A Cheater’s Guide to Butter-Almond Croissants

I adore a breakfast of pastries, fresh fruits, good coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice.  Once upon a time, we lived in a city that had a fabulous selection of specialty bakeries.  If I wanted good croissants, true French croissants, I simply made a stop at one of several French pastry shops.  No more.  I love my little hick town, but I still yearn for the finer things in life.  As of yet, I haven’t found a true European pastry shop nearby.  I did stumble upon one online recently that looks promising, but it would be a bit of a trek to get there. One of these days . . .

What I’m about to share is a far cry from a true croissant, but it will do in a pinch.  The key is to find a grocery store that sells a decent plain or butter croissant.  As far as name-brand stores, Bel-Air, Raleys or Nob Hill bakeries aren’t bad.  Sprouts has a superior croissant as far as the grocery-store variety goes, as does the Nugget.  It may be an adventure just to find an acceptable store-bought croissant.  But that’s what life should be about – adventure!  Once you find an easily accessible supply of ok croissants, you’ll need to work a little magic.

Butter-Almond Croissants
6 Croissants, plain
1/2 Cup Butter, melted
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
1 Teaspoon Almond Extract

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter, about 90 seconds. Sift powdered sugar into melted butter. Add almond extract.

Using a liquid injector, fill croissants with buttery mixture in several places. Brush tops with remaining almond butter.

Bake in the oven about 5-10 minutes, until warm through, flakey on the outside and soft inside.

For a change of pace, replace almond extract with orange extract.  Finely grate some orange zest into the left over butter before brushing the croissants.