Crisp Almond Cookies-a thin crisp cookie full of almond flavor
I do some of my best baking late at night. Everyone is in bed, there’s nothing on TV to watch. I’ve thrown a load of laundry in the washer. So now I need to stay close so those clothes can be put in the dryer before I go to bed. There is nothing worse than wet clothes left in the washer too long. That moldy smell just never goes away completely. And I don’t like to wake up to chores.
I’m the same way with dishes. I make sure all the dishes are washed and put away before I go to bed.
Sunday night was one of those nights. It wasn’t that late, maybe 9:30? I wanted to make more Chocolate Almond Butter. You know, the stuff that tastes like Nutella but with an almond flavor. Yeah, I’m not a big fan of hazelnuts.
It happened again.
Out of Cocoa Powder. That’s not completely true. I did have 3 cans of the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder. I could have used that but I didn’t want to.
Time to adapt. I didn’t want to waste a bunch of ingredients. I’d already started chopping the almonds in my handy dandy chopper. Which by the way, I finally killed. It had a good life, 20+ years. So now I’m going to look for a good food processor to replace it with.
When everything else fails, make cookies. You can never go wrong when you start with butter and sugar. I kept it simple. There’s nothing wrong with simple when it comes to a cookie.
Simple lets the full flavors of butter, almonds and vanilla come through.
I thought these would be an “adult cookie.” Something to enjoy with a cup of tea. These are good with tea, and coffee, and milk. These also turned out to be a favorite with my kids. They fought over who would get to take them to school to share with friends.
We ended up dividing them evenly. And I now have to bake more cookies for sharing.
Update with tips
This is Gail, Joan’s sister, with some tips for making these crisp almond cookies come out the way Joan intended. Some of you have had trouble getting the cookies to spread like the ones Joan made. Here are some possible reasons why.
1. Oven temperature: Ovens can vary in temperature by quite a lot from the setting. Additionally, there can be hot and cool spots within an oven. My old oven was consistently 50°F cooler than the setting. An oven thermometer can help you see if your oven is heating to the proper temperature. You can also move your racks away from the heating element to help with spreading. You can also calibrate your oven. Google “calibrate oven temperature” and the brand of your oven to find out how.
2.Butter temperature: Is the butter truly softened before you make the dough? Warmer butter promotes spreading.
3. Dough temperature: Is your dough room temperature before you put it in the oven? The colder the dough, the less spread.
4. Type of pan: Cookies tend to spread better on lighter baking pans and insulated baking pans than dark, non-stick pans. On Betty Crocker’s site, there is an FAQ and under “Why don’t my cookies spread”, they recommend using an aluminum sheet.
5. Leavening age: Old leavening (baking soda or baking powder) can also cause your cookies to spread less.
Connect with Chocolate Chocolate and More!
Crisp Almond Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups butter, softened (337 g)
- 1 cup brown sugar (200 g)
- 1 cup sugar (200 g)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (10 ml)
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (280 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking power (4 g)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (0.7 g)
- 1 cup finely chopped almonds (112 g)
Instructions
- Cream together butter and sugars, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add in eggs and vanilla and beat again.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to dough, one third at a time until all added. Stir in almonds.
- Using a small cookie scoop, place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet three inches apart (these cookies spread.) Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-9 minutes. Until edges turn golden. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
Notes
recipe source ChocolateChocolateandmore.com
Want more cookies?
Cream Cheese Chocolate Croissant Cookies
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Cate+@+Chez+CateyLou says
I agree – nothing is worse than waking up to chores! These cookies look amazing – you can tell that they just melt in your mouth. YUM! Hope you have a great weekend!
Joan Hayes says
Thanks Cate, these cookies are a pleasant surprise, a lighter cookie with a great almond taste!
Lucia Brown says
I love cookies and these look absolutely delish. Can’t wait to try them.
Joan Hayes says
Thanks, enjoy!
Ashley @ Wishes & Dishes says
These look so good! Definitely not just “adult” cookies 🙂
Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction says
These look delicious! Perfect with a big glass of milk!
Linda says
Just an FYI. I think it started with this posting (which I really wanted to add to my ZIPLIST!!). If I use Safari on the iPad or MacBook your site crashes nearly every time. I switched to Chrome to write about the problem since I cannot stay on your site long enough using Safari to argue there is a problem. BTW, both this recipe and the newest one look great! I hated that I could no longer access your recipes and blogs because you have some great recipes!! Thanks for another two to add to my list of “I want to bake this!”
Liz says
Raw or toasted almonds?
Jodee Weiland says
These cookies look light and delicious! I love the idea of a wafer thin like cookie…almond cookies go well with anything…thanks for sharing!
Maria says
Such beautifully baked cookies! They look absolutely perfect! And they sound delicious, the perfect cookie to have with a nice cup of tea!
Jem says
I tried these but it was too buttery and weren’t as thin 🙁 what did I do wrong?
Minus the that, the taste was delicious!
John says
They look gorgeous! I know what I will bake this week end. Question, how do you form them when placing them on the baking sheet? Shall it be little balls or something else? My last batch was not so crusty on the sides.
Mary says
Well, I must really be sleeping here b/c I cannot even find/see the recipe. All I see is the commentary & the pictures. HELP!!! I want to make these!!!
Mary says
Recipe is finally showing. Not sure why but it took several hours & refreshing to get it to appear. All the other recipe pages worked fine except for this one! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
claudia says
Can you convert the measure of the ingredients in the european ones, please! 🙂 Thank you very much and great recipe!!!
victoria says
I made these cookies but unfortunately mine came out to crumbly and just crumbled at the touch:(
Joan Hayes says
I’m so sorry they didn’t turn out. Sounds like too much of the dry ingredients. When I measure my flour, instead of dipping my measuring cup into the flour tin, I use a spoon to scoop out the flour and then place it in my measuring cup. This keeps it from getting packed down like brown sugar would.
Rae says
Hi. I made these last night, because I was really craving a nice thin crispy cookie to accompany lemon mousse with raspberry sauce. Mine didn’t come out flat, they rose in the middle. Not sure if I needed to cook them longer, but they are fairly chewy, not crispy. I used golden yellow sugar, should I have used brown or demarra sugar? If I made them again, I think I would just use 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and perhaps 1 teaspoon of almond extract? Any suggestions to get them to stay flat?
Joan Hayes says
I’m sorry these didn’t turn out for you. I’ve never heard of golden sugar. The recipe calls for 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of regular granulated sugar. How much sugar did you use? From what you’re telling me, it sounds like maybe you had too much flour. I hope you’ll try them again, following the recipe and let me know how they turn out.
Terryk says
After questions regarding the amount of butter I got confirmation that it was the correct amount. I made them this morning, delicious! I bought two size cookie scoops the smaller being 2 teaspoons the larger being a tablespoon. I used mostly the smaller scoop and have tons of cookies to share. In regard to problems with puffing, I flattened the scooped cookie dough a bit before it baked a and as soon as I took a tray out I used a spatula to flatten slightly. Last I took a few, melted some chocolate and mixed in ground almonds and spread it on a cookie and topped with another cookie. This cookie is a keeper.