Looks yummy. Can a oiled aluminum foil be used instead of parchment paper on the baking sheet ?

I would appreciate if you could check out my foodblog & give your feedback. Thanks !

Sonali

Oops..forgot to list my blog. here it is :

http://spicehut.blogspot.com


-Sonali

It is actually not necessary to use parchment paper or foil. I did a batch directly on the sheet pan and it came out just fine. You do spend a tiny bit more energy cleaning the pan because there will be more fat on the pan than if you had lined it.

will I get acceptable results using a small coffee bean grinder or a hand held blender? You know the small wand blenders?
Thanks, Heather

Chances are if you use an immersion or stick blender you'll make a mess as the almond pieces get flung everywhere. A coffee grinder will work perfectly fine however.

These cookies are my mother's favourites and I would like to make a batch and send them to her. It would take about 4 days from making the cookies for them to arrive at her door. Will the cookies still be moist if I put them in a airtight container or vacuum bag?

thank you for posting this recipe. I've been looking for this for awhile.

These cookies were never all that moist (unless using the all butter version - then they are a little tender) - they're light and crispy... Four days should be fine - she'll probably need to eat them within the next two or three days after she receives them though.

In the recipe and on the top of the recipe card, it says to bake at 350, but in the recipe card it says 250. Is this a typo?

re: typo

Yes it was. Fixed!

I made these yesterday and they are delicious!

Only one quibble ~ 6 ounces (butter, shortening) is not 120 grams, it is more like 168 grams.

Ah, you're right. I was doing some quick mental math on 340 g divided by two is of course 120 g (I'm an idiot :) ). I've made the changes - it's 170 g. That's for catching that error!

Must the almonds be blanched to make the almond meal?

I began reading this site when it just began but forgot about it for a while and only just rediscovered it. It's really gone from strength to strength! Going to try out some of the recipes....

Thank you!

We printed out the recipe card and used 250 degees as listed. Argued with my wife who said that nobody cooks cookies at 250, she was right,but they still tasted great...

I don't feel like they need to be. In my case, I used slivered almonds that already had their skins removed. If you don't blanch your almonds the skins will create a slight textural difference in the ground almonds, but it should be acceptable.

Can you use almond flour for the ground almonds and/or some of the flour?

Thanks.

Yes, almond flour can be substituted for the ground almonds. In fact, I believe that almon flour is just finely ground almonds.

I made some one time using almond butter instead of peanut butter in a peanut butter cookie recipe in my red and white checked cookbook. Turned out pretty good and I didn't have to do the grinding thing.

I followed the recipe and made the cookies last weekend, and the cookies taste delicious ! :P I made some modification to the original recipe. I used 1/2 tsp of baking soda instead and add in 1/2 tsp baking powder. I reduce the amount of sugar to 180g instead and increase the ground almond to 80g. Besides, I omit the water too which I find quite unusual to add into cookies dough.

Hey, any of you geeks ever use baker's ammonia for cookies?
What do you think it would do to the almond cookie recipe?

You can order leaf lard which you will have to render yourself from:

Place an order for the San Francisco Farmer’s Market on Saturday. Pick up there, at the Ferry Plaza . To order, use farmersmarket@nimanranch.com, or call --- by Wednesday of the week you want to pick up.

Schuyler Ingle
Customer Service
Niman Ranch
510.500.0537
www.nimanranch.com

In the past I have had a fair bit of success substituting a combination of half butter and half vegetable shortening for lard. This works especially well for pie crusts. It also makes life much easier when I am cooking for vegetarian friends.

I will try this recipe this week... Just got some almond powder and found this site searching for recipes to use it.

Have a great day,

Margot

http://www.coffeeandvanilla.com

I used wholemeal flour because I did not have white flour at home and they came out delicous.

Here is picture.

http://www.coffeeandvanilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/almond-b...jpg

Thanx,

Margot

Yummy! yummy! yummy!
My family can't get enough of these cookies! Different from all the other cookies i've tasted. Not so sweet.

Great cookies! Used the variation posted by Jacq. For my oven, 15 min. was plenty. Also, added 3 Tbs. unsweetened coconut and a dash of vanilla extract. Thank you! These were just what I was looking for... BC

Check out my version which doesn't contain any butter and substitutes agave nectar for sugar.

http://www.veganfabulous.com/?p=27

I gotta say, I love the idea of these cookies, but I don't bake many cookies of ANY kind here (in Henan) except at Christmas, because butter is really expensive in China! My local WalMart-sized grocery store even stopped carrying it for a while and nobody except me seemed to mind. (And it was during November-December last year, so I REALLY minded!) Are there any cookies, besides peanut butter cookies, that are made with OIL? There's plenty of oil here - I got a gallon of peanut oil as a New Year's gift from my school and have barely made a dent in it - but all milk products (and nuts, for that matter) are expensive. I wonder why they make these in Chinatown? Is there some part of China where cows have been raised for hundreds of years, and ovens are commonly used? It certainly isn't here! Huh.
~Miss Jubilee, Henan, China

pse tell me where to buy above in singapore. i have always avoid trying recipe using shortening as i heard it is unwise to bake with such ingredient.

