crispy almond cookies
The other day my friends Treefrogdemon and SpottedRichard asked about a thin crispy cookie. I made one, with rum and coarse salt. But Spotted Richard said she’d imagined something with almond. And so, to be honest, had I. So I tried again. I had two leftover egg whites, and I decided to use them to make a light, thin cookie with almost no flour. (I was worried that this would be one of those occasions that I waste a whole cupboardful of ingredients trying to use up two egg whites, but luckily these turned out very tasty!) They’re thin and lacy and crispy, almost like almond toffee.
Here’s Yellow on the Broom, by Jean Redpath, because I think Treefrogdemon and SpottedRichard will like it, and because springtime is here again!!
4 T soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 t salt
1 cup sliced almonds, ground with…
…3 T flour to be quite fine
1 t vanilla
2 egg whites – beaten till stiff
Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the vanilla and mix in well. Add the almonds, salt and flour, stir to mix well.
Whip the egg whites till they’re quite stiff, and then fold/stir them into the batter.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Drop these on a lightly buttered cookie sheet in very small spoonfuls, quite far apart – they spread a lot. I baked mine for about 10 minutes. If you bake them a little longer, till they start to brown on the bottom, they’ll be crisper. If you take them out a couple of minutes earlier, when they’re still pale, they’ll be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Good either way!!
Out of the Ordinary 
I do like it! and I think I’m going to like the biscuits too.
yum, I wonder if you already have almond meal how much you would use?
I was wondering about that myself! I should probably measure the ground almonds rather than the sliced. I think it would be almost equivalent. I buy sliced almonds in bulk, and they’re fairly densely packed. Maybe slightly less? Maybe 1/4 cup less than the recipe asks for. I think it will work out fine, even if you follow the recipe with the same amount!
Oh yum! Will have to do both types of cookies. Yes, I do have cooking dreams, usually involving burning or melting objects too!
Claire, I made these and they were splendid!!!! Luscious!! And easy. I think I might try them by doing the almonds, flour in the food processor and then adding in the other stuff (sugar, butter, etc) and mixing them by pulsing them some few times. Put them in a bowl and then fold in the beaten whites. I figured out to take them out of the cookie sheet by using the back of a spatula (for less crinkling up) and then dropping them on a rack upside down..
Hello, Joan! I’m glad they worked out for you. I think it’s a brilliant idea to make them all in the processor. The only processor I have is tiny – I was given it to make baby food 9 years ago! I don’t think I could fit everything in. If I had a bigger one I’d try it for this, though!
Thanks for letting me know how it worked out.
Made these in a flash yesterday as we had forgotten we had invited some out of town people to stop by for tea on their way somewhere else. they called to say they would be at our house in ten minutes. Dumped everything in the food processor, and since we were out of sugar, I used brown sugar and they were very toffeeish. My grandkids gobbled up the leftovers today after their soccer games. Thanks.!
Thanks for trying them! I imagine brown sugar would make them less crispy, but they’d taste better. I much prefer the flavor of brown sugar – and my boys love it, too. They’ll eat it right out of the bag!
Do you mean ground almonds? It doesn’t say that in the recipe.
It says “1 cup sliced almonds, ground with…
…3 T flour to be quite fine” I grind nuts in my food processor, rather than buying ground nuts.
Thanks for adding the word “ground” to the instructions. Now it all makes sense…except the running out to purchase a food processor part.
you can just use ground almonds! I find that they’re hard to find. In America, anyway. Are you in England? If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender, if you have one of those.