I have been really into making Almond Milk lately. I love it on cereal, in my tea and in my smoothies. The only problem is I have all of this Almond Meal left over, so I’ve been trying to find ways to use that as well. I found a recipe by Dorie Greenspan (in her Baking: from my Home to Yours cookbook) that uses ground hazelnuts and I thought I could easily adjust it to make cookies with my Almond Meal. I made a few changes and revisions to the original recipe and I was really happy with the way they turned out. I can’t wait to make them again.
Or maybe I should wait given how quickly they ‘disappeared’ the first time. 🙂
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Almond Meal
1 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 cup Strawberry Jam (I made mine with my mom earlier this year)
ONE: Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone sheets.
TWO: Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. This is easy to do with a stand mixer but just takes a little elbow grease to do it by hand.
THREE: Mix in the extracts, then add the Almond Meal and Flours. Blend it in carefully first if you are using a mixer so it doesn’t poof flour everywhere. Mix just until blended – don’t over work the dough.
FOUR: Using a spoon (or, my favorite tool, an ice cream scoop) Place cookies a couple inches apart on the cookie sheets. Then either use your little finger or the end of a wooden spoon to make an indent in the cookies.
FIVE: Bake for 15 minutes until just lightly browned on the bottoms – they might even look underdone on top.
SIX: While the cookies are cooling bring the jam to a boil either in the microwave or on the stove top. Once the jam is runny carefully spoon it into the centers of the cookies and allow to cool and set-up.
I’m thinking another great use for Almond Meal would be in homemade granola. Anyone else have any other ideas? I have a few more cups in my freezer (Almond Meal only lasts a few days in the fridge) patiently waiting to be turned into some delicious confection.
I made these the other evening- first cookies made in my new kitchen! While making them I realized they are basically shortbread cookies (no leavening agent/no egg) so if you like shortbread you’ll love these. I like both:-) nice change from the same-old cookies. Thanks A-M!
I am so going there! I wonder if I could sub in flax meal for almond meal since I have the former in my freezer?
Hm, I’m not Amber but I wonder about how gelatinous flax gets? It’s almost like a gel or a glue for me when I put water in it for my smoothies.
Thanks for mentioning that, A-M! I’ve never put ground flax in my smoothies, but an uncle said it works great in his zucchini bread, which was why I thought I might substitute. Guess I’d better Google it and find out more about what I can and can’t use ground flax for! 🙂
That looks so tasty, I’m drooling. 🙂
Careful! You’ll short circuit your keyboard. 🙂
How pretty and they sound so yummy! How about making an alternative marzipan out of the left over meal? Coat with a thin layer of drizzled frosting?
Marzipan is a great idea – thanks!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Passover-Honey-Nut-Cake-in-Soaking-Syrup-109151
Try it. It’s marvelous.
Yum, that does look good – thanks for the link.
Yummy!
I’m sure you can also just bake them jam-filled.
I make a christmas cookie that looks very similar that has the little dents filled with jam and then baked.
That’s a good point – I mean you’d just be heating up the jam in the oven instead of the microwave. I’ll try that next time around and see how it works. Thanks!
YUMMMM! Going to have to try these as soon as I get my kitchen back in order.
A worthy first project =)