If pure palm oil (which is what the spectrum brand vegetable shortening is) isn't available where you are, then you can use the traditional shortening ingredient - lard. High quality lard tastes tastes better in baked goods than vegetable shortenings.

Last night ... Aug. 7, 2008 ... I decided to print-off Michael's recipe for Chinese almond cookies ... I chose the "printer-friendly" format, & cliked on "print", choosing to make 2 copies of the recipe. To my horror, I saw that the pages being printed off on my printer were numbered "9", as the "last page", & on to "8", etc. I scrolled down the recipe on my computer screen only to notice that there is a tiny little option asking to 'HIDE' the "comments" which were 32 in number ... and this is what the recipe was printing first ... a whole bunch of comments, & using up my printer paper ... I was running out of printer paper, & tried to stop the printing job, but it wouldn't stop ... I am FURIOUS ... Does this Michael not understand that choosing the "printer-friendly" format usually means that ONLY THE RECIPE itself is transmitted to the printer? How stupid is this Michael? And why is the option to "hide" the 32 comments from people who have used this recipe worth printing when the person has chosen the "printer-friendly" format of the recipe, way at the bottom of the recipe, which one sees only after cliking on "print", as I did ... and only because I noticed that the so-called "printer-friendly" format was "9" pages long?!! :angry:

this is a well identified problem called "User Error"

/q
I was running out of printer paper, & tried to stop the printing job, but it wouldn't stop ... I am FURIOUS
/uq

two thoughts:
(1) few would consider a nine page supply of printer paper "adequate"
(2) acquiring some basic computer skills - such as how to stop the printer - could be useful.

I also recommend you research the meaning of "printer friendly" -
and perhaps "internet etiquette" while you're on a roll . . .

In the recipe, you metion to avoid using partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Why is that?

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil indicates trans fatty acids. Trans fats are bad for you, so you should avoid them. Even though some packaging will say 0 trans fats, they really mean 0.5 g or less of trans fats per serving - who knows how much you're actually using or eating!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:57 PM



I have been trying and trying to solve the problem of:

how to grind almonds to a fine powder, to use in making almond paste or cookies etc:

I have used the FOOD PROCESSOR with the blades, to chop up the almonds but this has left a rather COARSE almond flour.

I used an inexpensive "burr" Coffee bean grinder ( $40.00)
hoping that would work.
It did for the first short whle and then the fats in the almonds accumulated in the BURR mechanism and blocked the Grinder up so it was useless.

I am wondering if a BURR Coffee bean grinder in the $150.00 rqange would work better on the almonds and not get clogged up due to the fatty nature of the almond nuts?

I have NEVER used a BLENDER and wonder if this might be the way?

Also I know , or think I know, that industrially, almond flour is made on a grinder with TWO rollers (stone, I think).

But these are expensive. I mention this as it shows there MUST be a way to make almond powder using a machine.
I mean, almond paste is made in huge quantities industgrially, as well as ALMOND FLOUR.

SO what I am trying to understand is:


1. the BEST way to achieve a fine almond powder: wopuld it be these industiral grinders with the STONE ROLLERS?

2. Or will a small relativley inexpensive KITCHEN appliance do an EQUAL job?


And would a BLENDER be the inexpensive solution?
Say I want to grind 1-2 pouinds of almonds (not all at once!) to make almond flour for cookies or almond paste. Would a blender be a good solution.

I have not used a BLENDER as yet?
Anything to watch out for when purchasing one?

I find it STRANGE that there is so little INFO on HOW to grind almonds to a flour, and that there are so few (if any) machines dedicated to the task.
DOes no one cafre for Almond flour?

I have a KitchenAid and looked to see if there would be an attachment for it to grind almonds.
But the attachement would only grin GRAINS and NOT "oily" nuts.

SO that makes the KitchenAid useless for this task.

Quite frustrating.

Any ideas?

Perhaps purchase two stone rollers?
YOu would think stone rollers would get plugged up as well with the oily almonds.
How can you get a FINE Almond flour from oily almondfs in the first place?

Oh yes, I tried a hand grinder which as burrs in it.
For grinding poppy seeds. That too got clogged up.


