Almond Allspice Cookies

Here's a little twist on the macadamia nut cookie recipe I posted quite awhile back...I thought I'd shake things up by switching out the nuts and playing with some flavors.

Ingredients

2 cups almonds

7 tbsp. milk

1.5 cups light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. almond extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. allspice

Pinch of salt

1 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. First, if you don't buy blanched almonds, you'll have to blanch them yourself. This is not hard...and totally worth the cost savings. So, to blanch:

2. Place 2 cups of almonds (or more if you'd like to make some for another recipe later on) into a medium bowl.

3. Fill a small saucepan with water and bring it to a boil over the stove. Once it boils, pour the water into the bowl of almonds until all of the nuts are covered.

4. Let sit for two minutes and no longer, or the almonds might get soggy. Drain and let cool.

5. Now, the skin of the almonds will have loosened from the nut, and they will be ready to peel. The almonds should pop right out of the skin, so peeling them should go pretty quickly.

 

6. Now, you can begin the cookie dough. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Place the blanched almonds and milk into a food processor and blend until smooth.

8. Place the blended mixture into a medium mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. With a hand- or stand-mixer, beat until well combined.

9. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, allspice and salt.

10. Slowly add the flour mixture to the almond mixture and blend until just incorporated.

11. Place the granulated sugar into a small bowl.
12. Roll the cookie dough into small balls and roll them in the sugar. The dough is really sticky, so the sugar will help you shape them.
13. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

14. Bake for 9 minutes. Remove from the oven to a wire rack to cool.

15. For extra almond flavor, you can make a glaze to drizzle over the top of the cookies. To do this, combine 2 cups powdered sugar, a tsp. of almond extract and a tsp. of milk. Mix with a spoon, adding some extract or milk as needed to reach the desired consistency. Since you will be drizzling it, the glaze should drip right off of a spoon.