Cheat's Almond Matcha Croissants Recipe

These almond matcha croissants look fancy, but are actually super easy to make (when you cheat like I did).

Almond croissants are typically twice-baked croissants: first the pastry chef makes the croissant dough, then shapes and bakes it, then slices the croissants open and fills them with frangipane, and then bakes them once more.

But making croissant dough from scratch is a labour of love and can be time-consuming. It involves flattening out a big sheet of butter and layering pastry with it, then folding the whole thing several times. And in between each folding session, you have to refrigerate it for several hours so the butter doesn't melt from all the handling and stays intact to create fine, flaky layers at the end of the process. This can add up to several days of work before you can even cut and shape the dough into croissants.

When I want an almond croissant, I want one now. So to make my almond matcha croissants, I bypassed this step and went ahead and bought some good-quality croissants from the supermarket. Cutting down production time from days to minutes.

Matcha almond croissants seem fancy, but really they're just almond croissants with matcha added. The real fancy ones have matcha actually incorporated into the dough itself – but, of course, we're sneaking around making the dough and using plain shop-bought ones.

Look out for 'all butter' when buying your croissants for this matcha almond croissant recipe as they'll result in the best flavour.

I also prefer my almond croissants generously-filled (read: 'positively oozing') with frangipane, as you can see here. If you prefer more of a smear of frangipane, feel free to halve the frangipane recipe itself (everything under 'Ingredients for Almond Matcha Croissants' up until '4 ready-made croissants' and 'Toasted almond flakes' in the ingredients list below). But my way is far more indulgent.

You can also watch me make these on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes four almond matcha croissants.)

Ingredients for Simple Syrup:

50g caster sugar
50ml water

Ingredients for Almond Matcha Croissants:

150g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 tbsp matcha, sifted
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
A few drops of almond extract
200g ground almonds
4 ready-made croissants, sliced sandwich-style through the middle
Toasted almond flakes (about 40g)

Ingredients for Topping:

2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp matcha
1 tsp water (approx.)

Method:

1. To make the syrup, place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Once it's boiling, boil for three minutes, then take off the heat and leave to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, matcha and salt together until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the almond extract, and finally the ground almonds.

3. Spoon four heaped tablespoonfuls of your matcha frangipane into a smaller bowl and set it aside. Use the rest in your bigger bowl to evenly divide between your four croissants, spreading evenly inside them so you have four croissant sandwiches.

4. Evenly divide and spread your reserved tablespoonfuls of matcha frangipane on top of your croissant sandwiches. Then sprinkle over a few handfuls of toasted almond flakes so they stick to the top.

5. Place on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper, and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden but not completely brown on top. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes.

6. While your almond matcha croissants are cooling, make the icing by gradually stirring the water into the icing sugar and matcha until you have a thick, pour-able consistency. Once your croissants are cool. drizzle them with your matcha icing.

Enjoy, and have fun.