SO really this is a "science" to get nice fine fluffy almond flour from OILY nuts.

By the way, when I ground the almonds, I did not blanche (peel) them.

Wonder if that has a bearing on the "clogging" issue?

Ev -

not sure if almond ever gets to the "bread flour" stage - there is a lot oil in the nuts.

here's a link on "how to" - curiously similar approaches to your efforts

http://www.trulylowcarb.com/AlmondTLC.htm

Thanks Dil.

I wish to know if for this recipe...the almonds are roasters or semi-toasted or no. Also it is very important for to get the ALMONDS in POWER.
Best regard.
Emilio Rot.

PS: Additionally I will appreciate ever so much, if you could inform to me... I am highly interested to grind ALMONDS/NUTS/HAZELNUTS in besides in several grain sizes. Do you know some Chooper or Small Grinding Machine suitable for making it???

The recipe has baking soda but no acid for it to react with. One teaspoon is a fair amount - about enough to neutralize two cups of yogurt, buttermilk or orange juice. I've often noticed this in recipes and wondered why -- is it for flavor, or are "non-acids" still acidic enough that adding a lot of soda will give you more lift? Or is it maybe just supposed to be baking powder?

On Trans Fats - Butter has almost as much trans fat as Crisco -- and since butter and tropical oils also have lots of saturated fat, the American Heart Association is still recommending margarine, trans-fat and all. I would just stick with plain Crisco or go with traditional lard (my favorite).

To the tireless almond grinder -- I feel your pain. Have you looked into a home mill used for producing flour? You might consider asking at the King Arthur Flour forum -- lots of hard-core bakers over there who grind their own flour at home (and, I'm sure, nuts). www.bakingcircle.com

Of course, I would just go the easy route and buy almond flour and almond paste online - real cheap if you but in bulk (6-7pounds). http://americanalmond.com

according to the FDA ( http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2003/503_fats.html ) butter has no trans fat.

Crisco has been reformulated to reduce/eliminate transfat; many bakers have noticed Crisco does not "perform" as before.

Dairy and meat definitely have trans fat (I can't get the link to work, But see NYTimes Article"Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim" 3/7/07) I think the FDA lists trans fat for butter as zero because there is less than .5 gram in the serving size(of 1 Tb). Butter has 3.12 g per stick. The new Crisco you mention has slightly more, but it is still low enough to come up as "0" on the nutrition label.

It's interesting that you say the baking qualities of Crisco have changed -- I think bakers are generally going to have a harder time than people who use Crisco for frying. The former use shortening to improve the end product while the latter just want a sturdy oil that won't go rancid quickly.

edited that post to show the link.

as you point out, the definition of "zero" is problematic.

these are also nice if you bake them with a cashew on top. we buy these (sans almond, with cashew) in singapore for chinese new year.

You can buy "Almond Meal" at Trader Joe's (on the West Coast only, unfortunately). It is just finely ground almonds (including the skin). The skin will actually add flavor, but it will affect the coloration of the finished cookie (no problem for me). Hopefully you have access to a Trader Joe's.

Crisco's new no-transfat formulation does not perform like traditional Crisco. It has ruined my formerly fabulous pie crust, and I think it would adversely affect the Almond Cookies as well. The new Crisco seems to perform more like an oil than a solid.

I just Googled "almond meal" and found out "Bob's Red Mill" sells almond flour/meal. It's pretty expensive compared to Trader Joe's, but at least it is available.

I just wanted to say that I tried your recipe today and the cookies turned out terrific!

I am at 8250 feet above sea level, so if anyone is wondering if this recipe works, it does!

I swapped light brown sugar for white and used 1/2 cup almond meal instead of grinding the almonds.

Thanks for the recipe!!

Made this, it was alright...but i'll never make it again.

I've tried this recipe with the modifications shared by Jacq.. my mum couldn't stop complimenting it! great recipe! Thanks for sharing! I made 70+ cookies that are of smaller size to fit in my containers with smaller mouths..

My pictures:

http://thefledglingcook.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/almond-cookie/

I've seen other recipes where they have you grind the almonds with the sugar to get the fine grind required for some recipes. (Toasting them lightly to crisp them, then cooling them down helps, and brings up the flavor, too.) The almonds do get much finer and the sugar grinds finer too, which makes blending and disolving it into the butter easier. Shortbread and Sable cookies benefit from a creamier blending of the butter and sugar, I don't think the almonds included would hurt the mixture, since it's got it's own fat to blend in as well. In fact, it might flavor it better!

The first chinese almond cookie recipe I had used lard. (Late 1960s) The were pretty good. I don't know if I'd like them now though