Olivia Piepmeier

Almond Cookies

← Recipes

Saturday, November 9, 2024
Category: dessert
A watercolor illustration of the cookie - it's more vertical than horizontal, sort of yellow, with some markings to indicate texture from the sugar coating and an almond sliver sticking out of the top.

inspired by NYTimes Cooking

Ingredients

  • 1 1/3c ground almonds (almond flour, whatever, it’s NUTS and they’re ground up)
  • 3/4c sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (orange is great! Haven’t tried lime but, why not?) and some of its juice (really, just some, too much makes the dough too sticky even after the fridge time)
  • Dash of almond extract (when I’m doing it with oranges, I do also add a dash of orange extract or Fiori)
  • Dash of salt

Toppings

  • 1/8c sugar, for rolling
  • Almond slivers, for decor (optional)

Directions

  1. Put all ingredients other than the toppings in a food processor.
  2. Pulse to make a cohesive dough.
  3. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours (I know I have done this quicker by putting the dough in the freezer for an hour or so but I can’t remember specifics)
  4. Preheat oven to 350F.
  5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
  6. Dump your 1/8c of sugar in a bowl or plate.
  7. Use a teaspoon or tablespoon size cookie scoop (remember this for later!) to get some dough and drop it in the sugar, rolling to coat.
  8. If you’re doing the almond toppings, gently press an almond slice point into top of each cookie, so that half the almond can be seen.
  9. Arrange cookies one inch apart on baking sheet.
  10. Bake until cookies have barest hint of color but still remain soft, 8 to 10 minutes for teaspoons and 12-14 minutes for tablespoons. This is tough to call cause they’re so light but you don’t want them to be super done when you take them out - they will cool beautifully chewy!

Thoughts

These feel like a secret weapon. They’re easy. They’re gluten free. They’re GOOD. REALLY GOOD. I made 50 or so of these for an event and seeing that they were GF, someone asked “but are they good?” which may sound rude but it was a question I was there for and delighted to inform them.

I haven’t tried these with coco powder but I’m determined to soon.