonds and whizz them up in the food processor till they are powdered.

Sugar – just use plain old white sugar here, don’t use brown sugar of any type as that has a caramel-like flavour which would spoil the taste of your almond croissants.

Flavourings – I like to use a mix of both almond extract and vanilla extract to really ramp up the flavour in my frangipane and make those croissants sing – obviously in French!

Egg – just one egg

Butter – use good quality butter here and make sure it is softened before you start. I just leave mine out on the kitchen counter for a while and that does the trick.

What is frangipane?

Frangipane is an almond-based cream for filling pastries and cakes. It is not the same as marzipan which is much denser and can be moulded into shapes.

The complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this recipe can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

How to make homemade almond croissants

First things first, let’s make the frangipane (almond paste) filling for this almond croissant recipe.

This is super easy, just chuck all the ingredients – ground almonds, butter, almond and vanilla extract, sugar and egg – into your food processor and let it whirl.

You want your frangipane to be nice and smooth so check that there are no blogs of butter in there that haven’t been properly broken down and mixed into the almond paste.

Now to make the croissants themselves. Simply unroll the puff pastry sheet on the paper it is wrapped in and cut out 6 triangles as shown above in the photo.

The easiest way to get them all the same size is to cut the pastry into 3 slices across the short length and then cut each of these 3 oblongs in half diagonally creating 2 triangles.

Spread your frangipane paste over each of the pastry triangles, no need to be too precise about this.

Now simply roll up your croissants starting from the wide end of the triangle and just keep rolling to the end.

Once you have all 6 croissants rolled up spread some more of the frangipane on top of them and then top them off with a few flaked almonds as everyone knows you just can’t have too much of a good thing!

Pop the who;e thing, including the baking parchment on to a baking tray and into a preheated oven – top of the baking oven for Aga folks.

Bake your homemade almond croissants for about 20 minutes till golden on top.

Remove them from the oven and allow the croissants to cool a little on a wire rack. Don’t try to eat one right away as they will be way too hot and that almond paste inside like molten lava – have a wee bit of patience.

How much does this recipe make?

You will get 6 homemade almond croissants from a standard 320g pack of ready-rolled puff pastry.

How to serve them

Serve your cheats almond croissants warm with your favourite cuppa. Go for a rich dark black coffee as I have or for a cafe au lait perhaps, the traditional French breakfast drink.

As a dessert – serve an almond croissant opened up with some strawberries or raspberries inside and a dollop of whipped cream.

How long will they keep?

Homemade croissants are best on the day you make them, anyway, I don’t you’ll have any left after the first bite!

They are so super quick and easy top make that you can easy run up another batch at any time.

Looking for more super easy baking ideas using puff pastry? Then check these out before you go;

Cheat’s pain au chocolate

Super easy cinnamon palmiers

Super easy rhubarb and ginger tarts

Easy pumpkin and apple galette

And for lots more baking inspiration of all types just check out the Home Baking section of this website.

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.