A cheap and easy way to satisfy a craving

Almond croissants are my absolute favourite pastry, and I feel they’re having a bit of a moment. They seem to pop up on lots of popular Instagram pages, the accessory of choice alongside an aesthetically pleasing coffee. I can totally understand why – something about the gooey, sweet and nutty filling is just impossible to resist. There is just one downside: they’re super expensive. Especially here in Melbourne, where you can end up paying a hefty chunk of money just to meet your morning craving. A super fancy version at Lune will set you back a whopping $11.70 (the jury is out on whether it’s that much better than a normal one), but even a more standard version at say, Federal Coffee, will see you parting with an entire $7. Now, I don’t want to get into a whole debate about whether this is a reasonable price to pay for a pastry. Cafes and restaurants have a lot more costs to contend with than simply the price of ingredients. But the case remains that this feels a bit steep to be spending every week, let alone several times a week. So how am I going to get that delicious almond croissant fix?

In comes my solution: a simple hack for how to make delicious almond croissants at home. This was borne of the realisation that I had in my cupboard everything necessary to make frangipane, the key ingredient to an almond croissant. It’s so ridiculously simple to make these croissants that it almost seems patronising to write it down. But it honestly has made a weirdly huge difference to my life, so I feel I have to share it! Making them at home is just so very much cheaper, I reckon the price per croissant is probably closer to $1.25 (although I must admit I haven’t priced up the amount of almond meal, sugar, etc that I used per croissant). The initial outlay for me was probably closer to $15 in total, but for that I got 11 or 12 croissants, so not bad!

Step 1: Buy some cheap croissants

For me the ones that hit the right point of being cheaper but also still tasty was the large packs of bake at home croissants available at Coles. These cost $11 for 12, which isn’t exactly super cheap, but definitely a huge improvement on the price of even a ‘plain’ croissant in a coffee shop.

Step 2: Whip up a frangipane mix

Frangipane is a simple mix of ground almonds (which might also be called almond meal depending on where you live), butter, sugar, eggs and a bit of flour. You can find lots of different recipes for it – I based my mix on the one over at Bigger, Bolder Baking (which you can find here). I think you could probably boil the recipe down to equal parts almond, butter and sugar, then as much flour and egg as you need to reach your desired consistency. This will vary depending on whether you’re making a tart, a pie, or indeed croissants. I wanted a slightly thicker texture, which would spread onto the croissant rather than soaking in too much, so I upped the quantity of almond meal (this also helped with the fact that I couldn’t find any almond essence). I also just softened my butter in the microwave in about ten second bursts, so I didn’t need to worry about leaving it to set before I could use it.

I used the following quantities, mixing the butter and sugar together first, followed by the eggs, then finally the flour. I think the flour just helps prevent any possible curdling.

• 85g granulated/white sugar
• 85g butter
• 100g almond meal/ground almonds
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour

Step 3: Slice open your croissants and spread them with the frangipane

I’ve seen it recommended that you use stale croissants, but I think that’s just a way of getting round the expense of buying fresh ones. I used mine fresh and they were perfect. I sliced them almost all the way open, leaving a bit of croissant as a kind of hinge, and liberally spread them with the frangipane. One advantage to making your own is that you can fill them just as much as you like. I often find bought ones to be a little over-full, so I went slightly lighter, which also meant I could make more croissants in total.

Step 4: Bake in a cool oven

This will vary a bit depending on your oven, but I put mine in at about 160 degrees (fan oven) for around half an hour. My croissants were bake at home anyway, so they needed a bit of a cook, and I just judged the frangipane by the texture and colour of the little bits that began to ooze out. You’re basically just baking it for long enough to cook the egg and brown the edges – they’ll become delicious and chewy. You don’t want the oven to be too hot as it risks burning the already cooked croissant before the frangipane inside has had a chance to cook.

Step 5: Enjoy straight away, or freeze for later

Just like that, you have a whole batch of delectable almond croissants to last you a week or more! I’ll be honest and admit that the first time I did this I ate about three in one day, but I’m learning to make them last a bit longer! One of the great things about these is that they freeze really well, and you can just pop them back in the oven to reheat. Quite sacrilegiously, I do sometimes microwave them, which does rather destroy the flaky texture of the croissant. But on a busy morning, it’s still worth it for that hit of lovely almond croissant taste.

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What is your favourite pastry? I’m afraid I have a very sweet tooth, and could happily eat pastries all day! There’s something a bit bougie about having pastries for breakfast, and it does weirdly make me feel a bit put together when I can bring my own, ‘homemade’ pastry to work. The satisfaction of not having to pay quite so much for them, and not being tempted by them when I go for a coffee, is incredibly powerful!

Do you have any cooking/baking/general money-saving hacks you think I should try? I’ve so enjoyed this one that I’d love to find some similar ones to test. Please do share in the comments below!