Its a pity that I have not tried making these cookies before. They're so super simple to make and taste delicious. I've seen them on so many websites but I always pick a vanilla or chocolate flavored cookie over an almond flavored one.
I was looking for a recipe without chocolate for a change and this one from the Land O'Lakes website seemed ideal. I rate it 10/10 for ease of making and 9/10 in taste.
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter at room temp
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp almond extract ( I used 1 tsp only)
Dash of salt
2 cups flour
Jam of your choice (about 1/2 cup)
Preheat the oven to 350 deg (I set it to 340 so that the cookies wouldn't flatten too much)
Cream the butter, almond extract and sugar for 3-4 minutes, scraping down the bowl a few times.
Add salt, sifted flour and stir on lowest speed a few times until it comes together. Turn off the mixer and mix the rest by hand a few times to incorporate. Kneading or stirring too much will toughen the cookie.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Use your index finger (sorry not the thumb :) ) to make an indentation in the dough. I used a chapstick tube on a few cookies. Add about 1/4 tsp jam into the indentations. Do not overfill (jam will heat and run over) and do not underfill (jam will bake into a thin layer and cookies will look quite sad...this happened to a lot of the cookies). It takes some trial and error on the 1st few cookies to get it right,
Bake for about 10 - 18 mins depending on the size of the cookies. Start checking on them at 10 mins and take them out when the edges are golden and the tops are still pale brown. Overbaking can make the cookies too crisp.
While the cookies are cooling, mix about 3/4 cup to 1 cup of confectioner's/10x/icing sugar with about 2-3 tbsp of water and a couple of drops of almond extract until it is a smooth pourable glaze. Keep adding water in drops if you feel it is too thick. Add some more sugar if it ends up too thin. Spoon it into a ziploc bag and zip shut. Snip off the very end of one corner and drizzle the glaze over the cookies.
Enjoy!
