All the flavours of an iconic Almond Croissant but in a tender, melt in your mouth cookie. A wonderful almond cookie dough is wrapped around an almond paste frangipane filling. The cookies are brushed with butter and topped with sliced almonds. Bake, cool and dust with icing sugar.
In a medium to large bowl, whisk the egg and the sugar till smooth. Whisk in the butter, rum, and almond extract. The add the almond flour in 1/4 cup increments, blending well with a wooden spoon. It will get stiffer with each addition. Once combined and smooth, transfer to a container with a lid and store in the fridge till needed. Chill for at least 2 hours.
Take the frangipane filling and roll into equal balls. You can make either 14 or 16 balls. This a rich cookie, so 16 cookies is great option. Once formed, you can work on the cookie dough.
Use a knife or bench scraper to divide the dough log in half. Divide each half into seven or eight sections, depending on how many frangipane balls you created.
Take one ball of the frangipane filling and place it in the middle of the cookie dough. Fold the dough around the filling ball, getting the edges to meet. Roll again, to smooth out the cookie dough. Place onto the prepared lined baking sheet. Continue with all the dough and the frangipane balls till all the cookies are formed.
Use your palm to gently push down on each cookie ball to flatten slightly. Using a pastry brush to lightly dampen a cookie with the butter. Sprinkle with the sliced almonds. If some don't seem to stick, just stick them in gently. Repeat with all the cookies. Don't be stingy with the sliced almonds. If you have room, and some almonds leftover, add them evenly to the cookies.
If you are measuring your flour with a measuring cup as opposed to a scale, use the fluff, scoop and level method to ensure that you aren't using too much flour. Fluff the flour, scoop gently into the measuring cup with a spoon going higher than the measure, and then level with a knife or offset spatula.
If using a gluten free flour blend, remove up to between 1.5 and 2 tbsp of the flour, as it absorbs more than regular flour. If not, you may find the dough very dry and crumbly.
If the dough sticks on your palms as you roll it, gently flour your hands occasionally.