I am usually a dutiful recipe follower, but I’m finally competent enough at baking cookies that I have been freestyling on some recipes lately, including this new one I created this year. It’s a mashup of sorts, inspired by this recipe for Disney’s Cinnamon Glazed Almonds and this recipe for Toffee Almond Sandies.
Enjoy!
Cinnamon Almond Crunch Cookies
The Official 2015 Christmas Cookie of Nonprofit Marketing Guide
The Cinnamon Glazed Almonds
2 egg whites
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup granulated white sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
16 ounces whole raw almonds
1/3 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325.
Beat the eggs whites and salt with an electric mixer until frothy. Gradually add sugar, continue to beat on high for several minutes until the mixture gets very thick, with stiff peaks. Beat in cinnamon. Fold in almonds. Stir in butter. Pour the mixture onto a foil-lined baking sheet and spread into a single layer of nuts. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir the mixture, then spread it back out. Bake for another 10 minutes. Remove and stir again, then bake for 10 more minutes, for a total baking time of 30 minutes. (Watch the last 10 minutes to ensure the nuts don’t start to burn.)
The almonds should have a shiny glaze on them, with chunky bits of cinnamon sugar. Let the almonds cool completely.
Almonds after the first 10 minutes of baking
This will make about 4 cups of glazed almonds.
Rough chop of the almonds to stir into cookies.
Do a quick rough chop (or a few pulses in the food processor) of about 3 cups of the almonds. This will be stirred into the cookie dough, so you don’t want whole pieces, but you also want to preserve some of the cinnamon sugar chunks too.
Finely process the remaining cup of almonds. You will roll the cookies into this.
The Cookie Dough
Preheat oven to 350. Use baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
1 cup butter (two sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
Roll the dough into balls and roll in the finely processed almonds.
3 cups rough chopped Cinnamon Glazed Almonds
1 cup finely chopped Cinnamon Glazed Almonds
Flatten balls slightly.
Cream butter and both sugars for about 1-2 minutes. Add oil, eggs, and almond extract and mix well. Add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt and beat until well combined. Stir in rough chopped almonds.
Shape into 1-2 inch balls, and roll in the finely chopped almonds. Flatten with a glass, or a fork for criss-cross shapes, or with a miniature cookie cutter to imprint a shape (I liked the stars).
Bake for 15-16 minutes. Let them cool, then store in an airtight container.
This recipe makes more than 6 dozen cookies. If you want to cut the cookie recipe in half, I suggest making the full almond recipe, but just using half of it in the cookies. Eat the other half of the almond recipe as is — they are delicious!
