Welcome to Sunday All Day Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new with you. Today we are having Archer Farms Chai Spice coffee and my new recipe for almond cookies. I guess it would be an understatement to say I love to cook since I have close to 1,000 recipes on my website.
My brother asked if I could make an almond cookie that had ginger in it and a frosting. I thought it might interesting to show how I create such a recipe. To start with I lived much of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived in San Francisco itself for a few years. I loved the almond cookies I could get in Chinatown and wanted a recipe that had a light and airy texture like my favorites in San Francisco.
Decision number one was what type of cookie did I want? I decided that I wanted a simple drop cookie and not one that you roll into a log and refrigerate. That decision helped me to decided on the type of fat that would hold the cookie together. I refuse to use margarine. I don't like the taste and all the chemicals in it. I use either unsalted butter or something like Crisco or a combination of the two. I knew that all butter makes a very tender crumb which is what I wanted for my cookie.
The second decision was sugar and white sugar had the most neutral taste. I use light brown in a recipe that I want a bit more punch in the taste and dark brown if I'm doing a heavily spiced cookie since it adds a molasses flavor. I beat the sugar and egg until light and fluffy to add air and softness to the recipe. I use an egg as a binder and pure extracts for flavor.
The third decision was how to introduce the ginger taste. I wanted the emphasis on the almond taste but have the brightness that ginger adds to a dish. I used double ginger with the fresh ginger and the candied ginger. I decided again the powdered ginger because the ground spices add a sharp ginger taste and I wanted subtle.
Even with the egg I still needed something to help the cookie rise and I did that with the baking powder. If I were using something like lemon juice in the recipe that has an acidic quality I would use baking soda. I finally decided to finely mince some almonds and add them to the flour for an almond taste boast.
I baked the cookies at 325°F since that is a gentle enough heat to cook them through but not over brown them. The temperature is going to vary from oven to oven. Some ovens run hot some not hot enough .
I decided on a quick glaze instead of a full icing. The cookies are very delicate so let them cool for about a minute and gently brush the glaze on and sprinkle the almonds over it. This way the glaze will hold the almonds and will not come off as fast as icing applied to a cool cookie since the heat of the cookie will harden the glaze.
These cookies were definitely a wow! As for the name well I collect Cabbage Patch dolls and this one was named after Jasmine and looks Oriental. Since Reid got me to name a spaghetti after his toy little blue stuffed unicorn I thought it only fair that Jasmine have a cookie named after her.
Jasmine's Almond-Ginger Cookie
Recipe by Michele Wilson
Makes 54 cookies
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
¾ cup unsalted butter -- softened
¾ cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon ginger root -- minced fine
1 tablespoon crystallized ginger -- minced fine
¼ cup sliced almonds -- minced
2½ cups all-purpose flour
Glaze
½ cup confectioner's sugar -- sifted
2 tablespoons 2% low-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup sliced almonds
Heat oven to 325°F.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg and almond extract and mix together.
Add ginger root, crystallized ginger, baking soda, and minced almonds. Mix together.
Add flour and mix together.
Shape dough into walnut size balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Place on cooling rack. Ice immediately so glaze will set. Top with remaining almonds.
For glaze mix sugar, milk, and vanilla extract together until smooth.
Per Cookie: 69 Calories; 3g Fat (43.9% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 11mg Cholesterol; 16mg Sodium. Exchanges: ½ Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; ½ Fat; ½ Other Carbohydrates.
Jasmine's Almond-Ginger Cookies