One hundred and twenty-ish

Remember that number. Way back in January we took an impromptu trip to New York for my cousin’s birthday.  My cousin’s wife Kathy, baker, crafter, home chef extraordinaire made all of the scrumptious desserts – birthday cake, lemon parfaits, and an amazing assortment of cookies for the shindig.  We ate, we danced, we laughed.  Not surprisingly I was enamored with all of the desserts Kathy made, one in particular, stood out.  A cinnamon-y, crispy-crunchy cookie with almonds scattered throughout.

When we returned home from our NY jaunt I fired off an e-mail to Kathy.

Me:  Hey Kathy, Great party!  As usual delicious food, great company, and so much fun!  Loved those crunchy almond cookies!  Mind sending me the recipe?

Kathy:  Still recovering from the party.  Yep, those are good cookies.  The recipe is from Nick Malgieri’s Cookies Unlimited, they’re called Dutch Almond Cookies.

Me: Wait, I think I have that book (surprise, surprise)

…I scurry off to find said book

Seize the Dough

The first time I made them was a total disaster.  The recipe is actually pretty simple.  Butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and a touch of water are heated until the sugar is melted.  Once the sugar has dissolved toss in the whole blanched almonds.  The almond mixture is then combined with the dry ingredients.  All was fine until I stirred in the flour and bam!  It seized and instantly transformed into a crumbly dry mess. Ugh.  Disappointing.  I tried to salvage it by pressing it into a baking pan and chilling it.  Unfortunately, even after chilling, it was not workable and it ended up in my compost bin.  Where did I go wrong?

I turned to my trusty laptop, googled Nick Malgieri, and fired off an e-mail lamenting my disaster.  True to form and further validating how nice bakers are, I received a response from him shortly.  After some mulling, he concluded that I had probably used too much flour.  

One hundred and twenty-ish

When you try these bundles of crispy crunchy goodness use a scale if you have one. It may save you from the “un-malleable mess” I had the first time. If you don’t have a scale, be gentle with your flour, don’t pack it in the cup when you measure.

I revisited these cookies for the holidays 2021.  This time I decided to go with the standard weight of 122gms for a cup of flour.  Worked like a charm.  I think anywhere between 120-125gms of flour should work for these cookies.  If you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour and lightly scoop it into your measuring cup with a spoon. Don’t pack it.

Sugar, butter, almonds, mixture on the stove before adding the flour.

Added the flour, this is the step I always approach with trepidation…and where I implore you to get a scale!

This batch actually has a smidge to much flour…see the dry parts?  But no seizing of the dough, Yay! Use parchment or heavy-duty foil with plenty of excess to grab, it was a b*tch trying to remove it, the regular-weight, too-short foil kept ripping.

Ready for the oven, be generous with the cinnamon sugar.

This time the dough did not turn into a chalky brick, instead, it was very thick and almost pourable.  I put it in an 8×8 pan lined with foil (very important) covered it with plastic wrap and chilled the dough overnight.  Once chilled it hardens and becomes easy to cut.  Divide dough into 3 logs.  Cut 1 log at a time leaving the remaining logs in the fridge. If it crumbles while cutting, just smoosh (a technical term used by all serious chefs) it back together.  The recipe calls for 1/4″ inch slices.  These are really crunchy cookies I would slice them a smidge thinner than 1/4 inch rather than more.  Place the cookies on a parchment-lined sheet about 1 inch apart and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Make sure to bake the cookies until they are a rich golden brown and firm to touch.  Once cooled the slices will be crispy-crunchy similar to biscotti. If under-baked the cookies will be chewy instead of crisp.

This recipe makes a ton of cookies, perfect for that upcoming holiday cookie swap. Delightful cookies, crunchy, airy, perfect with tea or coffee.

Added bonus, a holiday tune to go along with these scrumptious cookies.  From  Peanuts Christmas- Linus and Lucy