Celebrating Bake Off week nine: Almond Croissants

Method

For the croissant dough:

• Step 1:Place the flour, sugar, salt and 50g butter in a bowl. Rub in the butter to form a fine crumb.
• Step 2:Mix the milk and the yeast until combined. Beat in the egg and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix with a cutlery knife until the dough comes together.
• Step 3:Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. Cover the dough and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
• Step 4:On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into an A4-sized rectangle, keeping the edges as square and straight as possible.
• Step 5:Take the 250g of butter and flatten out between grease proof paper, to A5 size. Place in the centre of the dough and then fold the two sides of the dough over to meet in the middle, enclosing the butter completely.
• Step 6:On a lightly floured surface with the short end towards you, roll back into A4 size, as before. This time fold up one-third of the dough and then fold the top third down on top to make a neat rectangle. This is called a single turn.
• Step 7:Put the dough back into the plastic bag and chill for another hour. Repeat Step 6 twice more, putting the dough back into the fridge for an hour between turns.

For the almond croissants:

• Step 1:Blend the marzipan, almond extract and egg white together to form a paste.
• Step 2:Roll out the croissant dough into a long rectangle and cut into 6 triangles as in the diagram below. Roll out the bottom straight edge of each triangle to make it a little thinner and make a small vertical cut in the centre of it.

• Step 3:Spread the triangles evenly with almond paste, leaving out the tip of the triangle and the base edge. Fold back the cuts and press down firmly.
• Step 4:Roll up the triangles into croissant shapes starting from the widest end. Place onto baking trays lined with baking parchment paper.
• Step 5:Allow to prove for 20 minutes or until double the size.
• Step 6:Place the croissants into a preheated oven at 190°C (fan assisted) and bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.
• Step 7:Once cooled, combine the water, icing sugar and almond extract and transfer into a piping bag. Finish by drizzling the icing over the croissants and top with toasted flaked almonds.