Home-made Holiday Treats!

 It's Cookie Time!

      For the few that read my blog, I appologize for the lack of postings lately. With the holidays so close by, I have been busy with the usual Holiday shopping and gift wrapping.

     I hope you are all almost done with the gift buying, but should you want to continue the holiday cheer with some "holiday treats", why not bake some yourself. A plate a cookies is always welcome to any celebration and nothing says "Love" like home-made cookies.

Here is a recipe that is easy and yummy. Please enjoy!

Happy Baking and Happy Shopping!

Simple Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookie:

10 ounces (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter

¾ cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of almond extract

2 cups of all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon of baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Handful of Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the raw)

For the glaze:

1 ½ powder sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

4-5 teaspoons of water

Sliced almonds

Baking Instructions:

1.       Pre heat oven to 400 degrees Ferenheit

2.       Using a mixer with paddles, begin to bring together the butter and sugar until completely combined.

3.       Slowly begin to introduce the flour, salt, baking powder and almond extract to the wet ingredients.

4.       Scrape the side of the bowl, as needed to ensure all the ingredients are combined thoroughly.

This mixture will be wet and soft. If you feel it is too watery, add a little more flour.  But the dough should be a soft and creamy mixture.

1.        Using a metal spoon, drop spoonful rounds onto an ungreased cookie sheet. They should be approximately  1” apart.

2.       Flatten out the cookie round with the back of a metal spoon, so dough is about ¼” thick. Occasionally wet the spoon from time to time to prevent sticking to the dough.

3.       Sprinkle a little Turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) to the tops.

4.       Place the cookie pans with the dough into oven for 7-9 minutes. (For more even baking, I like to turn the pans about 4 minutes in to the cooking time.

5.       They should be golden brown around the edges, when done.

6.       Let cookies rest and cool on the side/

Now you can make the glaze, as the cookies cool.

In a bowl add 1 ½ cups of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of almond extract and a few spoonful’s of water.  This will be your basic glaze.

Once cookies are completely cool, drizzle some of the glaze mix on top. Sprinkle some almond slices to finish them off.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

They can be stored in loosely covered container for about 1 week.