Toffee Almond Sandies

For Meg's birthday treat, I had a recipe alllll picked out. But then on the day that I was going to shop for the ingredients for that recipe, she and I were talking about Special K cereal and our mutual love for the Vanilla Almond variety. Then we started talking about the other kinds of Special K we liked ... basically, it was quite a conversation about nuts (like pecans) and flavors (like the yogurt one).

I was playing around on good ol' allrecipes.com and started searching for cookies with almonds in them. I searched for cookies with pecans. I was having a grand time, so I came up with plenty of options. My biggest obstacle, of course, was in the shipping. It it quite hot in Florida, where I am, and in Arizona, where Meg is, so I needed something that wouldn't get all mushy or melted. I usually go with a cake mix recipe in times of shipping baked goods, because they stay extremely moist, but I thought I'd be adventurous and try something different.

I wasn't sure if Meghan liked some of the other ingredients I was finding (after all, the girl hates peanuts and peanut butter, so who knows what other things she doesn't like?!). So I started texting her with random questions about whether she liked butterscotch, toffee, raisins, pistachios (no recipes with pistachios were actually involved in my search, but I was trying to throw her off a bit), etc. I was torn between these Toffee Almond Sandies and another recipe that I ended up making the next week. I finally decided these might ship a little better, so I made the Sandies.

After reading some of the comments on the Web site, I opted to not flatten them with a fork (that screams peanut butter cookie to me, and I thought Meg might not appreciate that) and I took note that some people used pecans instead of almonds, but I wanted to get the almond flavoring/almond punch in there, so I stayed with the original. I didn't have any wheat flour on hand, so I used all all-purpose flour.

Something else I learned as I was making these: This recipe makes A LOT of cookies. I sent some to Meg and took a ton to work and still had leftovers.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped almonds
1 (6 ounce) package English toffee bits
Additional sugar

Directions


1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add oil, eggs and extract; mix well. Combine flours, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in almonds and toffee bits.


2. Shape into 1-in. balls; roll in sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheets and flatten with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned.


Source: allrecipes.com

Almond Cookies

As Meg and I pondered what to make for Desserts of the World week, I thought of all the yummy European recipes we could make (yes, I know Mexico and Canada are not in Europe). There were so many tempting pies, cakes, bars, breads, muffins and cookies that we *didn't* make this time around! I wanted to find something out of the European box, so I searched for recipes from Asia.

And I found a winner from China.

As I made these cookies I realized that I really don't use almond extract enough. I think I should start using it in everything. It's heavenly! And these cookies were light, buttery and fluffy with the perfect hint of almond taste. I deviated from the recipe a bit, using almond slivers instead of whole almonds. I was unsure of how thin to roll my dough, but I think I was close because I yielded about the right number of cookies. I think my dough was less than a quarter inch thick. I checked them often as I was baking and took them out of the oven when they were golden and light brown on the edges.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon almond extract
1/4 pound whole, blanched almonds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a food processor, mix the flour, sugar, butter, salt and baking soda until it forms little balls.

Add the eggs and almond extract.

Roll out the dough on floured surface.

Cut with 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter.

Place on greased cookie sheet and place an almond in center of each cookie.

Bake for 25 minutes. (I did mine for about 12-15.)

Source: Chinese Food DIY

Angry Easy Almond Bars

Before I discuss my anger, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day and thank those who have fought for our freedom and sacrificed so much.

Back to the anger. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I use baking to de-stress. Maybe it's the action of mixing, or the rhythm of finding and measuring each ingredient, or maybe it's the feeling of accomplishment I get when I pull it out of the oven.

Regardless, it's a coping mechanism for me. And when I left work two Wednesdays ago, I required de-stressing. It had been a rough end of the night, and I was angry. I was frustrated. I rationalized baking with the fact that I was working in news on Thursday, and I'd never baked for them (I usually work in sports).

And thus the Easy Almond Bars were renamed. And people in news want me angry more often.

These bars were gone FAST. I got a ton of compliments about them, and I felt bad about that - they were too easy to really get praised for them! They tasted almost like a light pound cake.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine, melted
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. almond extract
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. sugar (may used colored sugar for a holiday)
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Combine flour, 2 cups sugar, margarine, eggs, baking powder, extract and salt. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with sugar and almonds.

Bake for 30 minutes. Makes 32 bars.


Source: Kalamazoo and Kairos, too! cookbook