Almond Paste Filled Crescents made with Puff Pastry
These Almond Paste Filled Crescents are made with frozen puff pastry. They are so easy to make, you can have them ready in about an hour. I’ve also got a video showing you how to melt the chocolate for them.
If there is one thing I love, it’s almond paste. When I was growing up, my father was a captain in the U.S. Army and we were stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany. We lived in the penthouse and there was a bakery on the ground level of the building. Every Christmas, they would put out the Nativity with an entire village made of gingerbread and all the people, fruits, vegetables, and animals made of marzipan. The snow was made of spun sugar. It was the most magical place on earth – yes, more magical looking than Disneyland. My mother bought me an Advent calendar from there every year and the little doors had tiny pieces of chocolate-covered marzipan inside. This is why I love almond paste so much.
What You Need to Make Almond Paste Filled Crescents
You can make your own almond paste, but this recipe uses almond paste at the supermarket. Some almond paste comes in a box, and some almond paste comes in a tube. Whichever you choose doesn’t matter. If you can’t find the almond paste, feel free to use marzipan instead. You will be adding other ingredients so it will stretch a little bit.
The puff pastry is also store-bought, and that’s okay. If you want to use your own puff pastry, please, by all means, do so. The Pepperidge Farms brand is always good. It comes with two sheets of pastry, enough to make 12 pastries. Only use the amount of pastry you need to use and keep the rest frozen. If while you are working with the dough it becomes too soft, simply put it in the refrigerator to harden again.
Have you ever wondered about tempering or melting chocolate? You can do it in the microwave, but melting in a double boiler is more accurate and less likely to burn or have an accident. Don’t have a double boiler? No problem. Just use put water in a small pot and put a metal bowl over the pot that is large enough not to touch the water. This video explains how to temper chocolate.
Ingredients
~~ For the Crescents ~~
- 1 package frozen puff pastry
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon Water
~~ For the Almond Filling ~~
- ¼ cup almond paste
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 1 large Egg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Bread crumbs, or cake crumbs
- 1 teaspoon Almond extract
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
~~ For Decoration ~~
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
- 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon gold sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F / 177 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove the pastry from its container and wrapper and let it defrost on the counter for 40 minutes.
- While you are waiting for the dough to defrost, make the filling. Put almond paste, sugar, egg, salt, bread crumbs, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a food processor.
- Run the processor until the paste forms a ball. Let it sit until the pastry is thawed
- Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough out and remove the fold mark. For the crescents, cut into six triangles.
- For the squares, cut the pastry into six squares. No Monkishness needed, just get it close.
- For the crescents, put a spoonful of paste at the top of the triangle and roll it away from you. Bend the dough so it looks like a crescent.
- For the squares, put a spoonful of the paste and fold over and seal with a fork.
- Mix an egg with water and paint the crescents then sprinkle some of the sliced almonds over them. You can put almonds on the squares if you want, too.
- Sprinkle the gold sugar on the squares.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown. Remove from the oven, let them sit for 5 minutes, then put them on a rack to cool.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until it is nicely melted. Don't burn it and don't add anything to it. Dip the crescents in the chocolate and spoon the rest of the chocolate over the crescents and squares.
- Put the powdered sugar in a strainer and sprinkle the sugar over the pastries as desired.
Notes
Nutrition
