Almond Cookies

Almond Cookies.. where do I begin? Tiny yet packed with flavour.. Even though the cookie is tiny, it's sweet but yet packed with the fragrance of ground almond! It's kinda irresistable.. so much so that I keep popping one after another into my mouth! Just this inability to control the popping of CNY snacks.. uurgh! Just when I need to shed some weight for the big day!

In any case, even though I don't really fancy the Chinese-ness of Chinese New Year cos' it's usually associated with loud festive Chinese music for my family, some family visits and maybe some good food! The only thing I love about Chinese New Year is the abundance of good food! Love Letters, Pineapple Tarts (Oh I so wanna bake these again!), Kueh Bangkit, Barbecued Pork and the list goes on and on.. and oh yes, the ultimate favourite of mine? MANDARIN ORANGES! 

Chinese New Year is so much about food and more food! So.. if you have the luxury of time, why not try this relatively simple to prepare Almond Cookie? The only difficulty/set back in this is that the moulding of the cookie is tricky but I found a way to combat that.. Other wise, this is relatively manageable and is worth a try! This recipe was given to me by Sally who took it from Alan Ooi's book.

Almond Cookies

This recipe yields about 70-80 mini bottle-cap sized pieces

120g almond powder

180g plain flour (I love Prima!)

120g castor sugar (I love SIS!)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

120ml cooking oil (I used Canola Oil. Please use unflavoured oil like corn oil, sunflower oil etc)

For glazing

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp egg white

Steps

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius only when you're 1/4 way through moulding the cookies. Else, the moulding will take quite a fair bit of time and your oven will be left heated with nothing to bake.

Almond Powder!

Add the salt, baking powder, castor sugar, baking soda into the ground almond.

Add the flour. Or rather, just dump all the dry ingredients in!

Add the oil and mix well.

You should get a sandy paste like this. Now, if you're hoping to roll the cookie dough into balls and then shape them, you're gonna be disappointed. This cookie dough crumbles like no body's business! The only way to work with it is to pretty much grab bunch and then compress it as best as you can.. without crumbling it! It was kinda tough.. so, I worked out a trick!

Grab a clean bottle cap! I used one that I got off a mineral water bottle. Have some cling wrap ready. 

I folded the small piece of cling wrap I had 4 times to create a thicker piece of wrap. Place the cling wrap into the bottle cap and then fill it with the cookie dough. Use the back of a teaspoon to pack in as much as you can. Ensure that the sides of the bottle cap is clean in order to achieve a clean bottom for your cookie. Once complete, lift up the plastic wrap to release the shaped cookie! WHOLA! It's that simple! (:

Place the shaped cookies on a silicon sheet or non-stick baking paper. I love my Silpat! (:

To the egg yolk, add a tbsp of egg white so that the egg yolk isn't too rich. Alternatively, you may add one tbsp of water into the egg yolk to create a less thick egg wash.. 

Bake the cookies for 12 - 20 mins depending on the colour of your cookies. If they turn too brown too soon, reduce the temperature by 10 degree Celsius and monitor. When the cookies are ready, they should be light brown in colour. 

I tried some cookies without egg wash as my egg wash with one tbsp of egg white made the cookies rather dark brown, then again, the cookies with no egg wash didn't look good. So, I'd suggesting doing the egg glaze but monitor your cookies! (: 

So, aren't these cookies simple? And they taste so fragrant that all I wanna do it just pop them into my mouth non-stop! Do bake these Almond Cookies to share with your loved ones this festive season! 

Also, if you're keen, try out this recipe for a great Cornflake Cookie too! 

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: