These crescent rolls are filled with an almond paste, or marzipan as we would say in Scandinavia. This is an almond paste I bought in the store here (I know, it’s not easy to find everywhere), but you can easily make your own. Just follow my recipe below. An almond paste gives so much taste to these rolls. My topping with cocoa frosting and roasted salty chopped almonds are also a taste enhancer I just love in this recipe. I hope you like it!
Ingredients (16 crescent rolls):
- 2 1/2 tsp active yeast
- 2 2/3-3 cups all purpose flour
- 7 oz milk
- 1 egg
- 3 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7 tbsp butter
Filling
- 7 tbsp almond paste (if you want to make your own almond paste, follow this marzipan recipe)
- 3 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Topping
- 1 egg
- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 2-4 tbsp water
- 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup whole roasted salty almonds
Crescent rolls
Heat the milk to 98ºF. Use a stand mixer and mix the yeast with one cup of the flour. Add the milk into the yeast and flour mixture. Add egg, sugar and salt into the bowl and mix it together. Now add the rest of the flour but little by little. Finally, add room temperature butter in smaller pieces into the bowl and mix until you have a smooth dough. Let the dough ferment in the baking bowl covered with a tea towel for 40 minutes.
Now prepare the filling. Knead the almond paste, butter and cardamom together to a smooth filling.
Take out the dough on a baking board. Knead the dough carefully. Divide the dough in two. Roll out each dough to a circle and cut into 8 cake slices. Place half of a table spoon of filling on each slice’s widest part. Roll together the crescent roll start rolling on the widest side towards the thinest part of the slice. Place each crescent roll on an oven tray covered with parchment paper. Ferment for another 30 minutes.
Pre heat the oven to 475ºF. Brush each crescent roll with egg and bake in the oven for 5-8 minutes or until they get a nice golden color.
Let the crescent rolls cool down. Prepare the frosting. Mix the confectioner’s sugar with water until you have the thickness you want. If it’s too thin, just add more confectioner’s sugar. Add the frosting on the crescent rolls. Chop roasted salty almonds and sprinkle on the frosting before it dry.
Scandinavian Simple Eating 