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Buckle up friends, you’re in for a fun one with this almond croissant inspired sourdough bread! If you’re anything like me and love the almond frangipane filling of a buttery croissant yet don’t have the energy to make croissants at home, this might just be the perfect recipe for you. A delicious bubbly sourdough loaf with folded in almond frangipane filling makes for the tastiest loaf of almond sourdough bread. This is easily one of my favorite sourdough creations of all time. It’s sweet and chewy with a crispy sourdough crust.

What You Need

To make this almond croissant inspired sourdough bread, you’ll need all the normal equipment and ingredients for a sourdough loaf with a few extras to make the sweet, tasty almond frangipane.

Equipment:

• Large mixing bowl
• Kitchen scale
• Dough whisk
• Proofing basket
• Parchment paper
• Cast Iron Dutch oven
• Spatula

Ingredients

• Bubbly, well-fed sourdough starter
• Flour
• Water
• Salt
• Sliced almonds
• Almond flour
• Almond extract
• Egg
• Butter (softened)
• Granular sugar

Sourdough Starter

At the heart of every sourdough recipe is a vibrant, tangy starter. In this recipe you’ll want a strong bubbly starter to help give rise to the sourdough loaf. First, let’s make sure you understand the basics. A sourdough starter is a mixture of flour and water that captures wild yeast from the air and the surrounding environment. These microorganisms then ferment and create bubbles of carbon dioxide and acid that give sourdough bread its rise and tangy, unique flavor. In order to keep your sourdough starter alive and happy, you need to feed it regularly.

To feed your starter, you’ll want unbleached all purpose flour (you can also use rye or whole wheat flour) and clean filtered water. I use a glass mason jar with a temperature sticker on the side (starter is happiest between 70-75F). To feed my sourdough starter, I typically use approximately a 1:1:1 ratio. That’s one part starter, one part flour and one part water. More often than not, I’m aiming for 100 grams of each. Enough to make a couple recipes with plenty remaining for the next feeding. I would share that you can have more than 100 grams (in this example) of unfed starter and still feed it 100 grams of water and flour. What you will likely notice is that the starter will rise a little more slowly. This is why many people “discard” part of their starter to ensure a slightly quicker rise time. Check out and save my Dark Chocolate Chip Sourdough Discard Scone recipe, when you find yourself looking for a new discard recipe to try out.

Making the Dough

After your sourdough starter has about doubled, approximately 4-10 hours after feeding, it’s time to get starter on the base of this recipe, the sourdough. If you’re already familiar with the sourdough bread process, you will notice that this step is really no different than most other sourdough bread recipes.

In a large mixing bowl, weigh sourdough starter and filtered water (I like to use slightly warm water), stir until combined. Next weigh out and add flour and salt, combining with a dough whisk until creating a shaggy dough.

After resting for about 30 minutes, it’s time to begin a series of stretch and folds. The name mostly speaks for itself, the idea here is that you stretch the dough over itself and then fold it in. You’ll turn the bowl and repeat that stretch and fold process in each direction; left, right, top, bottom. If you are not familiar with this process, check out this video on Youtube for a visual aid. The stretch and folds help to develop gluten and strengthen your dough.

You’ll repeat the stretch and fold process about every 30 minutes for about 2 hours. On your third stretch and fold, get your sliced almonds ready. You’ll sprinkle them right on top of the dough and then complete your stretch and fold. After that, you should have one more stretch and fold which will help to ensure the sliced almonds are well distributed throughout your loaf.

After completing your stretch and folds, you’ll allow your sourdough to bulk ferment for about 10-12 hours. I typically like to bulk ferment overnight, let it work while you sleep. Make sure to cover the bowl with a damp towel, beeswax wrap or plastic wrap to keep the moisture in and prevent your dough from getting a crusty dry layer over top. Then the next morning you can pick back up where you left off with the next steps.

Almond Frangipane Filling

The real star of the show is undoubtedly the almond frangipane filling. This sweet, nutty filling packs all the flavor you could possibly imagine. And the best part, it’s really quite simple to make. In a mixing bowl combine; soft butter, granular sugar, egg and almond extract. Once mixed, add in almond flour and a pinch of salt and bring filling to a paste like consistency.

