Keto Almond Croissants
Light, fluffy, golden brown keto croissants filled with a keto almond paste.
Servings: 12 croissants
Ingredients
Keto Croissants
- 2 tbsp warm water 30ml (NOT hot)
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast 9g
- 2 tbsp inulin 16g
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp vital wheat gluten 100g
- ~1/2 cup allulose 80g (or 1/4 cup of a sweetener that measures like sugar)
- 1/3 cup oat fiber 42g
- 1/3 cup lupin flour 32g (USE 10SAMMYSAM for 10% off)
- 1 tbsp coconut flour 8g
- 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon optional, I like the flavour it adds!
- 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp if using unsalted butter
- 1 cup cold salted butter 250g
- 6 tbsp cold water 90ml (add a touch extra ONLY if needed)
- 7 tbsp cold heavy cream 105ml
- additional vital wheat gluten for flouring surface
- heavy cream for brushing
Almond Paste
- 1/4 cup salted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup almond flour 85g
- 1/4 cup powdered monkfruit sweetener 60g
- 2 tbsp egg whites 30g (or 1 large egg white)
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add the 2 tbsp warm water, yeast and inulin and use a fork to gently stir everything together. Cover with saran wrap and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all of your dry ingredients including; vital wheat gluten, allulose sweetener, oat fiber, lupin flour, coconut flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, cinnamon and salt.
- Next, chop the cold butter into rough small chunks (they don't have to be even) and add them to the bowl.
- Use a fork or dough blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients and make the pieces smaller. (I like to use the end of the fork to poke down on the pieces. This may take a bit. Don't worry about the pieces being perfectly small!)
- Once the pieces are about the size of mentos as I like to say, you can then add the cold water and heavy cream, along with the yeast mixture from earlier (which, should now be quite foamy).
- Stir everything until the dough starts to come together, then use your hands to form a rough ball. Our goal is not to fully blend the dough, but simply to get it to stick together in a ball shape with chunks of butter still easily visible. Add an extra tablespoon of cold water only if needed.
- Next, wrap your large ball of dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill for 30min -1 hour.
- Meanwhile we can make the almond paste. Add all of the almond paste ingredients to a bowl, then mix well(a hand mixer works best for this) until everything is combined. Then cover and refrigerate until you need it.
- After 30min - 1 hour, you can un-wrap the ball of keto croissant dough and place it on a greased and lightly vital wheat gluten-floured surface. (I prefer to use two pieces of greased and floured parchment paper for this). If not using parchment paper on the bottom, at least use one piece on top of your dough. This will prevent the rolling pin from sticking to the dough.
- Roll the dough out length-wise to get a long rectangle. Fold one side of the dough inwards, then the other like folding a brochure or letter. Gently push any rough edges in to straighten out the shape of your dough. Then turn it 90*. flour the surface and top of the dough again and repeat the first step of rolling it out into a long rectangle..then again fold it like a letter. Repeat this process 4-5 times in total. Your dough may get tough to roll out. If this happens, simply refrigerate and cover the dough for another 30min - 1 hour to allow the gluten time to relax.
- After these initial 4-5 folds, refrigerate your dough for 1 hour. Then repeat for 2 more folds or just until your butter is almost completely blended and streaky rather than chunky. If your dough is super tough to roll, you can roll it into a thick rectangle and cut it in half. Then roll out each half separately to make the process easier.
- Once you are done with rolling and folding, make sure your dough chills for at LEAST 30min or preferably 1-2 hours prior to the next step.
- Pre-heat your oven to 350*F.
- Take your dough out, un-wrap it and slice it evenly in half if you haven't already. Re-wrap one half and place it back in the fridge for later.
- Roll out this piece of croissant dough again, but this time, width-wise AND length-wise to create a large thicker rectangle.
- Make sure your dough gets about as thin as you can get it. It will likely be about 1/4 of an inch thick (basically thin but still easy to pick up without breaking).
- Cut any weird un-even edges off your rectangle using a sharp knife or pizza cutter (save the dough!) Then for LARGE croissants, cut the rectangle diagonally from one corner to the other into 2 long triangles. For SMALL croissants cut the rectangle of dough into 4-6 smaller rectangles (see video for how I sliced smaller croissants).
- Use the left-over scraps to form one final large croissant by placing the pieces of dough together and rolling them out to form another rough long triangle. (Or form a couple more croissants if making smaller croissants).
