May is the only month that always make me miss home more than it would in other months. Though it is blaring hot in Bombay right now, I cannot let go the sweet fragrance of Alphonsoes from every corner of my world. Playing around in the mud, cycling bereft of any wild accidents and knocking on the doors of any apartment on the ground floor for water was a part of the most of my childhood I can remember – OH! it’s been two decades since I did that. Time really flies, isn’t it?
While I contemplate on the idea of making the utmost use of a box of mangoes resting on a dining table as I write this post and as long as the season last, yesterday I had another reason to be glorious of an achievement in my kitchen. And it was majorly inspired by the short bread cookies I have been wanting to bake from last few weeks, yet was shoving it around for another day. As I was gathering the ingredients for cookies, I made a short note of not using all purpose flour. Now the question ahead was what I would replace it with. I thought of playing with whole wheat or oats flour but I have been using the two of them so much lately, I wanted to keep those aside until next time.
So it had to be almonds ground to a fine powder to make incredibly aromatic almond meal. To be honest, I was afraid of using just almond meal for cookies for the reason that it wouldn’t form into a thumb-print cookie I was looking for. Apprehensively, I made two batches of cookie batter – one with just almond meal and the other with a combination of almond meal and all purpose flour. My first batch failed me as cookies enlarged in an oven and became flat. For another batch, I added 1/4th cup all purpose flour to 1 cup almond meal and it came out just as impeccable as thumb-print cookies could be.
Albeit my sweet childhood memories and a longing to go home, these chocolate filled cookies are a savior as of now. Also, it has received two thumbs up from two boys in my house which means you should give these a try! These cookies bake into simple, buttery, fragrant and sweet bites and almond meal lends a beautiful nutty taste to make these cookies just an excellent companion to your evening tea or to be had as is.
Almond Meal Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
- Servings: makes 12 cookies
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients –
- Almond meal – 1 cup (ground almonds with skin to fine powder)
- All purpose flour – 1/4 cup
- Granulated white sugar – 1/4 cup
- Unsalted butter – 1/4 cup, at room temperature
- Egg yolk – 1
- Salt – a pinch
- Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
- Melted chocolate – 1/4 cup
Method –
In a bowl, mix together almond meal, all purpose flour and salt. In a bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light for approx. 3-4 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat until the batter is soft and well incorporated. Transfer the batter in a plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 Degrees C and line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring the mixture out from the refrigerator and roll into small balls. Place them on a baking sheet and using your thumb or a back of a small measuring spoon, carefully make a pocket at the center. Fill with melted chocolate and bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are set. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
Enjoy! x
