What to do With a Bag of Almonds?

I’ve had a bag of chopped almonds sitting in my kitchen for about a month and a half now. Every single time I open that cupboard, they catch my eye, nestled in their Zip-Lock bag between my organic vanilla and baking powder. So I finally decided to do something with them. I went searching and I found this little gem of a recipe over at the flourishing foodie

Mine didn’t come out looking quite as pretty as hers, but after a long day and some serious hours spent in the kitchen beforehand making pork chops, I couldn’t have been happier with the tasty little treats. I also chose to dust mine with some vanilla bean icing sugar. I also ended up using raspberry jam instead of strawberry – worked just as well.

Next time I won’t be so lazy and I’ll get my Canon 5D out to take pictures with, instead of using my iPhone.

 

strawberry almond thumbprint cookies

(makes 18 – 20 cookies)
(recipe adapted from Herriott Grace)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Chop the almonds and set to the side. Separate the egg white and yolk and set to the side.

3. In a med-large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale yellow with a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

4. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and cream until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and mix until all ingredients come together.

5. With a small ice cream scoop #100, measure out 20 small balls. Roll them between your hands to form a uniform ball ~ 20.

6. Dip them into the beaten egg white and then roll them in the chopped almonds. With the bottom of a cup, flatten into disks. With the end of a wooden spoon, create small indents on the top of the cookies. Drop a tsp or more of the jam into the indent.

7. Place onto a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Welcome to the foxy baker…

Welcome to the foxy baker. My name is Eliza (a.k.a the foxy baker) – I’m a 25 year old video editor who spends an unhealthy amount of time in front of a computer screen. In order to maintain functioning legs and to prevent my brain from turning to mush, I spend as much of my free time as I can creating tasty treats (and usually making a complete mess in the process) in the kitchen or turning whatever I can get my hands on into little works of art.

I’ve taken the plunge into the blogging universe (with some trepidation) for a variety of reasons:

1. To share my baking creations with other taste enthusiasts.

2. To motivate myself to keep trying new things in the kitchen (and out of the kitchen)

3. To meet others, like me, who are amateur cooks and crafters, in order to share what works and what dosen’t.

4. To finally meet someone who can tell me what to do with the inordinate amount of vanilla bean infused icing sugar I have in my kitchen. Seriously. If anyone out there reads this and knows of some good recipes that call for vanilla bean infused icing sugar, let me know what they are. There’s a cookie in it for you.

the foxy baker