Bite Sighs: Satisfy a sweet tooth with buttery almond sugar cookies

Buttery Almond Sugar Cookies

When my sweet tooth talks, I pay attention. A few days ago, the tooth in question asked for sugar cookies with almonds, and I was happy to comply.

You’ll need a lot of butter for this one; it’s a basic recipe with a few special tweaks.

Buttery Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

For the cookies

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Sliced almonds

2 tablespoons softened butter

For the icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

First you want to stir the flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Whirl the one cup of butter together with the plain sugar in a stand mixer until they’re reasonably smooth. Throw in the egg and extracts and blend for a minute or two on medium speed.

Set the mixer to low speed and add the flour mix gradually, say about half a cup at a time. Don’t get too crazy with the mixing, because the dough is stiff as a board and you just want it to hold together. Pry the dough loose from the beaters, shape it all into a big disk, and wrap the whole mess in plastic. Chuck it in the fridge for a few hours.

OK, cookie time! Heat your oven to 350 F (as usual). Toss some flour on your counter and roll out a chunk of the cookie dough. If you like your cookies on the crispy side, roll ’em out really thin. If you want a softer cookie, leave them a little thicker. Cut out 2-inch circles and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Re-roll the scraps and keep cutting until your sheet is full.

Dig up a clean paintbrush (one of the little ones) and use it to apply a thin coat of the remaining softened butter over the dough circles. Sprinkle a few sliced almonds over the top of each cookie. Shove the sheet in the oven and bake for around 14 minutes, or just until the edges start to show a hint of brown. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

While the cookies cool, mix the icing. I found my new favorite cookie icing recipe on iambaker.net; it sets up firm enough to stack your cookies, but is still soft enough to avoid cracking your jaw.

Mix the icing ingredients together. If it’s a little too thick to work with, add milk, a teeny bit at a time, and stir until you get the consistency that you want. Scoop up a dab of icing with a butter knife and spread it evenly over the top of a cookie. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. If you’re not an icing fan, you can skip this step and still have a perfectly good dunking cookie.

So there you go. Butter makes almost everything better, especially when you’re talking about cookies.

Enjoy!

— Have a question or suggestion for Bite Sighs? Email Audrey Lintner at bitesighs@hotmail.com.