Trissalicious

Almond Croissant

With my Mom (the Blog Monster) around, many  leftovers have come back to life.  Just the other day I was complaining that I didn’t have any space for the chicken stock I had made (as I’ve said before, fridge space is the most coveted real estate in my house) and so I ransacked the freezer looking for space for the 3 liters I had just made.  In the process, I found, frozen and forgotten for many months, three containers of ham and pea soup, three large bags of home made dumplings, morcon (a Filipino chicken roll stuffed with vegetables and sausages), and filling for some chicken pot pie.

In a fit of frustration I told my Mom I was going to get rid of them.  They’d been in the freezer for months and if they hadn’t been eaten by now, then maybe they weren’t worth eating. “They’ll taste bad! I’m going to get rid of it” I told her.

“No… don’t.  I can make something out of these.” She insisted.

With a sigh, I gave in but being a refrigerator tyrant that I am, I gave her a deadline of five days to do what she wanted with the leftovers and then I’d toss everything out.

Of course, a few days later, not only did I find myself eating my words, I also found myself eating all the leftovers!

Day 1 – Mom sauteed some chorizo and added this to the ham and pea soup.

Day 2 – Mom made some pancit molo with the bags of dumplings and the chicken pot pie filling went to my brother who had them on a sandwich.

Day 3 – The Chicken Morcon was pan fried with a lovely tomato based sauce and served for dinner.

I did my best to snub the “made over” dishes but the oohs and aahhs and yumms of my family made me cave in.

Almond Croissant

Anyway, these Almond Croissants are filled with an almond cream made with some creme patissiere, topped with more of the almond cream and sliced almonds and then baked until golden.  To serve, they are dusted with some icing sugar. When reading about these gorgeous pastries, I discovered that they were originally invented as a way to use up old croissants.

So you can imagine that  I immediately thought of my Mom – who manages to make even the old look and taste better than brand new…

Almond Croissant

Croissants aux Amandes

Almond Croissants

• 10 grams ground almonds
• 100 grams creme patissiere (see below)
• 70 grams caster sugar
• 60 grams butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 40 grams flour
• 70 grams sliced almonds, for topping
• 5 croissants
• Icing sugar to dust the croissants

1. Using a stand mixer or electric mixer, cream the almonds, creme patissiere, sugar, butter, egg yolks and flour. This will take around 3 to 5 minutes, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl once in a while. Beat until light and fluffy
2. Slice the croissants horizontally and spread around 3 heaping spoonfuls of the almond mixture. Cover with the top of the croissant and spread another 3 heaping spoonfuls of the almond mixture.
3. Top the croissants with the sliced almonds and bake in a pre-heated oven at 190c for around 10 minutes.
4. To serve, dust with icing sugar.

On the Thermomix
Place the ground almonds, creme patissiere, sugar, butter, egg yolks and flour in the thermomix bowl. Mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds until light and fluffy. Follow from number 2 above.

Almond Croissant

Creme Patissiere

• 250 ml milk
• 50 grams sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1/2 vanilla bean, scrapped

1. Heat the 200 ml of the milk with the vanilla beans (and pod) and bring to a boil in a sauce pan.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, cornstarch, egg and 50 ml milk.
3. When the milk has come to a boil, pour a little of the hot milk into the sugar/cornstarch mixture and then whisk this thoroughly, then pour the rest of the hot milk into the bowl (remove the vanilla pod).
4. Now pour the milk mixture back into the sauce pan and heat, constantly whisking until the mixture thickens, around 5 minutes. Make sure to whisk at the bottom of the bowl so that the mixture does not catch and burn.
5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

On Thermomix

1. Put all the ingredients into the thermomix bowl and cook at 90c for 6 minutes on speed 4. Remove the vanilla pod and allow to cool.

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