- Take the triangles and using a knife or pizza cutter, slice just a bit up the middle of the short FLAT side of the triangle (see photos). Then pinch the corners of this side and gently pull them apart slightly (again, see the photos). This just helps our croissants look prettier after rolling them up. Add a small scoop of almond paste to the bottom of the croissant then roll the croissants from the bottom (cut-side) up to the very tip of the triangle, then gently press the tip of the triangle into the dough to help the croissant hold together. Don't worry if it's not completely sticking just yet. Repeat this process for all of your croissant triangles.
- Place finished croissants on a parchment-lined baking sheet spaced evenly apart. Remove your second-half of the dough from the fridge and repeat this same process.
- Once you have all of your croissants on a parchment-lined baking sheet, lightly brush all of the croissants with heavy cream. Cover your croissants with plastic wrap. Then let the croissants rise for ~10-15 minutes at room temperature OR refrigerate over-night, un-wrap and bake straight from the fridge in a pre-heated oven. If you let them rise past this time, the butter may melt out when the croissants are baked.
- Place your oven rack on a the highest setting if your oven tends to brown more from the bottom-up, place the rack on a lower or middle shelf if it browns more from the top-down.
- Bake the croissants for 21-25min or until golden brown.
- Brush the leftover almond paste on top of the croissants and then press on slivered almonds and sprinkle with powdered sweetener. Enjoy your keto almond croissants!
Video
Notes
Ingredients In Keto Almond Croissants Recipe
- Vital Wheat Gluten - You can read more about it HERE.
- Oat Fiber
- Lupin Flour - My newest favourite ingredient. I use the Modern Mountain Flour Brand (use 10SAMMYSAM for a 10% discount on amazon or their website). This ingredient should not be substituted.
- Coconut Flour
- Powdered Monkfruit Sweetener
- Allulose
- Xanthan Gum
- Active Dry Yeast
- Inulin
Tips For Making Keto Almond Croissants
- When first forming your ball of dough, remember not to over-mix and cause the butter chunks to melt. You want to use your hands to get everything to stick together as best as you can without smushing the butter!
- The longer you can refrigerate your dough between each stage in the instructions, the better your keto almond croissants will come out! 1-2 hours between each stage is best and recommended but you can do 30min if you are in a hurry. You can even refrigerate the finished the croissants overnight (after you brush them with heavy cream and cover them with plastic wrap) then bake them off in the morning.
- When you first roll out your rough dough into a rectangle, it may not be perfect because the butter is still chunky. This is okay! Simply push messy edges back into the dough and continue with the rolling and folding process. It will smooth out as you go.
- As I mention in the full recipe, your dough may become difficult to roll out because of the gluten. This recipe doesn't give a lot of resting time as to speed up the croissant-making process. So if you can't roll the dough out anymore, roll it out as much as you can, wrap it in saran wrap and let it chill for 30min - 1 hour to give the gluten time to relax, then try rolling it out further OR simply slice the rectangle in half and work with one half at a time (as seen in the video for this recipe).
- This recipe makes quite large and filling croissants if you make 7-8 (one sliced with filling could easily make a meal!) Even small croissants are quite filling because of the protein and fiber content in these keto croissants, compared to regular traditional croissants, so just keep that in mind when shaping them!
- These croissants do not need a long rising time at room temperature. It's best to bake them after just 10-15min of them sitting covered at room temperature. If you want the BEST possible texture and to give the croissants the full amount of time to proof, then refrigerate them over-night after brushing with heavy cream and covering with plastic wrap. Then let them sit for 10min, (covered still) at room temperature prior to removing the plastic wrap and baking them off in a pre-heated oven.
- Bake these croissants until golden brown. Typical croissants bake at a higher temperature but keto pastries tend to do better with a slight temperature decrease.
- If you are worried about the raw egg white in the topping, simply place these back in the oven and broil the tops for less than a minute.
- You can store these keto almond croissants at room temperature in a ziplock bag for up to 3 days (after that they just lose a lot of their freshness).
- For the best results, I recommend freezing these and removing only the ones you want when you want them! I take one out of the freezer every morning and microwave it for ~25s on a plate until warm. You can also let it thaw at room temperature or re-heat wrapped in tin-foil in a 350*F oven just until warm.