Chocolate Almond Crescents

In this recipe, we're going to make a super simple chocolate almond crescent, perfect for a dessert or a quick snack. You'll need the following ingredients:

• 2 cans Pillsbury™ Reduced Fat Crescent Dinner Rolls
• 8 tbs Almond Paste
• 2 large (4.4 oz, 124 g) Hershey's chocolate bars (with or without almonds)
• Milk to brush the tops of the crescent rolls (optional)
• Sprinkling sugar (white or colored, optional)

This recipe calls for reduced fat crescent rolls. This is important because the regular rolls can turn out with a greasy feel and taste if used.

Preheat your oven according to the temperature listed on the crescent roll package.

Unroll and separate the crescent wedges. Break the chocolate bars into individual pieces. You'll want 1-1/2 pieces of chocolate for each crescent wedge, so try to get 16 whole pieces and the rest can be broken into half pieces. Set aside the 16 whole pieces and 16 half pieces. Place the remainder into a Zip-Lock bag for melting later.

Remove the almond paste from its wrapper. Using a tablespoon as a gauge, press the almond paste into the spoon and use your knife to cut it off flush with the top of the spoon, leaving you with a 1 tbs lump of paste. Repeat until you have 8 lumps of almond paste, then cut each one in half, roll between your palms and press into flat bars about 2" long and 1/2" wide.

Place a crescent wedge on your work surface. Place a piece of the almond paste just inside the wide end of the dough. Place 1-1/2 pieces of the chocolate on top of the almond paste, and roll up into a crescent shape.

Arrange the crescents on a cookie sheet lined with either a silicone baking mat, or parchment paper. Lightly brush the tops with milk (optional) and sprinkle with coarse sugar (optional). Bake following the standard directions on the crescent roll package. When done, remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Cover a cooling rack with foil and place in a cookie sheet. I put the foil on the underside of the rack so there's an air space between the crescents and the foil.

When the crescents are cool enough to handle, transfer them to the foil lined rack. They can be close together for this step.

Place the bag of leftover chocolate in the microwave. I usually place a mug with water in the microwave as well. I've found that this gives the oven more mass to work with, and helps it work more effectively.

Ovens vary, but I usually set my oven to a couple minutes at 30-50% power and then check the chocolate. If you don't have variable power, then run your microwave for about 30 seconds at a time. When the chocolate is just soft enough to spread around in the bag, it's done. Don't overdo it -- there's a fine line between melted and seized chocolate. You'll know if you seized your chocolate because it will turn stiff and grainy.

Once your chocolate is perfectly melted, squeeze it toward one end of the bag, snip off a corner of the bag and use the bag like a pastry bag to squeeze the chocolate out and drizzle it around the tops of the crescents.

Place the foil lined rack in the refrigerator to set the chocolate.