Both Fred Meyers (owned by Kroger) and Trader Joe's didn't have any blanched almonds in stock, so I decided to pick up a few whole raw almonds and blanch them myself. Despite just about every online and cookbook resource that says this is easy to do, it really isn't. In fact, peeling the damn almonds was more time consuming than baking the entire batch of cookies. Ugh. The dedication to cooking I have for a mere garnishment... anyhow.
To blanch almonds, simply put your almonds into a heatproof bowl. Barely cover them with boiling water. Let the almonds sit for about a minute, drain, and rinse with cold water. Have fun peeling the almonds.
The almond cookie recipe is almost a standard sugar cookie ratio, except it has almond meal in the flour mix. It is traditionally made with lard, which is hard to get, make, or find fresh these days.
Ingredients
3 c. unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 c. almond meal (or finely ground fresh almonds)
1 c. unbleached cane sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3 tbsp water
1 tsp almond extract (if you wanted to make real almond cookies)
about 1/4 c. raw whole almonds, blanched (skins removed)
1 egg, beaten (optional egg wash for top of cookie)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, almond meal, and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar together, blend in the egg, water, and almond extract.
3. Combine 1&2 together to form a dough.
4. Form dough into 1-inch balls, and flatten slightly with your fingers onto the cookie sheet. The cookies spread out a bit, so, space them at least an 1-2 inches apart.
5. Press a whole blanched almond into the center of each cookie.
6. (optional) Brush each cookie lightly with an eggwash.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until the tops and edges of the cookies are light golden brown.
I used an egg wash (1 egg whisked together with 1/2 tsp almond extract) on this batch, but it's not necessary. It's for aesthetics only.
Imagine if you could if you had everything listed in this recipe except for the almond extract. While I could have used vanilla extract, that'd just be boring and I wouldn't learn anything from the experience. So, in went lemon extract. There you have it, not your average Chinese Almond Cookie. There are almonds in the recipe, but that's not what comes to mind for the name. It's the aroma and pleasing scent of almond extract that everyone remembers; not the almonds themselves.
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