Pastry Crescents with Almond Filling
- 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- About 6 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- Confectioners sugar
- 3 1/3 cups ground almonds
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
- Grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon or orange
- 2 to 3 drops of almond or vanilla essence
- For the pastry, mix the flour with the oil and the eggs very thoroughly.
- Bind with just enough orange juice to hold it together, adding it by the tablespoon, then knead into a soft, malleable dough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- Mix all the filling ingredients together and work with your hands into a soft paste.
- Divide the pastry dough into four for easy handling.
- Then roll it out into thin sheets on a clean surface (it does not need flouring because the dough is very oily and does not stick).
- Cut the sheets into 4-inch squares.
- Take a lump of almond paste and shape it into a thin, little sausage 3 1/2 inches long.
- Place it in the middle of a square, diagonally, on the bias, about 1/2 inch from the corners.
- Lift the dough up over the filling (a wide-bladed knife helps to lift the dough) and roll up, then very gently curve the roll into a crescent.
- Pinch the dough to seal the openings at the end.
- Repeat, making crescents with the remaining dough and filling.
- Arrange the crescents on oiled trays.
- Bake them in an oven preheated to 325F for 30 minutes.
- The crescents should not turn brown, but only just begin to color.
- When cool, dip them in plenty of confectioners sugar so that they are entirely covered.
- Another way of making the crescents is to cut the pastry into rounds, place a line of filling on one half and fold the other half of the pastry over the filling to make a half-moon shape.
- Then pinch the edges together, trim some of the excess rounded edge, and curve the pastries slightly into crescents.
- Instead of dusting with confectioners sugar, dip the pastries in warmed honey mixed with a drop of water to make it runnier (see page 127).
flour, vegetable oil, eggs, orange juice, confectioners sugar, ground almonds, sugar, egg, lemon, almond
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pastry-crescents-with-almond-filling-373025 (may not work)