My cravings for baked goods are always very specific. Sometimes it’s that exact chocolate orange pudding I made five years ago in my second year university, today it was a cinnamon bun/almond croissant hybrid with the texture of a cookie. I wanted warming cinnamon with the texture of a cakey frangipane but the intense almond flavour of a filled croissant. Very specific. So, with the idea of a couple of previous cookie recipes in mind, I set out to create today’s craving, and this is what I came up with. It’s nutty, warming, soft but not gooey, delicious crumbly cookie. Eat standing up at your kitchen counter, feeling very glad about being inside.
Ingredients
200g plain flour
100g golden caster sugar
100g cold unsalted butter
100g ground almonds
2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar
4 tbsp icing sugar
a pinch of salt
- Star by preheating your oven to 200 degrees. Then line a tray with baking paper.
- Mix together the flour, sugar, ground almonds and salt in a bowl, then add the cubed cold butter.
- Rub the butter into the flour, almond and sugar mixture like you would a crumble topping, then set aside 2 tbsp of the mixture.
- Add the egg, 1 tsp of almond extract and a splash of water and combine.
- Form small balls of the mixture (it should make around 10-12 cookies) and place spaced out on one large or two small lined baking trays.
- Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar in with the reserved 2 tbsp of cookie mixture.
- Flatten the cookie balls slightly and press in heaps of the cinnamon mixture.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges and tops of the cookies are golden brown.
- Once baked, leave for a few minutes on the trays before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Mix the icing sugar and 1 tsp of the almond extract with 1-2 tsp of water then drizzle over the cookies.
Louella's Kitchen 