A good friend of mine had a knee replacement done about a week and a half ago. We were going to visit her today to see how she is doing and help break the monotony of being largely immobile and so I decided I wanted to bring her some little treat.
At first I was going to bake her some muffins and then I thought . . . maybe muffins would be too much . . . or they would get all squished in the car, or not be at their best by the time we got there. I love muffins best when they are fresh out of the oven.
That's when I decided to bake her some cookies. Not kid cookies. Grown up cookies. Cookies meant for dunking. Out of the ordinary cookies. Not a chocolate chip in sight. (Although I am a big fan of those myself!)
I decided to make these lovely almond crescents. They're buttery and crisp and stogged full of almonds. . . with a crunchy sugar coating of granulated sugar, which bakes on whilst they are in the oven . . . but that is not all . . . no . . . that is not all.
They are deliciously rolled in vanilla flavoured icing sugar when they come out of the oven and are still hot, so that the sugar kinds of melts into them. Another layer of scrum. Then, there is a final dusting of plain icing sugar that makes them all pretty and nice. Let's just say they were very much welcomed!
*Almond Crescents*
Makes about 2 dozenPrintable Recipe
Buttery and crisp, with a crisp granulated sugar coating and almost shortbread-like texture. Nutty and sweet.
65g of ground almonds (1/2 cup almond meal)65g of sifted icing sugar (1/2 cup)115g of unsalted butter, room temperature (1/2 cup)1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract1 tsp pure almond extractpinch salt140g plain flour (1 cup)95g granulated sugarvanilla icing sugar plain icing sugar to dust
Cream the butter with a wooden spoon until light and creamy. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and stir this into the creamed butter until well combined. Beat in the extracts and salt until well combined. Add the flour and mix it in thoroughly and the dough begins to clump together.
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a couple of baking sheets with some baking parchment.
Put the granulated sugar into a bowl. Scoop out cookie dough and shape into 1 inch balls. Roll the balls into even cylinders and then shape into crescents, tapered at the ends. Roll them in the granulated sugar and then place them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping the baking sheets halfway through the baking time. The edges should be light brown when done. Remove from the oven. Have a small bowl of the vanilla icing sugar read and roll the still warm cookies in this. Place them on a wire rack to cool completely. Dust lightly with plain icing sugar. Store in an airtight container.
The recipe only makes about 2 dozen . . . but taste one and you will realize how very dangerous it would be to have more than that around. Absolute scrum!
