A butter sugar-coated cookie with a nutty melt-in-your-mouth texture. The nutty flavor comes from roasting the almonds. Roasting the almonds first forces the almonds to release their oils and take on a richer and nuttier flavor. The cookie dough itself is not very sweet because the cookie balls are coated twice in powdered sugar. The first coating happens two minutes after the cookies come out of the oven. The warm exterior of the cookie causes the powdered sugar to stick, and as they cool, the powdered sugar adhering to the surface becomes very sticky. It is this sticky surface that makes the second coating of powdered sugar cling to the cookie and form a dry and powdery sweet casing for the rich and nutty cookie.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Level: Easy
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 10 to 12 min
Chilling: 60 min
Total: 1 hr 32 min
Servings: 4 dozen
Special equipment
- Mixing bowls
- Simple food chopper or food processor
- Hand mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment
- 2 large baking sheets
- Parchment paper or 2 silicon baking mats
- Wire racks
Ingredients
For the cookie dough
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsifted powdered sugar
- 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
To roll the cookies
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Directions
Almond Tea Cakes Dough
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Roast almonds in a single layer in a large baking sheet for 6 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
- Place the roasted almonds in the bowl of a food processor, and process until finely ground or the texture of coarse cornmeal, 15 to 30 seconds. Be careful of over-processing or the nuts will turn into nut butter. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour and salt. set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Scrape down sides of the bowl and add the vanilla and almond extracts; beat to combine.
- Reduce the speed to low; gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix on low until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the roasted ground almonds.
- Use your hands to press the dough into a solid mass. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Making Almond Tea Cakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats. Set aside.
- Remove the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and form into 1-inch balls, by rolling about two teaspoons of dough between the palm of your hands. (Note: The dough will be crumbly, so you will be rolling dough into spheres between the palms of your hands.)
- Place cookies 1 inch apart on lined baking sheets.
- Bake until edges are lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. (Note: Do not allow these cookies to get brown. It is better to undercook them than to overcook them. Cookies look very pale when done and will immediately fall apart if handled straight out of the oven, but firm up nicely when cooled.)
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet until cooled enough to handle but still quite warm, about 2 minutes.
- When cookies are cooled enough to handle, place the sifted powdered sugar into a shallow dish and roll each warm cookie gently in the powdered sugar until completely coated. Transfer the sugar-cover cookies to a wire rack to cool completely, about 10 minutes.
- Once completely cooled, roll cookies again in powdered sugar until completely coated.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week, or place in a sealed plastic container, using parchment paper to separate the layers and freeze for up to 2 months. To defrost, simply remove cookies from the freezer and thaw at room temperature. Re-roll in powdered sugar before serving, if desired.