Chocolate Almond Puff Pastry Twists

Chocolate Almond Puff Pastry Twists are buttery and sweet with a light and delicate crunch! This is a great way to use leftover puff pastry and a quick and easy dessert for entertaining!

A new use for leftover puff pastry

Whenever I buy frozen puff pastry, I always end up with a leftover sheet. Making palmier cookies have been my go to for a long time, but I had a hankering for something new and different.

While browsing the kitchen, I saw I also had some leftover almond paste from when I made my Tricolor cookies at Christmas time. Almond paste is one of those ingredients that is great to have stashed away in your pantry. It is naturally flavored and has a sweet-almond richness that you just can't get with extracts. It's the perfect add to this puff pastry dessert.

Anyway, it was obvious to me that almonds and puff pastry are a match made in heaven. 🙂

How to make Chocolate Almond Puff Pastry Twists

As I do with my Tricolor cookies, I took the almond paste and pulsed it in a food processor with some granulated sugar. This creates a very fine mixture that you can easily sprinkle on top of the pastry. It almost has the texture of brown sugar.

If you don't have almond paste in your pantry (I realize it's a LESS common ingredient), you can use just granulated sugar with almond extract.

Next, roll out the puff pastry slightly, just to make it a bit thinner and give a larger surface areas. Brush the entire top with melted butter using a silicone brush.

Sprinkle the almond sugar generously over the buttered dough and press it into the dough firmly. It's very important to give the sugar a good press because you want it to stick as much as possible.

Next, fold the dough in half, matching the bottom corners to the top.

Cut the dough into strips using a pastry wheel.

I was hopeful that using the fluted edge would make these twists look even more amazing, but unfortunately the shape didn't hold up to well during baking. Oh well. Ya live and ya learn.

Twisting the strips on both ends creates a beautiful curl of pastry and sugary layers. It can get a little messy; don't be alarmed if a little bit of the sugar falls out of the dough.

As the twists bake, the buttery pastry puffs up to a lovely golden brown and the almond paste/sugar starts to caramelize.

The pastry is insanely light and flaky. This is why I love using frozen store bought puff pastry. I would never be able achieve this using homemade dough! Maybe one day I'll try, but for now I envy those who have mastered home made puff pastry.

After the twists cool, melt some milk chocolate and drizzle it over the twists using a pastry bag. While you could certainly drizzle on chocolate by using a fork, it's easier to control using a piping bag. You could use a small round piping tip, but I just cut the corner off.

I added some sliced almonds for flair.

Easy puff pastry dessert

I was not expecting for these Chocolate Almond Puff Pastry Twists to be as addicting as they were! The puff pastry is so flaky, light and airy. The almond sugar caramelized and added a surprising crunch. Adding just a hint of chocolate was just the thing to take these pastry twists over the top. 

If you're looking for a great way to use leftover frozen puff pastry, this is it! These twists are so easy to pull together and they feel so fancy. It takes no time to whip up these delectable bites of buttery, flaky deliciousness.

Chocolate Almond Puff Pastry Twists

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Chocolate Almond Puff Pastry Twists are buttery and sweet with a light and delicate crunch! This is a great way to use leftover puff pastry and a quick and easy dessert for entertaining!

Ingredients

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• 4 oz almond paste (not marzipan, if you don't have almond paste, just add the ⅓ c granulated sugar as noted below and add 1 tsp almond extract)
• ⅓ c granulated sugar
• all purpose flour (for rolling)
• 1 sheet store bought puff pastry (defrosted but not warm)
• 2-3 tablespoon butter (melted - salted or unsalted can be used as there is no additional salt in this recipe)
• 3 oz milk or dark chocolate
• sliced almonds for decorating

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Prepare a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, blend the almond paste and sugar until it is completely homogeneous (or, just sugar and almond extract if you're not using almond paste). Set aside.
3. Sprinkle a bit of flour on top of your work surface and on your rolling pin. Roll the pastry out until you have formed a larger rectangle.
4. Brush the melted butter on the top of the pastry.
5. Generously sprinkle the almond/sugar mixture on top of the buttered pastry and press into the dough firmly.
6. Fold the dough in half so that the shorter ends of the rectangle meet. Press down on the dough again.
7. Using a pastry wheel or a knife, cut the dough lengthwise into 8 long strips. Then, cut one line down the middle to form 16 strips.
8. Press the dough on both ends and twist to form the shape. Place the twists onto the baking sheet.
9. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the twists have puffed up and are golden brown.
10. Allow the twists to cool on a wire rack.
11. Melt chocolate in 10 second intervals in the microwave.
12. Using either a fork or a pastry bag, drizzle the chocolate on top of the twists.
13. Sprinkle slices almonds on top of the chocolate.
14. Allow the chocolate to fully set and serve!

Notes

Recipe by Owlbbaking.com