At this point, you are surely wafting in the decadent smell but set that bowl aside for a few minutes and move on to the next step.

Folding and Shaping

You are now ready to fold in your almond frangipane filling and shape your loaf before proofing and baking your almond croissant inspired sourdough bread.

Begin by stretching the dough, a little more than you typically would for other sourdough loaves, on a lightly floured surface. Grab a spatula and that almond filling and spread an even, thin layer across the dough. Fold one side in, add more filling, fold the other side in and add more filling. Each time you fold the dough, continue adding filling until there is no more shaping to be done and you have a round ball of almond filled dough. Save just a little bit of the filling to add on the top of the loaf near the end of baking.

At this point, you can transfer your dough, top side down, into a floured proofing basket. Let your dough rest for at least one hour, if not closer to two, before baking.

Baking and Scoring Your Almond Sourdough Bread

About 30 minutes before it’s time to bake, preheat your oven to 450F and place your Dutch oven (or whatever you plan to bake your bread in) into the oven during its preheat.

Once your oven and Dutch oven are preheated, it’s time to score your bread. Onto a sheet or parchment paper, flip your dough out of the proofing basket. Take a dough lame and score your bread. For this recipe, I went with a simple semi-circle curve at roughly a 45 degree angle to create a nice crispy ear. You can score anyway you’d like but keep in mind we have some extra almond filling we are going to be adding to the loaf so you’ll want a nice crease to fill in or at least a place where you won’t be covering a beautiful design.

Bake your almond sourdough for 30 minutes with the lid on and then another 15-20 minutes with the lid off. I also will often put a couple of ice cubes in the bottom of my Dutch oven to add in a little extra moisture during baking.

Storing

Rest your beautiful loaf on a wire cooling rack until it has cooled completely. If I’m being honest, I often don’t wait until it’s “completely” cooled to dive in and try a slice, but if you can wait, it is easier to cut that way. I absolutely love my bread saw for slicing through my sourdough bread. It helps to create more even slices and makes the classic crispy sourdough crust feel like butter through every slice.

After you and your family have tried the fresh almond sourdough, any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a few days. Once completely cooled (and this time for real! you don’t want to create any condensation), put the remaining bread into a plastic Ziploc bag or glass container for storage. Often times I don’t personally put our sourdough bread in the fridge, if we plan to eat it in a couple of days, but this recipe has some ingredients that are best kept in the refrigerator. This loaf should store well for about 3-5 days but if you’re sharing with friends and family, I doubt there will be any left after that long!

Almond Croissant Inspired Sourdough Bread

Course: BreakfastDifficulty: Medium

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

45

minutes

Rest time

10-12

hours

Sweet almond frangipane filling folded into a flavor packed sourdough bread loaf, creates an indulgent eating experience, all inspired by the classic, almond croissant.

Ingredients

• Sourdough Bread

• 300g Water

• 75g Bubbly, Fed Sourdough Starter

• 400g Flour

• 7g Salt
  1/3c sliced almonds

• Almond Frangipane Filling

• 4tbsp Soft butter

• 100g Granular sugar

• 1 Egg

• 1tsp Almond Extract

• 90g Almond Flour

Directions

• In a large mixing bowl, combine water and fed sourdough starer
• Add in flour and salt until a shaggy dough forms
• Rest for 30 minutes and begin series of 4 stretch and folds. Spaced approximately 30 minutes apart, adding in sliced almonds on the third of four stretch and folds
• Let bulk ferment overnight or for 10-12 hours
• Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and stretch out into a large rectangle
• Spread a thin layer of the almond filling over the dough. Fold one side of the dough in towards itself and spread another layer of filling, continue this process until a ball like shape is formed. Save a little bit of the filling for step 10
• Place, top down, into a proofing basket for about 2 hours
• In the meantime, preheat oven to 450F with Dutch oven inside during preheat
• Transfer dough to parchment paper, score and place in oven for 30 minutes with the lid on
• Remove lid and spread the remaining filling in the crease of the crust or all over the top, bake for 15-20 more minutes
• Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack before enjoying 🙂

Notes