Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (Almond Clouds)
I manage to combine everything I love in one trip. How cool is that? Crew, travel, photography, food..life is good, eat pie.
Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow by Diana Krall
New England Bucket List
Row at Head of the Charles in Boston: Check
In Boston:
- Delicious dinner at Amelia’s Trattoria in Cambridge
- Sticky buns and Jam Pop-tarts at Flour
- Survive Boston traffic
- Jane, Mary and Debbie’s Excellent Adventure: Check
- Experience New England Fall colors Semi-check (a little too late)
- Visit Quechee, Vermont.
- Walk the covered bridge to get to Simon Pearce Glass
- Listen to SiriusXM Radio They play 6 artists from each decade over and over and over
- Chocolate-covered oyster crackers? Yep, Cocoa Bean Montpelier, Vermont
Find obscure pie shed in the middle of nowhere and eat scrumptious pie: Check
Poorhouse Pies Underhill, Vermont, get the Key Lime Pie, you won’t regret it. After watching A Few Good Pie Places on public television, this was our destiny….
Visit baking mecca King Arthur Flour: Check
Is this Heaven? No, it’s Vermont. Is it possible to pack 15 pounds of flour in my suitcase and not exceed airline weight limit? Apparently not.
And now for that cookie recipe I promised. Straight from King Arthur Flour, Almond Cloud Cookies. Yes, gluten-free and ridiculously easy, child’s play…just saying. I recommend a food processor to make the batter, an idea from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake, making it incredibly easy to make.
I used almond paste from the King Arthur Flour catalog. It calls for bitter almond oil, but, you can substitute vanilla extract and still taste the almond.
The dough is fairly stiff. I made my cookies a little smaller using a tablespoon ice cream scoop. Instead of sifting powdered sugar over the batter before baking, just roll the balls of dough in the sugar.
Do not skip the 3 finger indentations. The cookies look better. Baking time was approximately 15 minutes. The edges will be crisp and light brown and the centers soft and chewy. If you love almond and have a sweet tooth, this is the cookie for you.
Almond Cloud Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 10 ounce can of almond paste
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 egg whites lightly beaten
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 tsp. bitter almond oil substitute vanilla extract for this
- 1/4 salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees
- Place almond paste and sugar in food processor bowl. Pulse to blend until mixture looks crumbly
- Add egg whites, salt, extracts to almond sugar paste.
- Blend until smooth. Batter will be fairly stiff, should be able to scoop batter out with tablespoon ice cream scoop.
- Roll in powdered sugar until evenly coated
- Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Gently press three fingers into the top of each dough ball.
- Bake 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the center still chewy.
